industry partnership,” Torie Jackson, president of WVU-P, says.
A few miles away, in a former Masonic temple on Market Street, the college invests in the youngest end of that pipeline. Discovery World on Market, a hands-on STEAM museum for children, opened in 2023 and has drawn tens of thousands of visitors. Jackson serves on its board and volunteers as the mascot, Izzy, a character built to spark kids’ interest in science, technology, engineering, art and math. Continuing the partnership, when the museum built its theater, the college donated $ 75,000 worth of seating.
While the college does not offer arts degrees, it is still a major supporter of the arts in the community. The college steers Arts of the MOV, placing it at the center of the region’ s cultural life rather than at its edge.
“ Arts of the MOV works because no one sector can carry culture here alone. Our job as the steering institution is to braid those efforts together, helping artists, businesses, schools and civic groups move as one. Even something as simple as our Trunk-or-Treat has grown into a massive community good will event. That is the same reason this college exists, to build something the whole valley has a stake in,” Vice President of Institutional Advancement Olivia Reeder says.
The partnerships are institutional, but they rest on something personal. Faculty and staff serve on local boards and community organizations, carrying the college’ s reach into and through the community in hundreds of different ways.
The courthouse meeting of the college’ s founders dreamed of a college for, and by, the community. Sixty-five years later, that dream is now five campuses and seven counties wide— and still growing.
HOW IT BEGAN
West Virginia University at Parkersburg( WVU-P) opened in 1961 as the Parkersburg Branch of WVU, founded by local residents who wanted higher education within reach of home. It began in a repurposed elementary school with 104 students. In 1971 it became Parkersburg Community College, one of the state’ s first. It was renamed WVU-P in 1989, and in 2008 it became an independent member of the state’ s community and technical college system. Today it serves seven counties and is the state’ s largest public two-year institution.
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