New Bedford High School awarded $125,000 state grant for Finance Laboratory

The Baker-Polito Administration has awarded New Bedford High School $125,000 as part of the state’s Workforce Skills Cabinet Grant Program. The High School will use these funds to construct a state-of-the-art Financial Laboratory to support its Career Vocational Technical Education programming in Finance and Business. The awards were announced as part of Governor Charlie Baker’s visit to Shawsheen Technical High School in Billerica on Thursday, January 17.

Skills Capital Grants are designed to help high schools, colleges and other educational institutions invest in the most up-to-date training equipment to give their students an advantage when they continue in their chosen field or area of study. New Bedford High School’s Finance Lab, which will include high definition stock tickers, LCD market data walls, collaboration centers, and advanced technology hardware, will support career pathway development for students interested in financial services, customer service and entrepreneurship. The laboratory and equipment used aligns with the financial services industry, which has been identified as a high growth career area by Mass Hire Greater New Bedford’s regional labor market blueprint.

“This lab provides New Bedford High School with new and expansive capabilities in financial education,” said Thomas Anderson, Superintendent of New Bedford Public Schools. “We are extremely grateful for this grant award; it represents an important long-term investment in our students and in New Bedford High School’s steady upward trajectory,” he said.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (right) with Mike Kennelly, Housing and Economic Development Secretary (left), present a Workforce Skills Cabinet Grant Award of $125,000 to New Bedford High School’s CVTE Manager Chris Cummings. The grant will establish a state-of-the-art Finance Lab at New Bedford High. (Submitted photo)

Headmaster Bernadette Coelho noted the direct impact the award will have on students. “This major grant will make a reality of the latest technology and learning tools in the establishment of a state-of-the-art Finance Lab, within which students will study everything from personal finance to the global dynamics of the stock exchange and futures markets. Our new Finance Lab comes in the wake of last year’s opening of our advanced Biotech Lab, another premier facility that is training our students for the growth jobs of the future.”

The finance lab compliments new Bedford High School’s growth in career technical education, as it has committed to fostering new vocational programming and supplementing its existing technical training offerings.

“Financial services has been identified as a high demand career growth area, and our laboratory will foster additional linkages with employers seeking to hire students with the advanced technical training our lab will provide,” said Christopher Cummings, Manager of New Bedford’s Career Vocational Technical Education program. “As this laboratory environment will be unique to a high school setting, New Bedford plans to lead statewide in financial services training,” he said.

In addition, New Bedford Credit Union (NBCU) – a member of NBHS’ Finance Advisory Committee and Finance Lab Building Committee has pledged $5,000 in matching funds in support of the grant. “Students of New Bedford High School will benefit greatly from this innovative finance lab,” commented Berta Varao, Executive Vice President of New Bedford Credit. “NBCU is proud to support this venture.”

New Bedford High School’s Finance program is part of the school’s offerings of Career Vocational Technical Education programming and is affiliated with the National Academy Foundation’s Academy of Finance. In addition to Finance, the school offers career pathway programs in Instructional Technology, Health Sciences, Engineering, Early Childhood Education, and Criminal Justice. For more information about Career and Technical Education at New Bedford High School, please contact Christopher Cummings, Manager of CVTE at 508 997 4511, ext. 24204