Editor’s note: U.S. Representative Paul Tonko visited TEC-SMART on June 3 to promote one of 15 Capital Region Projects for Community Funding he’s proposed in Congress — $2,065,000 earmarked for HVCC to expand STEM, Healthcare and Workforce programs.
Melissa Schuman / The Troy Record & Saratogian / June 4, 2022
MALTA, N.Y. — Congressman Paul Tonko made a tour of several facilities to raise awareness and advocacy for his Community Funding Project which was recently submitted to the House Committee on Appropriations for federal funding contributions. Each one of the facilities visited is part of 15 that have been selected for the Project.
The Fiscal Year 2023 Community Funding Project aims to secure federal funding for sites around the Capital District, providing opportunities for growth and the continuation of community services. Tonko, D-Amsterdam, optimistically estimates that the Project will be on President Biden’s desk for a signature by the end of the year.
The second stop on Tonko’s tour was Hudson Valley Community College’s (HVCC) Training and Education Center for Semiconductor Manufacturing and Alternative and Renewable Technologies, or TEC-SMART, located at the College’s Matla campus, commonly referred to as HVCC North. The TEC-SMART lab is getting a major upgrade this summer, with a new two-story building equipped with labs and state-of-the-art classrooms being built adjacent to the current structure. The groundbreaking for the new building is on June 29.
“The purpose of this tour is to encourage public awareness, for you to record my voice and share it with others, which I hope will increase advocacy,” Tonko said.
As part of Tonko’s Community Funding Project, any money that is secured for HVCC North will go towards not only resources for the new TEC-SMART building, but also towards resources for the entire campus, allowing it to better serve more students.
“We are so thankful to you and your team to make this happen,” Dr. Roger Ramsammy, president of HVCC, said to Tonko. “We believe the future of our Capital District is going to happen right here. This expansion will be a building that is state-of-the-art. You hear people talk about that, but when you are next door to Global Foundries, who is known worldwide for being the best in the industry, to say that we are state-of-the-art actually means something – we have that standard to live up to.”
HVCC North is located adjacent to the Global Foundries FAB 8 facility and actively fosters a healthy working relationship with the industry giant. The programs taught on campus train students for the STEM workforce, and Global Foundries regularly hires TEC-SMART graduates.
“We’ve got 3,000 employees right now and we want to add 1,000 more,” commented Jordan Steller, a Global Foundries employee who also serves on the HVCC Foundation Board of Directors. “A Project like this is a great opportunity. We’ve currently got about 200 HVCC graduates working at Global Foundries, and I’d like to see that number rapidly doubling and tripling.”
“This is very, very essential,” Tonko said of the funding he’s advocating for the campus. “We need to focus on a human infrastructure. Today we’re talking about something that will support that human infrastructure. You can invest in policies and ideas, but you need a pipeline of workers to support them. This new building will create more opportunities for enrollment, more people who will tether a path to a career in STEM.”
Malta Town Supervisor Mark Hammon pledged ongoing support to HVCC North, noting that “things like this remind us there’s still hope and plenty of good things left in our country. We’re proud to have you here.”
“We recognize the opportunities that HVCC North will bring to our residents,” agreed Rich Harris, deputy county administrator for Saratoga County. “I congratulate Dr. Ramsammy and his team and I thank Congressman Tonko for his fierce advocacy.”
Ramsammy noted that the direction HVCC North is headed in, with such a strong focus on STEM careers, may not be the way things have always been – but that’s a good thing, and with Tonko’s support the focus can be even stronger.
“Tuli Kupferberg once said ‘when patterns are broken, new worlds emerge,’ and that is what we are doing today,” Ramsammy said. “We’re breaking grounds on something new. It’s not the norm, but we believe it’s the future.”
Published: Mon, 06 Jun 2022 12:10:46 +0000 by d.gardner