About 120 visit open house at AhS cyber area

About 120 people attended the open house at the A. Anderson Huber Cyber Campus Nov. 8, celebrating the expansion of the cyber campus as well as the advent of the Blue Ridge Telecenter (BRT). Speakers and attendees included dignitaries from local, state and federal levels.

It was standing room only in the facilities new "cybertorium," and the old video conference room was filled with an audience watching a simulcast. The open house program was also telecast live on cable channel 50.

Although located at Alleghany High School, the cyber campus has a new separate entrance on the building's north side.

Speakers included Erskine Bowles, former White House chief of staff who helped create the RIAA in North Carolina; State Sen. Virginia Foxx; Superintendent Duane Davis; AHS Principal Jeff Peal; AHS teachers Abreena Tompkins and Rod Bost; Travis Sturgill, manager of the cyber campus; Charles Stanback, representing e-N.C. TechForce and the N.C. Rural Internet Access Authority (RIAA); Dawn Villarruel, new manager of the Community Technology Learning Center at the cyber campus; Dr. Gordon Burns, president of Wilkes Community College; and Patrick Woodie, an

Alleghany County commissioner and BRT organizer. Peal said of the cyber campus, "This facility allows us to reach out into the future."

Tompkins said she was the first to teach a remedial class from the cyber campus. "That year we had the greatest growth in remedial test scores that we have ever seen."

"We are less isolated from the world," said Bost. He said his students recently interacted with Dr. Oliver Smythie, a Nobel laureate from Scotland, via video conference.

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