EPHRAIM, Utah — A $2.4 million grant will help fund the new Innovative Agricultural Center project announced by Snow College during its Founders Day celebration Wednesday.
According to Technical Education and Workforce Development Vice President Jay Olsen, they would not only be honoring their past but also building a way forward for students to continue working and living in rural areas.
“This is a fun step forward for the A.G. department,” he said. “Targeted for rural coal-impacted communities to help retrain those who may be displaced by the coal world. So it was funded to help a lot of those coal miners who would be small farmers to give them additional skills to still be in rural Utah.”
Founders Day is meant to celebrate the college’s original start 137 years ago in central Utah.
In the past three decades of working with Snow College, Olsen said the groundbreaking for this new project had been the result of years of planning.
With the help of multiple partnerships and the federal plant, that project will now begin.
The $2.4 million grant was issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. The first phase of the project is set to open by Summer 2026.
“It’ll be a really nice facility for lots of activities the college has,” he added.
Olsen and Snow College President Stacee Mciff were both at the Founder’s Day celebrations honoring long-term employees at the school on Wednesday at the school’s first building, housing students 137 years ago at the Ephraim Co-op on Main.
“We’ll have a facility to really build out some of those vet preparation courses, equine therapy, other types of coursework that really helps somebody get a job and one of our main goals is to help people stay in rural Utah,” Mciff said.
When asked if this investment was in response to many of the restructuring changes higher education institutions are currently making in light of HouseBill 265 Utah’s “Higher Education Strategic Reinvestment” law, aimed at aligning college funding with workforce needs, Mciff said it does allow them to provide more practical training for students.
“I’d say yes, Snow College has always been a place of practical education, so general education to provide for bachelor’s degrees or providing certificates to jump right into the workforce.”
“I think it’s an amazing tool. Especially for those of us in the rodeo team,” Snow College AG student Trey Greenhalgh said.
Lydia Jones added, “This definitely helps and I think will help kids a lot more and it’ll be good.”
Olsen said, “We house about 70 horses that students bring on campus.”
New horse stalls are part of the facility with several other amenities that students will start to see in the works soon. They’re being built right next to their current outdoor corral and farming area, which is a few blocks north of their campus in Ephraim.
“It provides an opportunity for students to really bring their love for agriculture, and in this case, the equine industry, and bring their horse with them.”
President Mciff added, “It’s really true to our roots, the rural heritage, and also to Utah’s roots, how we can continue to provide opportunities and education to the next generation of agricultural experts in Utah.”
