SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (KGUN) — Cochise College is the only post-secondary education school in Arizona to receive a federal grant from the Department of Education to help train the next generation of students and faculty about artificial intelligence.
The college has been awarded a $1.87 million federal grant through the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) by the U.S. Department of Education as part of a national initiative supporting the responsible use of artificial intelligence to enhance teaching and learning in higher education.
The "AI-Powered Success" grant will equip approximately 4,000 people with the skills to navigate the AI revolution over a four-year period.
"This grant marks a strategic shift for rural education," said Dr. James Perey, Cochise College president. "By remaining student-centered, community-anchored, and future-ready, the college is empowering our students and communities not only to understand AI but to shape today's evolving workforce."
The award supports a project designed to bridge the gap between education and the workforce, with Cochise College developing tools and training to help community colleges nationwide adopt AI responsibly and effectively.
"The student that does not have good AI literacy skills is not going to be competitive in the business marketplace of the future," said Martin Versluis, educational technologist at Cochise College.
Janelle Simpson, acting dean of academic affairs at Cochise College, said the initiative addresses a critical workforce need.
"We're getting a lot of feedback from our industry partners and from our community that our students need to be prepared to use AI in the workforce, and so it's really important to us, as we serve our community to be responsive to that need," Simpson said.
The project includes four core initiatives: a Rural AI Playbook, K-12 to Industry Taskforce, GenAI Workforce Microcredential, and Faculty and Staff Development.
With this investment, Cochise College is building a replicable model called the "Rural AI Playbook" that demonstrates how community colleges can lead in ethical AI implementation. The project's instructional modules and training guides will be released as Open Educational Resources (OER), providing a scalable blueprint for rural colleges nationwide.
Career and technical education fields, particularly healthcare, are seeing increased use of AI technology. The college emphasizes the importance of teaching students to use AI both effectively and ethically.
"It's very, very important that students know how to use it effectively, know how to use it ethically. And it's really the future," Versluis said.
Roughly 74 schools across the country received the grant, with about 24% being community colleges. The funding allows Cochise College to transform its vision into reality.
"It's very exciting to have the resources of what we've talked about and imagining happening and actually being able to do it, and we can do it now," Versluis said.
The college is moving beyond "keeping up" with technology to define how rural colleges implement it, with a primary emphasis on ethical artificial intelligence integration, workforce readiness, and leadership in rural education.
Simpson emphasized the college's methodical approach to implementing the program.
"We are building on a lot of work that we already had. So the ball is moving, but we want to make sure as we build this out, that it's done correctly," Simpson said.
New milestones related to the project will be shared publicly as the initiative develops.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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