Its no surprise that The Smoky Mountain News’ annual Women in Business issue highlights women who are in business, but this year, we decided to focus on something a bit more meta: the daughter of a woman in business who is a woman in the business of getting women into business.

A brand new Public Services Training Facility was unveiled Monday at Haywood Community College.

So, you have the talent, imagination and output of an artist. But, do you also have the drive, business savvy and staying power?

“Tell your story, get involved in your community, and share your passion,” said Brad Dodson.

A collaborative program designed to help students overcome the familial, financial and social obstructions of attending college lacks room to grow and is chronically underfunded, which may hamper efforts to serve more of the county’s most promising students.

It’s a sunny day at Haywood Community College, light sparkling from the campus’s landmark mill pond and shining through the leaves still clinging to the archway of willow oaks lining the school’s entrance drive. The campus lawn is covered with leaves fallen from the towering white oaks dominating it, academic buildings nestled naturally into the folds of the landscape. 

In many ways, it looks more like a park than a campus, and that’s by design — the design of Doan Ogden, that is. Ogden, a nationally known landscape architect, designed gardens and landscapes throughout Western North Carolina after moving to teach at Warren Wilson College, and the grounds of HCC are among his accomplishments.

Haywood Community College’s new Creative Arts Building was supposed to be a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly facility.

A lawsuit over the historic sawmill that burned down at Haywood Community College nearly four years ago was settled last week in a ruling by the N.C. Court of Appeals.

It will be a bittersweet transition for Smoky Mountain Development Corporation executive director Allan Steinberg. On one hand, he has to watch the nonprofit he’s led for nine years dissolve, but on the other hand, he’s excited about the possibilities ahead as Haywood Community College takes over the organization’s facility.

It isn’t often students in the creative arts program and the high-tech machinery program get to collaborate on a project, but Haywood Community College’s 50th anniversary has brought them together to create one-of-a-kind commemorative pieces.

SEE ALSO:
• 50 years forward: HCC invites community to ‘Big Day’ of celebration
• HCC graduates find success
• History in the making: HCC grows to meet community needs
• HCC President Parker looks forward 50 years

What better way to celebrate 50 years of education at Haywood Community College than to invite the community for a firsthand look at what the school has to offer?