“From a business and entrepreneurial perspective, we want
more open spaces and a lot of work and study areas that are
really quite different than the traditional classrooms,” says Rob
Alsop, WVU’s vice president for strategic initiatives.
Hodges Hall is seeing its first renovation since it opened
in 1954. Hodges’ renovations include classrooms and offices
and a 210-seat testing center for university-wide use. The
center will allow students to take exams on their own schedules.
Renovations are set to begin this fall and will be complete by
June 2021.
The two-phase, $41 million renovation to Milan Puskar
Center will include expansion and renovation of the home
team locker room, player lounge, equipment room and infra-
structure of the Hall of Traditions, along with other spaces.
The plan also includes more and re-equipped recovery suites
for injured athletes.
West Virginia University Potomac State College
BY KRISTEN UPPERCUE . An 800-acre farm at West Virginia
University Potomac State College serves as a classroom for
agriculture students and home to a maple syrup business coined
the Sugar Shack. Through the Sustainable Agriculture Entre-
preneurship (SAGE) program, students are offered training in
traditional agriculture while learning how to diversify products
they’ll produce in the future, like maple syrup.
Cory Armstrong, director of farm operations and SAGE,
first realized the benefits of utilizing the thousands of maple
trees on the college’s farm following suggestions from locals
and training from Ed and Karen Hartman of Indian Water
Maple Company. Through SAGE, he tapped into the maple
syrup market and launched the Sugar Shack in 2018.
“It’s a niche product that has a lot of energy behind it, and
we feel like there’s a lot of potential,” says Armstrong.
While West Virginia has an almost perfect climate, topography
and abundance of sugar maple trees, there aren’t many farms
in the state creating the product.
“Maple syrup has not come close to reaching its potential,”
says Armstrong. “We are a prime candidate for being one of
the nation’s biggest maple syrup producers, but we are not
there yet.”
Many of Armstrong’s students have a background in tradi-
tional agriculture, including growing livestock—which the SAGE
program builds on—and knowing students how to adapt to a
changing climate and be creative and profitable in the different
products they choose to sell.
“The agriculture climate is changing, and people want a
diverse number of products and expect good-quality products,”
says Armstrong. “We’re trying to teach students how to do that
with the foundation of conventional agriculture, but we’re also
looking at a lot of those niche specialty crops.”
Maple syrup season typically lasts from February to March
every year, and students who are involved through the SAGE
program as workers or volunteers learn the entire process of
making the syrup from the first tap of the maple trees to selling
it locally. Students are also currently reconstructing a pavilion
on the premises that houses the Sugar Shack to add a storefront
to help sell the products they produce.
Real Estate Central
congratulates our
Broker/Owner,
Josh McGrath ,
on being named a
2020 Young Gun!
Josh, your expertise, leadership
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We are so proud of you!
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company in the Kanawha Valley with offices in Charleston,
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