Johnson County Community College
Press Release

College Information and Publications
913-469-8500
Julie Haas, Director, ext. 3120
Peggy Graham, Writer, ext. 3425
Tyler Cundith, Sports Information Director, ext. 3122

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – At their meeting Sept. 15, the Johnson County Community College board of trustees accepted a $1.5 million grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce Workforce Solutions Fund. The college will use the grant to support its biotechnology program. Program graduates will be prepared to work as technicians in the area’s growing biotechnology industry.

The funds will be used to create a state-of-the-art biotechnology lab in the Regnier Center for Technology and Business, now under construction at JCCC. (A smaller biotechnology lab opened in the Science Building on campus in 2004.) JCCC students studying biotechnology, microbiology and genetics will use the lab, which will also serve as a resource for K-12 students and other post-secondary educational institutions.

The $1.5 million grant brings the college’s fund-raising total to $12.3 million. The college ultimately intends to raise $15 million to support the construction of the Regnier Center and the adjoining Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. Completion of both buildings in anticipated in 2007.

“Education in biotechnology will be important to the future of the college, our students and the state,” said Charles J. Carlsen, JCCC president. “We’re grateful for the support of the Kansas Department of Commerce and look forward to the opening of these outstanding facilities.”