History of the WVACHE
The history of the WVACHE begins with the North Central Appalachian Center for Higher Education, a pilot project that opened its doors September 1, 1998. NCACHE was a project of the Community Colleges of Appalachia, Inc. (CCA) managed by and in partnership with Bluefield State College. NCACHE's mission was to help increase the college-going rate in awarded schools and prove the replicability of the OACHE model in West Virginia and Appalachian Maryland.
Schools began competing for $10,000 Access Project grant awards in Fall 1998. Proposals were reviewed and ranked according to demonstrated need, level of enthusiasm, and demonstrated school support. Funding was awarded to six high schools in West Virginia.
During the 1999-00 academic year, requests for proposals were distributed and ten schools were granted awards of $10,000. The pilot programs were successful at increasing the college-going rate. In fact, Wirt County High School, an ARC Distressed County, increased its college-going rate from 47 to 72 percent in two years.
In 2000, because of the tremendous critical need in West Virginia and the enthusiasm of schools in that state, NCACHE was modified to focus entirely on West Virginia and was accordingly renamed the West Virginia Access Center for Higher Education.
In its short history the WVACHE has proven that West Virginia students can overcome barriers that have prevented too many from participating in postsecondary education. Our children have academic ability—they just don’t know it! The WVACHE has been officially endorsed by the “Rocket Boys,” whose story of college dreams in a West Virginia coal-mining town was told in the best-selling book The Rocket Boys and the movie October Sky. Four of the surviving Rocket Boys—Willie Rose, Jimmie O’Dell Carroll, Homer Hickam, and Roy Lee Cooke—have personally given their time to visit schools and encourage students to participate in college.
In addition, Mr. Bob Evans, founder of the successful restaurant chain that bears his name, has also personally visited West Virginia high schools. Mr. Evans and his wife, Jewell, have made a sizeable donation of $150,000 to the WVACHE, contingent upon the center's ability to secure matching funds. That donation was matched in 2002 by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. Others who have seen the need for and believed in the program enough to financially assist it in the past include the West Virginia Paving Inc., West Virginia Cabinet Secretary for the Department of Education and the Arts, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the George M. Cruise Foundation, the West Virginia State College and University System, and Marshall University.
Given their close partnership, the WVACHE and the OACHE have shared accolades from the U.S. Department of Education, the Community Colleges of Appalachia, and the Innovations in American Government national award program. The directors of the OACHE and WVACHE collaborated for a presentation to the ARC's 1999 Ideas that Work conference, among a handful of exemplary Appalachian programs that were showcased at the event. Most recently, in May 2001 the OACHE was honored as the top public-service initiative in the State category by the Public Employees Roundtable; its application was particularly competitive given its proven replicability as demonstrated by the successful West Virginia program, and the WVACHE Executive Director accompanied the OACHE delegation to accept the award.