Stafford County approves land for permanent Germanna Center

      

Germanna Community College moved a step closer to a permanent center in Stafford County last night when the county's Board of Supervisors approved development and land needed for the project.
 GCC President David A. Sam has said of Stafford: “We are here to stay. We are here for the long haul. Stafford County is one of the best places for us to partner in terms of workforce development… We expand to meet the needs of our communities.”
  Stafford, the county with the largest population in Germanna’s service area, is a logical place for GCC to grow, he said.
 The permanent center would be another in a series of steps in raising Germanna’s profile in Stafford to meet community needs, beginning with the Stafford County Center (which has exceeded its 1,000 student capacity) in August 2009 and the GCC Automotive Center in August 2012.
When a permanent center opened, the college would close those facilities, which are rented, and consolidate at the permanent site southeast of the intersection of U.S. 1 and Hospital Center Boulevard.
 Dr. Sam has said Germanna would respond to the needs of Stafford’s growing, evolving business community at the permanent center with, among others, professional and technical studies programs, workforce business and professional development courses and homeland security-related courses including cybersecurity
 



A conceptual drawing shows what a permanent  Germanna
location in Stafford County may look like

Germanna may soon be a step closer to a Stafford campus

A Stafford Planning Commission meeting might produce a major step forward in the effort to establish a Germanna Campus in the county. But significant steps in the process would remain, GCC President David A Sam tells Bill Freehling of The Free Lance-Star and Frederickburg.com


The proposed Germanna campus in Stafford might look like this.

.

Helping autistic Stafford teen changed Germanna nursing student's life

BY CATHY JETT
The Free Lance-Star

Getting hired as a personal-care attendant for a teen with autism changed Ann Marie Brown’s career path.


She was a sophomore majoring in history at the University of Mary Washington last year when she applied for a job helping 18-year-old Russell Cole practice such life skills as loading the dishwasher at his Stafford County home.


Two months after working with him, I had a revelation,” said Brown. “I’ve always been really interested in psychology, so finding a very practical way of using it was very exciting.”


Last fall she switched from UMW to Germanna Community College, where she’s enrolled in the nursing program. She plans to become a psychiatric nurse.


“Just observing behavior and trying to modify it is exciting to me,” Brown said. “There are a lot of people who need these services.”


She’s not alone in recognizing the demand. The disAbility Resource Center, 409 Progress St. in Fredericksburg, has been holding workshops for people who want to learn more about becoming consumer-directed, or personal-care, assistants.


The next one will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Smoot Library, 8562 Dahlgren Road in King George County. Registration is required, and can be made by contacting Kim Lett at 540/373-2559 or klett@cildrc.org.


“We want to enlarge,,,  MORE