Leadership Gift from Hess Foundation Provides Start-up Funds for Program to Equip Students with Work-ready Skills, On-the-job Experience in Chosen Career Path

Montgomery County educators and business leaders are teaming up to launch a new Integrated Experiential Learning Cooperativethat will provide students with continuous opportunities to gain on-the-job work experience in their given fields of study, beginning in high school and continuing throughout their college studies at Montgomery College and The Universities at Shady Grove.

Start-up funding to help launch the initiative is being provided through a $525,000 leadership gift from the Hess Foundation – led by brothers Andy and Chuck Hess, owners and founders of HESS Construction, headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md.

Among those on hand to announce the program’s launch will be Dr. Stewart Edelstein, executive director of The Universities at Shady Grove and associate vice chancellor of the University System of Maryland; Dr. DeRionne Pollard, president of Montgomery College; Dr. Joshua Starr, superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools; and members of the Hess family.

WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014 at 1 p.m.

WHERE: The Universities at Shady Grove, Camille Kendall Academic Center (Building III), Room 3241, 9630 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, Md. 20850

Media Contact: 

Steve Simon, 301-836-1516 x3, ssimon@veandco.com

Joe Bucci, 301-738-6356, jbucci@umd.edu