West Kentucky Community and Technical College celebrates 20-year anniversary

Recently, West Kentucky Community and Technical College officially began its 20th anniversary celebration at the Student Center. The celebration recognizes the consolidation of Paducah Community College and West Kentucky Technical College. The merging of the two schools was what formed West Kentucky Community and Technical College.

In an article from the Paducah Sun, WKCTC’s President Anton Reece was quoted as saying at the kickoff event, “The rich history between the two institutions that consolidated, West Kentucky Technical College and the Paducah Junior College, was an incredible synergy based on a deep history, long commitments of student excellence, student success, and importantly, student access.” 

The beginning of the celebration started with faculty and students sharing coffee and hot chocolate in cups that bore designs commemorating the 20th anniversary of the merger.

Events celebrating 20 years will take place throughout the year at West Kentucky Community and Technical College. The month of February will also merge Black History Month events with the celebration. Reece mentioned that a large anniversary celebration will happen in the fall.  

As part of the commemoration, the school will also be renaming some buildings and offices on the campus to recognize the history of WKCTC, and those who came before.

In early February, the school held a ceremony to name the college’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office building after the first African American graduate of what was then called Paducah Junior College, Culee Brown, Jr.

At the kickoff event, Reece also talked of plans to rename the Allied Health building after Barbara Veazey, who was West Kentucky Community and Technical College’s first president and oversaw the consolidation of West Kentucky Technical College and Paducah Community college back in 2003. She served as president until 2016.

WKCTC offers classes that focus on workforce development and job training while also offering students a chance to pursue postsecondary education and transfer to four-year schools. Reece said that WKCTC is working to keep delivering high quality education that will keep the legacies and goals of the two schools that came before WKCTC alive.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to be the one connecting two things, which is raising the level of educational attainment…and then for those looking to transfer, to build those more long-term educational pursuits,” he said.

Reece went on to say that for the next 20 years of West Kentucky and Community and Technical College, he wants to make sure that students are adequately prepared to work in high-wage and high-demand fields, while also preparing other students to transfer to four-year institutions in the region to attain more academic heights.

More information about West Kentucky Community and Technical College can be found at the school’s website.