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Northwest Mississippi Community College Awarded Appalachian Regional Grant

by Sarah Smith-Hutchinson

Senatobia, MS (11/19/2025) — Northwest Mississippi Community College has accepted a $1 million grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, which the college is matching with $250,000 in funding for additional equipment and instructor salary. The ARC's purpose is to help build up communities across the Appalachian region, including but not limited to those in Mississippi. Northwest was notified of the approval of the grant on Sept. 17.

For Northwest, the ARC grant will help the college continue to achieve program success at the Concourse campus in Batesville by helping the state with diversification of its manufacturing base and therefore its workforce. It will be used for investing in the workforce development programs and strategies that inform industry talent to address needs and allow workers to earn, learn and advance in their careers.

The specific program being targeted for grant funding is the welding program. Currently, the Concourse welding program features industry-designed curriculum, state-of-the-art technology and equipment, and employer-driven internships to help ensure students acquire in-demand skills that will earn them high wages. This grant will assist in funding Concourse training in Panola County which also impacts other counties such as Yalobusha, Benton, Calhoun and Marshall. It will also help equip instructors to be able to get advanced welding training at the FANUC Academy in Michigan at a three-day CRX series Collaborative Robot Operations and Programming course that will cover tasks including operations, technician, engineer, and programming.

The Concourse welding program is headed up by Rachel McGonagill, Batesville welding instructor. McGonagill said that adding the new location in Batesville has provided a great opportunity for students to get an associate degree in welding which they'd previously not had before.

"What's different about our location in Batesville is we also have a separate air-conditioned room for our robotic welding lab," said McGonagill. "In this lab we will have three welding robot carts, seven welding cobot (collaborative robots) cards, and a 3D metal and fiber printer. Our third semester of welding for our associate degree students will have courses that include robotic welding and pipe welding. We will be purchasing one of the cobots with the GE Aerospace Foundation Grant we received. The other six cobots and 3D metal printer will be purchased with the ARC grant."

After the other grants such as the AccelerateMS Grant which provided the ability to get other new equipment, but this grant is the tipping point that allowed the Concourse to have robotic welding and expand program offerings.

"The ARC grant is a powerful example of how the College can transform students' lives and strengthen our community when industry leaders, state workforce partners, and regional economic development agencies work alongside us to improve educational and workforce outcomes," said Northwest's President Dr. Michael J. Heindl. "We are deeply grateful for the support of the robotic welding initiative at the Concourse and for the Appalachian Regional Commission's investment in this project."

The $1 million federal grant is provided to Northwest Mississippi Community College through the Appalachian Regional Commission under Grant No. MS-22355-25.

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The Concourse Photo by Sarah Smith

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