Shepherd University hosted U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, Monday after $2,708,000 of congressional funds were granted to support programs on campus.

Capito visited both the school’s Tabler Farm and Byrd Science and Technology Center during a visit to the Eastern Panhandle. 

One part of the total funding will help create a “small business incubator” for new farming students, specifically to help teach them small-scale agricultural practices in a way that’s hands-on and community oriented.

“Shepherd (University) is located in a unique part of West Virginia that has already historically been an agricultural community,” said Madison Hale, farm coordinator at the school’s Agricultural Innovation Center. “But we are quickly seeing that shift away as a lot of the old ways of farming are kind of no longer being used in practice, and so a lot of land has been sold for development. We’re kind of at a turning point where we could still foster a thriving agricultural community here, but the farmers really need more resources.”

Another set of funding is going towards revitalizing and modernizing the school’s chemistry labs.

“We just want to make them more collaborative, because one of our focuses moving forward as a chemistry program is more and more teamwork and collaboration,” said Jacqueline Cole, the school’s chemistry department chair. “One of the things that the sciences really excel at in lab is teamwork. And so we want to move that into the classrooms as well.”

The funds come from the $1.7 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act passed by the Biden administration in 2022.

Capito, along with Sen. Joe Manchin, requested some of these funds for the university. Both serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“It’s easier for me to be able to direct that spending into valuable projects than it is for Shepherd to have to apply to a grant in D.C. to compete nationwide,” Capito said. 

Funding was also awarded to two other university programs: a special education curriculum for the School of Education and a professional development program for high school teachers.

Capito also visited the Rockwool Manufacturing insulation plant in Ranson earlier in the day, according to a release from her office.