Kim Barbour, a student at Community College of Vermont-Morrisville, has been named a 2019 New Century Workforce Pathway Scholar and will receive a $1,250 scholarship.

Barbour will be recognized during the Association of Community College Trustees’ Leadership Congress in San Francisco in October 2019.

BENNINGTON — With hope fading for a rescue of financially troubled Southern Vermont College, the focus is on salvaging local access to the school’s nursing and other academic programming.

Educators and public officials involved in discussions toward that end said the ultimate goal is to strengthen the footprint of public higher education in underserved Southwestern Vermont, which is about to lose a private college with 340 students and more than 100 employees.

William “Zac” Corey, an early college student at the Community College of Vermont’s Bennington campus, is participating in the college’s externship collaboration with Southwestern Vermont Medical Center.

Nearly 50 institutions sent representatives to a college fair Monday on the campus of Southern Vermont College, which will close after the spring semester because of mounting financial difficulties.

Sitting at tables that filled much of the gym floor in the Mountaineer Athletic Center, rows of college admissions officials from around New England, New York and beyond met with SVC students being forced to transfer elsewhere.

According to Daniel Summers II, SVC’s vice president for enrollment management, more than 200 students — primarily those who won’t be graduating in May — will be looking for another school to continue their education.

Group readings will include the Vermont Studio Center, the Community College of Vermont, the Montpelier Senior Activity Center and Westview Meadows, Beth Jacob Synagogue, Washington County Mental Health, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts. They join featured poets on the calendar such as Kerrin McCadden, Major Jackson, and Elizabeth Powell. Rick Agran, who will record poets during PoemCity for his radio show, Bot Mot, on Goddard’s WGDR says, “Nowhere else in Vermont can you read your way, literally and literarily, from place to place.”

Robyn St. Peter never thought college was in her future. She worked as a firefighter, an EMT and a special-education paraprofessional. She raised four children. Two years ago, while working as an LNA at UVM Medical Center, she realized that college could be part of her life after all.

In-state incarcerated peoples have similar work opportunities through offerings like the Vermont Offender Work Program, which features various vocational opportunities. In-state offenders can also enroll in the Community High School of Vermont to earn a high school diploma, according to Touchette. Plus, they can advance their education with undergraduate coursework through the University of Vermont and the Community College of Vermont.

Alyssa Kelly, assistant teacher at the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development, recently completed Vermont’s Child Care Apprenticeship Program. Kelly completed her apprenticeship at the Winston Prouty Center, where she was supported by her mentor, Kim Paquette.

The Child Care Apprenticeship Program combines on-the-job mentoring with formal classroom instruction in the field of early childhood education. Kelly documented over 4,000 hours of supervised work on the job; completed a sequence of six college courses; and attended over 30 hours of training designed to broaden her knowledge and skills in the field. The Vermont Department of Labor issued her a Certificate of Completion in the trade of Child Care Development Specialist.