Welcome to the daily304 – your window into Wonderful, Almost Heaven, West Virginia.
Today is Saturday, Nov. 18
A big city native is enjoying his relaxing new life in the Greenbrier Valley, thanks to Ascend WV. The WVU Innovation Corporation touts success with its new space. And Marshall makes a name for itself in cyber security…on today’s daily304.
#1 – From BLUE RIDGE COUNTRY – A Detroit native who moved to Washington, D.C. shortly after college, Michael Phillips is no stranger to traffic sounds. But it wasn’t until he moved to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, that he began hearing the friendly “beep beep” greetings honk.
“It’s much different from D.C.,” Phillips says of the tiny burg (population: 2,198). For starters, there are no skyscrapers—just soaring mountain peaks. Southern hospitality runs deep in White Sulphur Springs. But that’s not why Phillips traded his metropolitan existence for a decidedly rural one. Instead, he owes his move to Ascend West Virginia.
A collaborative endeavor between West Virginia University and the West Virginia Department of Tourism, Ascend seeks to boost local tax revenues by offering $12,000 in cash, plus other benefits, to telecommuters who relocate to one of five areas in West Virginia: Morgantown, Greenbrier Valley, Eastern Panhandle, Greater Elkins and the New River Gorge.
From his new home in the Greenbrier Valley, Phillips works remotely as a deferral consultant to the United States Department of Veteran Affairs.
A lover of the outdoors, he says moving to West Virginia was an obvious choice. “It’s four hours from D.C. in case I need to meet a client,” says Phillips. “But I can also walk out my door and immediately see mountains. And in less than 10 minutes, I can be hiking in Greenbrier State Forest or paddling down the Greenbrier River.”
Learn more at www.ascendwv.com.
Read more:
https://blueridgecountry.com/newsstand/magazine/seeking-the-wild-and-wonderful/
#2 – From WV NEWS – The West Virginia University Innovation Corporation is “in it for the long haul,” President Stacey Armstrong says.
Eighteen months after the Mylan-Viatris plant in Morgantown was closed, the WVU Innovation Corporation provides 200 jobs and offers space for burgeoning businesses to expand their operations in the once-shuttered facility.
The former plant was taken over by West Virginia University and WVU Medicine on April 1 after Mylan-Viatris merged with Pfizer’s Upjohn and the plant’s production line was moved to India.
In the 18 months since the two entities have taken ownership of the facility, they have found four full-time tenants and have 12 signed leases.
The Innovation Corporation also has plans to open a new diploma-based nursing program that would provide students with classes needed to become board-certified registered nurses.
Read more:
https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/wvu-innovation-corporation-revitalizes-former-mylan-pharmaceutical-building/article_3288bad0-7cca-11ee-8348-e774b00630a6.html
#3 – From MARSHALL UNIVERSITY – Dr. Josh Brunty loves that moment when his students solve a challenge on their own. It’s that first moment when they don’t need any guidance or prompts. When they take what they’ve learned, and they figure it out themselves.
And he loves it when he sees those students a few years later. They’ve embarked on those cyber careers in which they’re solving problems that he couldn’t even imagine while they were sitting in his classroom. That’s when he knows that teaching cyber security at Marshall University is changing lives and the world.
And here at Marshall, it’s just getting better all the time.
Earlier this fall, Marshall celebrated a $45 million state contribution to a new facility that will house Marshall’s Institute for Cyber Security. Meanwhile, after years of coaching highly competitive Marshall cyber teams, Brunty was named head coach for the US Cyber Team and will lead the team for the next year in international cyber competitions.
Both are outcomes of an ongoing effort among Marshall’s cyber education experts to establish one of the leading cyber programs not only in the region, but the country.
“The new center is going to push our program into a completely different stratosphere,” Brunty said. “When you have a facility like that, it attracts the best students and employers. You’re going to have the facilities to do the things you only dreamed of 10 years ago. That’s the cool thing. These dreams become a reality when you have the space to perform them in.
Read more:
https://www.marshall.edu/moments/2023/09/06/marshall-cyber/
Find these stories and more at wv.gov/daily304.
The daily304 curated news and information is brought to you by the West Virginia Department of Commerce: Sharing the wealth, beauty and opportunity in West Virginia with the world. Follow the daily304 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @daily304. Or find us online at wv.gov and just click the daily304 logo.
That’s all for now. Take care. Be safe. Get outside and enjoy all the opportunity West Virginia has to offer.
