By Bradley Brewer with Region 8 News

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - ASU-Newport has been selected by the National Science Foundation, as one of the few community colleges in the country, to take part in Project Vision.

The project was created last May in order to find ways to help provide funds to rural schools.

The NSF will assign experts to work with the ASU-Newport faculty, and teach them how to apply for grants more effectively and efficiently.

It’s only been a couple of weeks, but Chancellor Dr. Johnny Moore says that the possibilities are limitless.

“The goal is to get 45 community colleges like ours in rural America, to help our colleges strategically go after dollars specifically set aside for community colleges. To help transform our community.” Moore said.

Moore said that there are over 500 grants that are now available for the college to compete for, which could easily bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in awards every year.

Right now, ASU-Newport is the only college in Arkansas to be a part of the collaboration, and they plan on focusing on grants that will help build up their STEM programs.