How did Piedmont Virginia Community College schedule its workforce training sessions around undergraduate classes before the school’s new Stultz Center for Business and Career Development opened? During a short tour before the center’s grand opening yesterday afternoon, Program Manager Gail White said, "We made them fit."
Since April, however, PVCC’s Stultz Center has provided more than 9,000 square feet of space for classes offered through the school’s Division of Workforce Services, from screenwriting to PowerPoint presentations to a 130-hour Certified Nurse’s Assistant training program.
Since the former Charlottesville-Albemarle Visitors Center officially became part of PVCC’s campus in October 2009, Dean of Workforce Services Valerie Palamountain says the Stultz Center—"also known as my second home," she joked—was an important step towards a national economic recovery.
"What happened to those people without jobs?" she asked a large audience, where many took advantage of the center’s classroom spaces during remarks by PVCC President Frank Friedman and others. "They came here."
Friedman offered his thanks to donors Jim and Cynthia Stultz, owners of CBS Rentals who gifted PVCC with a $500,000. Stultz, a graduate of Patrick Henry Community College, became choked up when he told the crowd, "This gift gives us a lot of joy."
Friedman also thanked the City of Charlottesville and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors for acknowledging the PVCC Workforce Services Division for taking the next step to improving quality of life for many locals.
"There’s a big difference," he said, "between making $8 an hour and making $18 an hour."
