Rappahannock Community College was awarded a $1,536,345 grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

One of 62 awards across the nation, and the only one to a community college in Virginia, the grant will support RCC’s efforts to build institutional resilience to respond to current and future pandemics as well as expand educational opportunities for students, a release stated.

Through the grant, RCC will invest in both the college and the region’s secondary school partners. The project will include short-term strategies to address the immediate technology and online access needs of the RCC student body and will implement improvements in online instructional delivery to ensure a safe and quality learning experience. Long-term strategies will focus on dual enrollment in RCC’s secondary schools, building the capacity of the schools to deliver dual enrollment instruction to all students at an affordable cost.

The largest investment will be in creating college pathways for student...