Air Base Donates Computers to College

Ventura College biology students will reap the benefits this fall of nearly a dozen computers donated by Vandenburg Air Force Base.

The donation was made through an exchange program that allows colleges to seek used government equipment, according to Bill Thieman, a special projects director for the Central Coast Biotechnology Center.

The center, based at Ventura College, works with biotechnology companies and community colleges to develop training programs and create job listings.

The center secured a $178,000 state grant last year to improve services which community colleges provide to biotechnology companies, Thieman said. Since the money requires matching funds, Thieman and his colleagues have turned to the private sector and governmental agencies for donations of supplies and equipment.

The donations allow the center to access the grant money, which has been used, among other things, to survey more than 100 local companies. Results from the survey will be analyzed to improve the colleges’ training programs.

The arrangement has led Thieman to establish relationships with companies and organizations, including Vandenburg Air Force Base. The computers donated by the base will be used in instructor Marta de Jesus’ biology classes at Ventura College.

According to Thieman, who also chairs Ventura College’s biology department, the Santa Paula-based Twyford Plant Lab, one of the world’s largest plant tissue companies, earlier donated equipment valued at about $10,000 to the center.

About 70 students participate in Ventura College’s five-course biotechnology program. Thieman said the program has won the National Assn. of Biology Teachers Award, the Student Success Award, and this year it garnered the Chancellor’s Economic Development Award for its partnership with Amgen Inc., the biotechnology giant in Thousand Oaks.