CUMBERLAND — It’s a struggle to go to school if you don’t have transportation or food, Carla Emerick said.
Emerick, a Flintstone native and 1995 Allegany College of Maryland graduate, manages the school’s campus store.
“The students come to us for everything,” she said of goods including textbooks, meal vouchers and bus passes.
Emerick also serves on ACM’s pantry committee that provides food and personal care products for students in need.
Many students are challenged in today’s economy, she said.
“They’re … struggling just to meet the basics,” Emerick said of students who try to juggle expenses for childcare, medical and other needs.
She was among several ACM staffers at a roundtable discussion with Congresswoman April McClain Delaney on Monday.
Delaney was at the college as part of a two-day Western Maryland tour to highlight higher education opportunities, rural health care impacts from what she called the Big Budget Bill, federal investments in local infrastructure and community-driven economic development.
Her visit included stops at UPMC Western Maryland and Lonaconing in Allegany County, Garrett Regional Medical Center in Garrett County, and a Flying Boxcars baseball game in Washington County.
At ACM, Delaney talked of her Idaho upbringing as the daughter of a potato farmer.
Education allows people to change the trajectory of their lives, she said.
She spoke of “severe” funding reductions at federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Education.
“Those cuts (will) have an impact on every (community) in America,” Delaney said, and emphasized her goals that include investment in infrastructure including broadband, and a match of training opportunities for local workers and companies that need employees.
“There’s something about Mountain Maryland,” she said of creativity and innovation in the area.
ACM President David Jones said Delaney has been an advocate for community colleges.
That support is crucial, said LaVale resident Larana Martin.
Martin, 32, studies human services at ACM via the school’s Pathways for Success.
The initiative falls under the federal TRIO program designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.
TRIO began in 1968 and has funded higher education institutions across the U.S. for first-generation, low-income or disabled students.
The program provides academic services that include tutoring, career counseling, financial aid and scholarship assistance, and peer mentoring.
Martin spoke of her experience in the program.
“All along the way, everybody has wanted me to succeed,” she said.
Tara DeVore is director of ACM’s Pathways initiative that serves 140 students per year.
Students in the program “work hard,” she said. “They are thriving.”