A new simulator at WNC Fallon will help prospective drivers earn their CDL. Lauren Slemenda, left, assists a student.
Western Nevada College’s Fallon campus recently unveiled its new simulator for assisting individuals to earn their state commercial driver’s license and also a new biology lab.
Jessica Rowe, the Fallon campus director, said the simulator is using technology to increase the number of students to be trained.
Although the class is small, she said the waiting line is long.
J. Kyle Dalpe, interim president of all the WNC campuses, said the college secured additional funding but investing higher education money for the simulators, one located in Fallon and the other in Carson City. Additionally, Dalpe said the Governor’s Office of Economic Development provided WNC with a $400,000 grant.
“We became a $1.4 million program in four months,” Dalpe said.
Dalpe said there’s a big need for truck drivers in Northern Nevada.
Steve Ranson/LVN
The Churchill County School District donated a school bus for prospective drivers to refine their skills.
WNC Fallon has had a commercial driving program for students interested in obtaining their CDL. Dalpe said the other state universities and colleges don’t have a program like WNC’s.
“The program started in Fallon and we’re growing it out,” Dalpe said.
Hert Trucking donated a semi for this class in 2019.
Steve Ranson/LVN
J. Kyle Dalpe, left, interim president of WNC, cuts the ribbon marking the use of a new simulator for the CDL program. Jessica Rowe, the Fallon campus director, left, and Nikki Gladys, right, executive director of the WNF Foundation, also took part in the ceremony.
WNC lab
For information on the driving program, call WNC at 775-423-7565.
“Many students coming to us have their employers paying for the instruction and license,” Rowe said.
A new science lab is completed, but it will open to the public at a future time with a representative from the William N. Pennington Foundation.
Rowe said the college is scheduling the science classes for the fall.
Steve Ranson/LVN
A new science lab will officially be open later this summer.
