The U.S. Department of Agriculture celebrated the investment of $2.3 million through a Rural Development Community Facilities Grant to build a 10,000 square foot expansion to the activities building at Sampson Community College with a ribbon cutting today.

The expansion will be used as a lecture hall and will accommodate courses requiring open floor space for instruction and skills acquisition, student events, student activities, intramural sports, graduation exercises and a meeting space for business and industry events.

“Sampson Community College has an excellent work-based learning and apprenticeship program and enhancements to learning enabled by this grant will help the college continue to produce the students and skilled workers our modern economy requires,” shared Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Neal Robbins in a press release. 

USDA Community Facilities Grants provide affordable funding to develop essential community facilities in rural areas.

“[For] 28 years we've waited for the completion of this. This is our third attempt at the successful bid. We were so grateful for the partnership with USDA that made this possible. This provides a dimension to our campus that we have needed since the college was conceived in the 1960s and we look forward to serving our students, our faculty and our community better with the resources that USDA has provided,” shared Sampson Community College President Dr. Bill Starling.