Davidson County Community College

THOMASVILLE — Davidson County Community College is among the “100,000 Strong in the Americas” Innovation Fund grant winners sponsored by MetLife Foundation.

Grant recipients receive $25,000 and contribute additional resources to implement short-term study-abroad programs in the Western Hemisphere.

The grants were announced by the U.S. Department of State, Partners of the Americas and NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

DCCC, through a partnership with Universidad Nacional de Villa María in Argentina, will create a Gilman scholarship-eligible study-abroad program that will enable Pell Grant recipients to take a humanities course abroad and provide them with a framework for studying the history, geography and culture of Argentina, along with basic Spanish language instruction.

With the Innovation Fund grant, the college will be able to continue its support of economically disadvantaged and underserved students in North Carolina to study abroad and open the course to other institutional partners, Guilford Technical Community College and Forsyth Technical Community College.

With MetLife Foundation’s support, the Innovation Fund grant competition will facilitate eight new higher education partnerships between schools in the United States, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Colombia. These grants will provide new exchange and training opportunities, with an emphasis on students who traditionally lack access to or are underrepresented in international exchange programs.

“MetLife Foundation values the opportunities that study-abroad programs can offer in helping students develop skills and experience that put them on the path to success, “ said Dennis White, president and CEO of MetLife Foundation. “We are proud to strengthen the partnership between higher education institutions across the Americas and to enhance the development of the students these institutions are preparing for leadership in the workforce and communities.”

The 19 new institutions announced will provide exchange programs that will allow students to work in teams, gain technical skills and become more competent for the global workforce.

The fund provides grants to higher education institutions, which strengthen institutional capacity for exchange programs, increase student mobility, provide more student training opportunities, and enhance regional education cooperation and collaboration throughout the Americas.

Since January 2014, the Innovation Fund has awarded 134 grants to teams of 263 higher education institutions from 25 countries in the Western Hemisphere. More than 1,700 institutions form the Innovation Fund’s network, including 1,000 U.S. universities and community colleges.

The initiative in the Western Hemisphere aims to increase the annual number of U.S. students studying in Latin America and the Caribbean to 100,000 and bring 100,000 students to the United States by 2020.