U.S. Senator Jim DeMint presented Midlands Technical College with an S.C. on the Move award on August 9, 2007, at MTC's Center of Excellence for Technology located on the college's Northeast Campus.

"Dr.Marshall (Sonny) White Jr. (r),Midlands Technical College president; U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (c); and Ed Koehne, director of manufacturing operations at Midlands Technical College; discuss the impact of MTC's Center of Excellence for Technology on education and job creation in the Midlands." Senator DeMint established the S.C. on the Move award during his first year in the Senate (2005) to honor individuals, businesses and organizations in South Carolina that have made exceptional contributions in the areas of business, public service, academics or non- profit.

The Senator selected Midlands Technical College to receive this award to recognize the college's extraordinary efforts to forge public- private partnerships, innovative approaches to recruiting and retaining regional business expansions, and success with obtaining competitive federal grants.

"We look for institutions, organizations, businesses, and people who have really made a difference," DeMint said. "And as we look at what's going on in the Midlands, and really throughout the state, a lot of arrows point back to Midlands Technical College - as far as being a catalyst, as being a facilitator, and not just an educator, but a coordinator." DeMint said he saw the college's Enterprise Campus as an innovative environment

for business and education to collaborate and co- locate. The MTC Enterprise

Campus provides an innovative space where private- sector work blends with education in a manner found nowhere else in the country. The MTC Enterprise Campus also presents an opportunity for synergy with the University of South Carolina's Innovista research and development vision. Dr. Marshall (Sonny) White Jr., MTC president, said in accepting the award that it is "really deserved by the faculty, the staff, our dedicated commission members, our foundation members, and then our partners - we have so many partners on the federal, the state, and the local basis."

Senator DeMint presented the award to kick off an education grant- writing workshop, which he and his staff hosted at MTC's Northeast Campus. After the award presentation, DeMint toured the MTC Center of Excellence for Technology, the anchor facility of the 150- acre MTC Enterprise Campus.

"The technical college system in South Carolina is the real bridge between education and the workforce," DeMint said. "Increasingly they're becoming great allies of the public school system, working in our high schools to help develop that bridge. Many times the two- year associate degree will ultimately end up in a four-year degree as children learn they can succeed, that they can do the work."