Johnston Community College, in conjunction with HH Architecture, has announced construction of the college’s $15 million, two-story Engineering Building which is scheduled to open next year.
“JCC’s Engineering Program has grown by more than 160% in just 6 years. The faculty and students were doing all this in barely sufficient facilities, but now we will be able to use these new facilities to train and educate for the 21st Century,” says President Dr. David Johnson.
Among the speakers at the groundbreaking ceremony last week were County Commissioner Butch Lawter, JCC Board of Trustees Chair, Lyn Austin, and Dave Carey, Principal of HH Architecture.
Once complete, this state-of-the-art building will house a virtual reality studio, labs, offices, interactive classrooms, a theater-style lecture hall and more.
The new facility will support the college’s expanding Associate in Engineering (AE) program and STEM-related disciplines.
“I charged my faculty with coming up with designs that would make it the most technologically advanced academic building in Johnston County, so I feel good that we will have achieved that,” says Dawn Dixon, Associate Vice President of University Studies and Educational Technologies.
Johnston Community College’s engineering program serves as a transfer pathway for students seeking a bachelor’s degree at four-year universities and graduates have an 85% acceptance rate into those schools. Our graduates have also received more than $200,000 in merit-based scholarships through the Goodnight Scholars Program at NC State.
The Engineering Building is being paid for with local funds approved during the 2018 School Bond Referendum.
