Aerojet Rocketdyne gift supports Germanna Engineering Program

The GenCorp Foundation has made a gift of $8,300 to the Germanna Community College Educational Foundation, with $4,000 to be used for engineering scholarships and the rest to support the engineering program.

The GenCorp Foundation is the philanthropic arm of GenCorp, the parent company of Aerojet Rocketdyne. With its giving focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Education, the GenCorp Foundation supports the communities where the company has a business presence.  

  Denise Guest, Dean of Technical and Professional Studies
  at Germanna Community College, accepts gift from Brian 
  Wheatley, director of manufacturing operations at 
  Aerojet Rocketdyne in Orange, to the GCC Educational
  Foundation.

“On behalf of Aerojet Rocketdyne in Orange, the GenCorp Foundation is pleased to support Germanna Community College and its students,” said Juanita Garcia, Executive Director of the GenCorp Foundation, which is based in Sacramento, Calif. 

GCC’s engineering program, which allows local students to earn an associate degree designed for transfer and also offers career studies certificates developed to enhance workforce skills, had grown to 228 students by fall 2013. In August, a new electrical engineering track was added to the established mechanical engineering curriculum to provide more academic options for students.

“As Aerojet Rocketdyne continues to grow, we need skilled engineers and technicians to work on our aerospace and defense programs,” said Brian Wheatley, director of manufacturing operations at Aerojet Rocketdyne in Orange.  “Investing in local community colleges and universities like Germanna helps guarantee a trained and qualified workforce we can draw from in the future.”

Denise Guest, Dean of Technical and Professional Studies at Germanna, said: “Aerojet Rocketdyne and GenCorp’s generosity will help local students pursue careers in engineering, a field in which our nation and our area needs expertise to remain economically competitive. Our relationship with Aerojet Rocketdyne helps us fill ‘skills gap’ jobs in our service region.”

Dr. Davyda Hammond, Germanna engineering professor, explained that because GCC has guaranteed admission agreements with both the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech: “If you get at least a ‘B’ in all your engineering and science and math classes at GCC and an overall GPA of 3.2, you’re guaranteed admission into the schools of engineering at UVA and Virginia Tech. They get so many applications that automatically knowing you’re getting in is a real advantage.”

 In November, Dr. James Groves of the UVA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science told Germanna engineering students that for the last two years in a row (2012 and 2013) the top graduate in the UVA engineering program was a Virginia Community College System transfer student.   

Germanna serves the counties of Orange, Culpeper, Madison, Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George and Caroline and the city of Fredericksburg. The college has campuses in Locust Grove and Spotsylvania and centers in Culpeper and Spotsylvania.  www.germanna.edu

The Germanna Community College Educational Foundation, Inc. was established in 1983 to foster and promote the growth, progress and well-being of the college and its students. A continuing priority is to ensure that all students, including those with financial need, have an opportunity to receive an education. www.germanna.edu/educational_foundation/index.asp

Aerojet Rocketdyne is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader providing propulsion and energetics to the space, missile defense, strategic, tactical missile, and armaments areas in support of domestic and international markets. GenCorp is a diversified company providing innovative solutions to its customers in the aerospace and defense, energy and real estate markets. Additional information about Aerojet Rocketdyne and GenCorp can be obtained by visiting the companies' websites at www.Rocket.com and www.GenCorp.com.