Stories

Thanks to a new partnership, students who earn an associate degree from Piedmont Technical College (PTC) will now be able to transfer seamlessly to The Citadel to earn their bachelor of science in business administration online.

Where stress balls and incense may fail students struggling with government forms, a team of committed professionals can make light work of financial aid applications. Piedmont Technical College (PTC) is taking to the road, bringing Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) assistance (and chocolate) to multiple campuses in March.

Brent Phillips’ typical day begins at 4:30 a.m. It’s hard to pinpoint when it ends because the Piedmont Technical College (PTC) graduate works full-time as a maintenance engineering & technology (ME&T) technician at GE Power in Greenville. With two associate degrees ― in mechatronics technology and electronic engineering technology ― as well as a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering technology ― Phillips is back in school again at PTC studying machine tool technology. And there’s more. The Navy veteran has added teaching at Tech to his busy schedule.

Deciding among career options in the health care field can feel similar to trying to decide among myriad cold medicine options in the average drug store aisle. How do you choose? In the fall of 2018, Piedmont Technical College introduced its CAREplan advising platform to personally counsel students on the qualities unique to each health care major so they can make smarter decisions and take more cost- and time-effective routes to their goals. Now data from the first-year cohort of the CAREplan is shedding an optimistic light on the platform’s propriety.

This month, Piedmont Technical College’s (PTC) award-winning marketing department is unveiling a redesigned logo. The new logo reflects the modern, vibrant organization the college has grown into over its more than five-decade history.

Growing up in the predominantly black township of Kingstree, South Carolina, John Pendarvis received his earliest arts education. “Art was always around. My mother had cousins who did art,” he said. “One of them who lived across the street from us would always come over and draw for us kids. He was the greatest artist I had ever known. So art was always there.”

Piedmont Technical College (PTC) is springing forward in March when it makes the South Carolina Manufacturing Certification (SCMC) available for the first time in McCormick County. Just as a mechanical spring can potentially store and release energy when pressure is applied, this certification allows those who experience stress from being unemployed or underemployed to potentially gain skills and deploy them immediately in the workforce. Even better? It’s free for those who qualify.

Caroline Chappell doesn’t have time to worry about awards or recognition. She’s too busy tweaking language ― crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s ― on essential grant applications she produces in her role as grants administrator at Piedmont Technical College (PTC). This past December, she learned that someone, indeed, had taken note of her hard work. She had been selected as one of the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce’s “Greenwood Stars Under 40” award recipients.