News Coverage

5-week truck driver training program begins this month at A-B Tech

March 8th 2022 Broadcast on WLOS, March 7, 2022 

Brandon Priester shares experiences of education, equity at MLK Prayer Gathering

February 7th 2022 At the age of 16, Brandon Priester was expelled from school for the second time. While attending high school in Black Mountain, Priester got into trouble with the law and was told repeatedly he wasn't going to find a job or have a future.

A-B Tech, Goodwill, Biltmore taking Career Pipeline applicants for apprenticeship program

January 24th 2022 Broadcast on WLOS,  Jan. 21, 2022 

HCLT AmeriCorp volunteer lends helping hand in community

January 21st 2022 Asheville native and Western Carolina University grad Stephanie Dillingham is spending her time post graduation in Highlands serving the Highlands Cashiers Land Trust maintaining trails and organizing educational efforts through AmeriCorp.

Why is community college enrollment dropping?

January 19th 2022 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Josh Waters, 21, spends a lot of time in the kitchen. He’s pursuing a degree in baking and pastry arts at Asheville-Buncombe Community College in North Carolina. It’s his second degree.

Q&A with Jill Sparks, executive director of A-B Tech Business Incubation and Small Business Center

December 10th 2021 Unlike modern job-hoppers who switch roles every few years, Jill Sparks jokes that she’s a “monogamous worker.” She spent over six years at Appalachian State University, primarily in career planning services, and for the past 16 years, she’s worked at A-B Tech.

A-B Tech, local agencies look for law enforcement applicants

November 4th 2021 Broadcast on WLOS, News 13 (Nov. 3, 2021) Several local law enforcement agencies attended a recruitment event at Asheville–Buncombe Technical Community College on Wednesday.

Falling in Love with Mountains and Beer

November 4th 2021 Leah Rainis, Executive Director of Asheville Brewers Alliance, A.A.S., Brewing, Distillation, and Fermentation (2018)Long before Leah Rainis moved to Asheville in 2016, she had fallen in love with craft beer.

Listen | On grace, the pandemic, and A-B Tech

October 29th 2021 Published in EdNC, Oct. 20, 2021

Perspective | My year of COVID learning and cooking at A-B Tech

October 29th 2021 Published by EdNC - Oct. 18, 2021 Story by culinary graduate Josh Waters March 2020 was a strange time. We were in our classrooms at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College (A-B Tech) throughout the day while hearing about the coronavirus on social media. 

Lessons in leadership from 15 months of one college facing down a pandemic

October 29th 2021 Published in EdNC - Oct. 18, 2021

Perspective | Leading a community college through a pandemic with grace and connection

October 29th 2021 Published in EdNC - Oct. 19, 2021 Written by Dr. John Gossett for the Perspectives column As I look back on my tenure at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, my thoughts go to a line from the Grateful Dead: “What a long strange trip it's been.”