Nov. 19, 2020 - Trident Technical College president receives Order of the Palmetto
Trident Technical College President Mary Thornley received the state’s highest civilian honor, the Order of the Palmetto, from Gov. Henry McMaster Nov. 19 during a virtual Trident Technical College Foundation board meeting. Foundation staff members presented the award to Thornley as a video of the governor’s remarks was shown during the online meeting. The Order of the Palmetto is awarded to citizens of South Carolina for extraordinary lifetime service and achievements of national or statewide significance. Gov. John C. West presented the first Order of the Palmetto in 1971.
Thornley has worked at the college for 47 years. She was hired as an adjunct instructor in 1973 and became a full-time instructor the next year. Over time she moved up the ranks and held positions including department head, dean and vice president for academic affairs. She was named president in 1991. During her tenure, the college has more than doubled in physical size, and the college’s enrollment has grown to almost 12,000 students, making Trident Tech the third largest college in the state. Thornley has played a pivotal role in expanding the role of the technical college system in South Carolina beyond education, to include playing a valuable role in attracting economic development. Whether retraining those displaced by the Navy base closure or working with readySC and Apprenticeship Carolina to ensure that new employers have a trained workforce as they stand up operations, Thornley has been at the forefront. With the departure of Johnson & Wales University, she worked with industry leaders to develop the Culinary Institute of Charleston to build a workforce to meet the demands of the state’s hospitality industry. Partnering with the region’s county leaders, she secured funding for the college’s Nursing and Science Building to address the growing nurse shortage. With the entry of major aeronautics and automotive manufacturers into the region, such as Boeing, Mercedes and Volvo, a large, reliable source of employees with advanced manufacturing skills was needed. She campaigned for the S.C. Aeronautical Training Center, which opened on the college’s North Charleston campus in 2019. She worked with the Commerce Department and readySC to develop a regional training center and developed a lean manufacturing certificate program to enable more state residents to meet employers’ manufacturing experience requirement. She was also an early advocate of partnering with secondary schools on programs such as early college, dual credit and the nationally acclaimed youth apprenticeship program.
Thornley has made equity in enrollment, program completion, campus environment and employment and promotion a hallmark of her 29-year tenure as president. She has received numerous other awards including the South Carolina Association of Technical College Commissioners CEO Award, the Septima P. Clark Charleston Branch NAACP Education Award and Joseph P. Riley Leadership Award.
In 2018 the college’s main campus in North Charleston became the Thornley Campus after the college’s Area Commission voted to rename the campus to honor Thornley’s long tenure as president and recognize her outstanding leadership at the college and in the community. Trident Tech has three other campuses in the region: Palmer Campus in downtown Charleston, Berkeley Campus in Moncks Corner, and Mount Pleasant Campus in Mount Pleasant. The college will open a fifth campus, the Dorchester Campus, in Summerville in 2021. The college also provides services at two sites, one in Hollywood and the other in St. George.
Oct. 13, 2020 - Trident Tech awarded $1.9 million grant to promote STEM pathways
The Department of Defense has awarded Trident Technical College $1.9 million to implement the Building Outreach Opportunities to Motivate and Inspire the Next Generation in STEM (BOOMING in STEM) initiative to help address acute STEM workforce needs in the Charleston region.
Working with partners Joint Base Charleston and the Charleston Promise Neighborhood, Trident Tech will use the funding to provide camps and coursework to engage youth in STEM activities and connect them to educational offerings and work experiences. The project will create STEM career pathways for military-connected, rural and disadvantaged K-12 students, primarily focusing on students age 7-18.
“Creating clear pathways for students to explore STEM options and train for STEM careers will strengthen and expand the regional talent pipeline,” said TTC’s Vice President for Education Cathy Almquist. “This project will help our region address the need for well-trained employees in fields such as advanced manufacturing and cybersecurity, which are critical Department of Defense priorities.”
The college is one of only 12 institutions in the country to receive a National Defense Education Program Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) award from the Department of Defense this year. The department will provide more than $31 million to the 12 educational and industry partners over a three-year period to establish or expand STEM education, outreach and workforce initiatives for students and educators from early childhood through college.
“The Department of Defense is proud to support the STEM workforce our nation needs to maintain our technological superiority far into the future,” said Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Kratsios. “We are particularly pleased with the range of initiatives pursued by this year’s awardees, with programs for early childhood education, postsecondary study and outreach to student veterans. This investment will be critical to expanding STEM opportunities to students, educators and veterans in underserved, underrepresented and military-connected communities.”
Aug. 20, 2020 - TTC announces 2019-20 SKIP Award recipients
Trident Technical College announced the 2019-20 SKIP Award recipients Monday at the college’s annual faculty and staff meeting, held virtually for the first time due to social distancing restrictions as a result of COVID-19.
The SKIPs were created by former Trident Tech vice president Skip Godow to identify and reward employees who are setting an example of innovation at TTC. "Good is the enemy of great," Godow said. “We should always be striving for great. That takes creativity, imagination and innovation.”
The nominations exemplify innovation that significantly enhances the student experience, improves an administrative process or puts TTC on the cutting edge. Awards were given in each of two categories, non-instructional and instructional.
The Phi Theta Kappa Advisory team of Carmela Gordon, Daryl Milligan, Brenda Oxford, Mozell Rollerson and Chris Solomon won the non-instructional award for the PTK Grocery Vault.
In 2019, this team decided to elevate the food pantry to better serve the college. Team members identified additional needs and researched ways to provide healthier food options. They transformed the food panty into a wellness pantry, expanded service options and created a facility where students can be prepared to lead. As a result, they were able to serve 111 households and distributed more than 15,000 pounds of food, including 40% more fresh produce and meats.
Pharmacy Technician program coordinator Janell Geddis’s restructuring of the Pharmacy Tech program earned her the SKIP Award for the instructional category.
Recognizing the program needed an overhaul, Geddis created an innovative academic and continuing education hybrid program that would meet the needs of today’s students and employers.
Working collaboratively with Continuing Education, she developed a Pharmacy Technician certificate program with evening hours to accommodate students who had employers willing to subsidize training as well as those who already had bachelor’s degrees and only needed technical training.
The new program was very successful and led her to revise the academic program to mirror the shorter-term, working-adult-friendly format. The academic option would allow students who needed federal financial aid or scholarships to attend. Working closely with industry partners, she ensured students would leave the program with the skills employers needed.
SKIP is an acronym for Strategy + Knowledge = Innovation Prize. The TTC Foundation awarded winners, who were selected by a committee of innovative leaders in the community, a hand-sculpted trophy and $1,000.
Established in 1975, the TTC Foundation exists to advocate and raise funds for the college to support the region's economy. The TTC Foundation is a separate and independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
June 12, 2020 - TTC Statement on Equality and Respect
Trident Technical College stands in support of the African American members of the community we serve. We reject all forms of discrimination. We affirm the guiding principles of our mission: equality, advocacy, individual worth, and mutual respect.
We seek to model the change we want to see in the world. We work to prepare our students to see from various angles. We strive to demonstrate to them, and to each other, that we are able to see perspectives different from our own, and, in so doing, become more empathetic and responsive. And we work to ensure that all of our campus community’s voices are heard, that all know we value them as individuals, and that we respect each other not just for our strengths but also for our struggles. Trident Technical College commits to mutually respectful, humanizing dialogue as we work to change our campuses and our community.
April 8, 2020 - Trident Technical College produces reusable masks for local health care workers
Trident Technical College’s new South Carolina Aeronautical Training Center has not been sitting idle while the college’s campuses are closed to the public. Working alone in an advanced manufacturing lab, TTC Vice President for Continuing Education and Economic Development Bob Walker has been working as a one-man production line for personal protective equipment (PPE) using six of the college’s 3D printers.
The college offered to create reusable masks for health care workers at the Medical University of South Carolina after learning of MUSC’s request for PPE. Using design files provided by MUSC, Walker converted the files to programs needed by the college’s 3D printers. He is using the printers to produce small, medium and large masks, as well as cartridge housings for filters. The first supply of parts was delivered to MUSC on April 8. The hospital will handle the final assembly, adding filters, head straps and liners to the masks. Portions of the masks can be sanitized and reused, which reduces the hospital’s dependence on fully disposable masks.
After refining the production process in the lab on campus, Walker received permission from the college’s president to move the printers to his home where he can better monitor the printing and increase the production yield. He hopes to produce around 40 to 50 masks a week with the printers running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At MUSC’s request, Walker is also exploring the possibility of making head strap assemblies for face shields. The crash course in PPE production has been both fun and frustrating, said Walker, but also very rewarding. “We’re just trying to help out in any way we can those fighting this battle on the front lines,” he said.
March 7, 2020 - Tricounty students, schools earn academic accolades at 34th Annual QUEST Competition
Approximately 1,470 students from 44 public schools throughout Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties battled for top honors at the 34 th Annual Quest Academic Competition held Saturday at Trident Technical College’s Thornley Campus in North Charleston.
Students participated in four levels of competition: Level I-grade 6, Level II-grades 7-8, Level III-grades 9-10 and Level IV-grades 11-12. Students competed and earned points in team competitions in math, science and social studies, and in individual competitions including composition, public speaking and visual arts. Special competitions were held in automotive, computer aided design, computer programming, culinary, engineering design and construction, horticulture, medical terminology, Spanish, video/film and welding. Schools whose students earned the most total points won overall awards at each level.
Overall awards were given to 12 schools. At Level I (grade 6), Marrington Middle School of the Arts won first place, Rollings Middle School of the Arts placed second and Camp Road Middle School finished in third place. At Level II (grades 7-8), Moultrie Middle School took top honors, while Charleston County School of the Arts and Camp Road Middle School tied for second place. At Level III (grades 9-10), Stratford High School claimed first place with Academic Magnet High School in second place and Wando High School in third place. At Level IV (grades 11-12) Wando High School won first place with Ashley Ridge High School and Hanahan High School finishing in second and third places, respectively.
The Quest competition was developed by TTC to promote academic excellence, provide an academic challenge to students, and recognize top students, teachers and schools.