EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT
The New River Valley is home to Virginia Tech, Radford University, and the New River Valley Community College. Each school has diverse fields of study and numerous student-accessible facilities, labs, and enrichment centers. Many local and national companies recruit straight from these higher education institutions and the local high schools, which often partner with the community college to provide vocational training for area students.
New River Community College’s main campus finds its home in Dublin, VA where it supplies the entire region with dedicated and skilled employees. The satellite STEM campus in Christiansburg provides extra convenience for continued education, high school students who want to start their education early, and focused learning location for STEM students.
Radford is home to almost 10,000 students and has received national recognition for many of its undergraduate and graduate academic programs. The University focuses on hands-on learning that equips its students for professional work environments and boasts a nationally recognized Cyber Security lab and a rapidly growing College of Business and Economics.
Located in Blacksburg, Virginia Tech is one of the Commonwealth’s most comprehensive universities and its leading research institution. The campus sits on 2,600 acres and caters to more than 33,000 students. The University offers 250 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, has research facilities across the state, offers study-abroad opportunities, and owns and utilizes an 1,800-acre agriculture research farm.
Located at the VT Corporate Research Center, the VCOM campus is situated just minutes from downtown blacksburg. VCOM operates within a public/private collaboration with Virginia Tech, sharing resources for the purposes of education, research and student activities. VCOM’s mission is to prepare globally-minded, community-focused physicians to meet the needs of rural and medically underserved populations and promote research to improve human health.
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TALENT PIPELINE & ALUMNI NETWORK
The strength of higher education in the NRV generates a talented workforce and supportive ecosystem. Institutions directly in the NRV (Virginia Tech, Radford University, and New River Community College) produced 13,470 graduates from their programs during the 2016-2017 school year.
Companies in the region have also found success recruiting alumni from these universities back to the area, especially from Northern Virginia/DC area, to fill mid and senior level positions. Virginia Tech and Radford University have 324,000 living alumni.
33,170 enrolled
8,427 graduates
9,401 enrolled
2,239 graduates
4,456 enrolled
643 graduates
7,719 enrolled
1,290 graduates
2,745 enrolled
871 graduates
