At Monday’s meeting of the Board of Trustees of Salina Area Technical College, the college received a grant of $4,500 from the Greater Salina Community Foundation.
The grant is to pay for $900 in program fees for five students who had just completed Salina Tech’s Commercial Truck Driving program and earned their GEDs through the Accelerated Opportunity – Kansas program.
The grant funding came through the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, based in Logan, which works in partnership with the Greater Salina Community Foundation to administer and distribute grant funds locally. Ruth Cathcart-Rake, a member of the Board of Directors of the Greater Salina Community Foundation, presented the funds to the college.
Through the AO-K program, the five students began the work of earning their GEDs while learning to drive trucks, with their tuition paid by the Kansas Department of Commerce. However, the AO-K program funding does not pay for program fees, which are substantial for the truck driving program. Each student spends at least 40 hours behind the wheel, burning diesel fuel.
Lara Duran, AO-K coordinator for Salina Tech, said the grant was instrumental in making the program affordable for those five students.
Duran said the lack of a diploma or GED often creates a “ceiling” that limits how far people can advance in a given career, because it limits their opportunities to take advantage of college training
“AO-K removes that ceiling,” Duran said. “Our goal is for people to graduate certified to work, debt-free, in a recession-proof career.”
The Kansas Board of Regents and Department of Commerce created the AO-K program to help Kansas residents train for high-demand careers and earn their GED at the same time. At Salina Tech, the GED classes and testing are provided by the Salina Adult Education Center, part of the Salina School District.
Salina Tech first meshed its commercial truck driving program with AO-K in 2015. AO-K based health care pathways are set to begin in January, including Certified Nurse Aide, Certified Medication Aide and Emergency Medical Technician classes.