Facelift complete at CCAC center site

Updated phlebotomy lab among upgrades

Community College of Allegheny County reopened its Braddock Hills Center after renovations it hopes will improve programming and allow for better use of the classrooms.

The location, which typically serves about 150 students per semester, updated its phlebotomy lab, added 65-inch television monitors to every classroom and built a new mini computer lab, among other aesthetic changes. The center also added a new student lounge in response to requests from students for vending machines and a place to eat on-site.

“It needed to be renovated,” Tiffany Evans, interim assistant dean of the Braddock Hills Center, said, pointing out the updated the signage and new flooring. The center never closed completely, Ms. Evans said, with the bulk of renovations occurring during breaks between semesters.

Situated in the Braddock Hills Shopping Center, the location houses seven classrooms and three computer labs. The center’s phlebotomy program, which trains students to draw blood, is one of the its most popular since it can be completed in a single semester, Ms. Evans said. With the new technology and added labs, Ms. Evans said, the center is now able to better utilize each classroom.

Michelle Stallworth, 43, of Swissvale, has been coming to the Braddock Hills Center for more than 10 years, and has taken classes ranging from

self-defense to X-Ray technology.

Ms. Stallworth said the new computers, as well as the new flat screens in every room, are welcome changes. She has attended classes at other CCAC locations, but said she prefers the Braddock Hills center because of its small size and the tightknit student body.

“Sometimes everybody can’t take the big setting,” she said, describing the community as a family.

Last month, Ms. Stallworth was attending class when another student — a younger woman — opened up that she was having trouble balancing her studies with her personal life. Ms. Stallworth and the other students in the class listened to her and gave her advice on how to solve her problems.

“She did exactly what we told her to do,” Ms. Stallworth said. “She was happy.”

It’s that relationship, between her fellow students as well as her professors, that Ms. Stallworth loves about CCAC. She is trying to persuade her 18-year-old daughter, Dyamond, to enroll in classes at the community college while she decides between becoming a pharmacist or a detective.

Ms. Evans, the interim assistant dean, said the center is expecting to offer about 35 courses this fall, including new Saturday classes for its business management and administrative computer specialist certificate.