Recently, Prince George's Community College, located in Largo, Maryland, received a $20,000 education grant in order to augment a nursing assistant program involving basic education students.
The grant was issued by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, based in Baltimore, to design a training course for nursing assistants who speak English as a second language. The program will now hire an English language specialist to work with these assistants to help them digest lesson plans more easily.
"Because of the experience of the English instructor, he knows how to better write notes on the board, better define terms, to put it in words they might understand better so they can get a better grasp of the terminology or get across what the instructor is actually saying," said Veronica Hammonds, an assistant program coordinator at PGCC.
Currently, students spend between 12 and 15 hours a week attending class at night and will participate in weekend clinicals during April. From there, these assistants take a state exam in June and then begin looking for jobs.
Schools, such as PGCC, that have received grants have typically invested in newer technologies, such as smartboards, computers and classroom projectors.
Like the Annie E. Casey Foundation, major national companies, such as Lowe's, MetLife and State Farm, have all donated educational grants to schools.
