|Photo by Derek Redd| Donors and dignitaries cut the ribbon on the new Project BEST Executive Conference Center at West Virginia Northern Community College. Pictured from left are Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder, Project BEST Executive Director Nathan Butts, Joseph Eddy, Mary Marockie, WVNCC Board President Shelly Carenbauer and WVNCC President Daniel Mosser.

West Virginia Northern Community College cut the ribbon to a new facet of its main campus on Wednesday, one the college hopes organizations throughout the community will use.

WVNCC unveiled the new Project BEST Executive Conference Center on Wednesday morning on the third floor of the Wheeling campus’ B&O Building. The room is designed to host employee trainings, meetings and community events for the college and others.

“In addition to our college’s board (of directors), the Northern Foundation Board will meet here,” WVNCC President Daniel Mosser said. “Student government will meet here. Project BEST may have meetings here. EQT, our not-for-profit partners in the community, local city and county government may have meetings here.”

Mosser also mentioned groups like Leadership Wheeling holding meetings and events in the space. The center includes a conference table that can split into eight smaller tables, advanced audiovisual technology, high speed connectivity, and a kitchen to allow groups to serve food during the meetings.

Mosser said the space will allow West Virginia Northern Community College to integrate itself even further into the Ohio Valley community.

“I always say that when I talk about the college, the most important word in our name is ‘community,'” he said. “We focus like a laser beam on the community that we serve. Having a meeting space like this enriches our community. It’s nice to have an upscale meeting space where people can gather.”

The center was made possible by the help of a handful of donors. Project BEST – a nonprofit construction advocacy organization jointly representing the construction unions that make up the Upper Ohio Valley Building Trades Council, and the contractors that utilize the union workforce – donated $50,000 to its construction. Project BEST Executive Director Nathan Butts said it was important to deepen the organization’s relationship with the college.

“Northern has always been a good community partner of ours,” he said. “We wanted to give back and we thought this would be a good way to do so.”

Four other $10,000 donations rounded out the collection – from Joseph and Debra Eddy; the EQT Foundation; the WVNCC Foundation; and Drs. Henry and Mary Marockie.

Mosser said this conference center is also proof of WVNCC’s commitment to evolving as the community and the education landscape evolves.

“This has a nice, corporate feel to it,” he said. “In the past, we’ve done a lot of work meeting the new employee needs and the entry-level employee needs in the community. This is going to allow us to meet the needs of mid-level management, supervisor and even executive-level leadership. It’s getting into that C-suite and doing training to help that group be better leaders.”