REGIONAL VIEW southwest virginia


Master’s program will provide a path to medical school by Tim Thornton


soon will be offered by Blue- field College, but the courses will be taught at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Blacksburg campus.


A The program grew


out of a VCOM graduate certificate program designed to help students prepare for medical school and improve their chances for admission. Gradu ates of the master’s program who meet certain benchmarks are guaranteed a place at one of VCOM’s three campuses. “We’re very interested


in recruiting students from the Appalachian region,” says Emily Lambert, associate professor and chair of the Bluefield College Biology Department. “So many of these students are not going to be in an upper socioeco- nomic class.” Students in certificate


FOR THE RECORD


The presumptive buyer of BVU’s OptiNet Network has new finan- cial backing for the deal from a private Georgia firm. Sunset Digital Communications announced it is now working with ITC Capital Partners. ITC replaces HIG Capital Partners of Miami, which had backed Sunset’s $50 million acquisition of OptiNet from the beginning. Terms of the new arrangement weren’t released. Sunset expects to close on the purchase of the fiber-optic network before the end of the second quarter, according to Chief Operating Officer Ryan Elswick. (Bristol Herald Courier)


A proposal to expand the Barter Theatre into North Carolina moved forward in March when the Mount Airy Board of Commis-


new master’s degree program in biomedical sciences


Beach plans to open a Col- lege of Health Care Sciences and School of Nursing this fall. The Jefferson College of Health Sciences in Roanoke also is planning to merge with Radford University. That activity may be


Bluefi eld College wants to recruit students from the Appalachian region for the master’s program.


programs are not eligible for federal aid, Lambert says, a situation that can be a burden for students and their families. Students in the new master’s program will be eligible for federal aid. “Not only that, when


you compare a certificate to a degree, a degree tends to be something that holds a little bit more weight in our culture and society” and with an admissions committee that


sioners approved an operating agreement. The city plans to develop the former Spencer’s Mill industry property in Mount Airy into a hotel and conference center, an apartment complex and a 500-seat Barter theater. The building is a block from the city’s Main Street. The city and Barter previously signed a letter of intent regarding the expansion of the Abingdon-based theater. The Barter plans to develop North Carolina-based programming for the new theater, similar to what it already does in Abingdon. (Bristol Herald Courier)


LIUNA, the Laborers’ International Union of North America, has entered into a second agreement with the Virginia Community College System to train state residents for jobs related to a new pipeline project. The agreement


14 APRIL 2018


may be looking at a potential candidate for their program, she says.


The new master’s pro- gram continues a trend of expanding and evolving med- ical education in Virginia. The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine gradu- ated its first class in 2014, the same year Emory & Henry College opened its School of Health Sciences in Marion. Regent University in Virginia


aims to put people to work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline project, which will distribute natural gas through pipelines running from West Virginia to Virginia. LIUNA said in a news release that as many as 2,400 skilled workers will be needed in Virginia for the project. Work is expected to begin this year and continue for about 18 months. Under the agreement between the union and the college system on the Mountain Valley pipeline, at least a fourth of workers hired will live in the vicinity of the project, which will run from the West Virginia line through Southwest Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)


Work is progressing at The Mead- ows property in Abingdon, which will be the home of a new Food City complex and sports fields. A list of tenants has been confirmed,


driven by Bureau of Labor Statistics predictions that health care will account for about one-third of all new jobs created in the United States between now and 2026.


The master’s pro-


gram aims to attract students from Appalachia who plan to practice as health profession- als in the region. Appalachia has long faced a health-care shortage. Some students may not be as well prepared academically as they could be, Lambert says, and the new program will help them close that gap. The first cohort of 120 students is scheduled to begin classes the last week of July.


including Holiday Inn Express, Jersey Mike’s Subs and Eastman Credit Union. Other tenants will include an unnamed national pet store, which will be a junior anchor store, Great Clips, Moe’s South- west Grill, Noire Nail Bar and G2K games, said Stephen Spangler of Marathon Realty Corp. Marathon is the realty company for K-VA-T Food Stores, the parent company for the Abingdon-based Food City grocery chain. (Bristol Herald Courier)


PEOPLE


A Smyth County native and a third-generation leader on his family farm is now at the helm of the Smyth County Board of Super- visors. Todd Dishner, who is in the middle of his fourth four-year term as the Park District supervi- sor, was elected by his peers earlier this year to serve as the


board’s chairman. Dishner had been serving as vice chairman. (SWVAToday.com)


Justin and Lori McClellan of Smyth County were named winners of the 2017 Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers Achievement Award and first runner-up for the 2018 Ameri- can Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award. By winning the state award, the McClellans joined state-level winners from Farm Bureaus across the United States to compete for the national award. The national-level compet- itors were narrowed to 10 finalists with the McClellans being named first runner-up. Both awards honor young farmers who are success- ful in production agriculture and provide leadership on and off the farm. (SWVAToday.com)


Photo courtesy Bluefield College


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