STERLING, Colo. — Northeastern Junior College received a $25,000 donation from 21st Century Equipment this week to help fund expansion and modernization of the college’s Applied Technology Campus in Sterling.

“We see Northeastern as an important source of the kinds of skilled technical employees we need,” said Owen Palm, CEO of 21st Century Equipment. “We value the combination of professional soft skills, technical knowledge and rural, farm-culture experience of many Northeastern graduates. We’re looking forward to Northeastern’s completion of this project, and what it will do to make students even more valuable in their careers after college.”

“Thanks to generous donations like this from major regional companies like 21st Century Equipment, we will meet our objective to become the go-to source for highly skilled, educated and professionally-trained personnel to industry and employers throughout this region of the U.S.,” said Lisa LeFevre, Northeastern’s vice president of administrative services and chair of the Applied Technology Campus Capital Campaign committee.

“This expansion will enable us to meet workforce needs by enlarging and modernizing our hands-on learning labs for precision agriculture, wind turbine and machine maintenance, diesel and auto technology and welding,” she said. “Our sincere thanks to 21st Century Equipment for this generous donation to the project.”

The capital campaign, which kicked off in July of 2019, has received approximately a third of its goal of $6.7 million projected to complete the expansion. The goal of the project is to complete construction in time to open for classes in the fall of 2021, and groundbreaking is tentatively scheduled for late summer of this year.