WARREN, Ohio -- Alesia Code’s enthusiasm was evident as she surveyed one of the classrooms in Eastern Gateway Community College’s new Warren Center yesterday.

“This is fabulous. It’s great,” remarked the Warren resident, in her fourth semester at Eastern Gateway. 

Monday was the first day of the semester -- and the first day of classes in Eastern Gateway’s new Warren Center. The downtown campus is in the former Mickey’s Army-Navy store, relocated from the Atrium Building.

Students are “amazed,” Code continued. “They say, ‘Oh, my gosh, I was here when Mickey’s Army-Navy was here. It looks so different.’ But it’s beautiful.”

Just over 200 students are enrolled in classes at the Warren Center, which has four active classrooms, as part of the completed first phase of the project, reported Laura Meeks, president of Eastern Gateway. The second and third phases entail installing laboratories in the lower level. They will be completed over the next 2 1/2 years, she said.

“This is phenomenal,” observed U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-13 Ohio, who visited the Warren Center yesterday morning. When establishing a community college in the Mahoning Valley was proposed years ago, Ryan said he was “adamant that these facilities would be in our downtowns,” he recalled.

“When you’re talking about getting the best bang for the buck, getting foot traffic, getting our downtowns going again, we’ve got to have these kinds of facilities in the downtown,” he continued. “Now they’re in a good, solid facility in downtown Warren. There’s going to be hundreds, and hopefully thousands, of kids coming through here in the next few years.”

Just a short walk away, he noted, is the Tech Belt Energy Innovation Center, which will be a partner with Eastern Gateway “for the kinds of jobs those companies are going to need.” Also not far away are the downtown amphitheater and Packard Music Hall, under new management. “So you could see the synergies starting to be created in downtown Warren. It’s very exciting,” he said. 

Code, who is studying psychology, made Eastern Gateway’s dean’s list for the third semester and was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, which recognizes the achievements of students in two-year colleges. She is “thriving” at Eastern Gateway. “It feels more like a family here than just a school,” Code said.

Several students, including Megan Goldberg of Howland and Ryan Drummond of Warren, joined that family Monday.

Goldberg, formerly from San Diego, graduated from high school in 2010 and had been working in a hospital. Moving to the area because her family is here, she says she is pursuing an associate’s degree in science with an eye toward pursuing nursing as a career.

“I knew [coming to Eastern Gateway] was going to be a good opportunity to get some basic classes out of the way at a reasonable price,” she said.

Drummond finds the Warren Center convenient. “It was in the city so I don’t have to travel far,” he said. Out of school about a decade, he said, he is studying electrical engineering “so I can do my own electric work on my houses.”

Pictured: Alesia Code, an Eastern Gateway Community College student from Warren, and Dr. Laura Meeks, president of the college.

Copyright 2015 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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