Attorney General Darrell V. McGraw, Jr. awards $60,000 to Southern

Attorney General Darrell V. McGraw, Jr. awarded $60,000 in funding to Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College on Wednesday following a press conference at the Logan campus. This funding will go to support Southern's School of Nursing and comes from the proceeds of actions taken against the pharmaceutical industry on behalf of West Virginia consumers.

The funding presented to Southern is the first of three annual installments of $60,000.

"This funding will support the training and education of nurses in West Virginia," McGraw stated. "Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College provides an opportunity for students to train their community and it provides southern West Virginia with a reliable source of qualified nurses. The expansion of the nursing program with the funding presented today will go a long way in alleviating West Virginia's nursing shortage. I am proud to see the fruits of our labor go back to the citizens of West Virginia through the works of Southern."

According to Southern's President Joanne Jaeger Tomblin, the college has been in existence since 1971 and is one of the original free standing community colleges in West Virginia. Southern has campuses in Boone, Mingo, Logan and Wyoming counties and has a reciprocity agreement with Pike and Martin counties in Kentucky. President Tomblin further stated that the funding will go to expand the college's nursing program to accommodate more students.

Southern's Allied Health Program has received state and national recognition and presently has approximately 200 nursing students in Logan, Kanawha Valley and Moorefield. Southern has an enrollment of 5,000 credit and non-credit students.