Bringing the Future to You tour kicks off in Montrose

On Thursday, October 17, Sue and Emily Sturm and ANB Bank officials will climb into the cab of a new Mobile Learning Lab that they generously invested more than $450,000 to build. The family and bank officials will join CMU and Western Colorado Community College on a tour that begins in Montrose and will end in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, during the course of two days.

“We believe CMU, WCCC, and local employers can work together to better align higher education with job opportunities,” said Emily Sturm. “Our family and ANB Bank look forward to seeing the Mobile Learning Lab bring valuable skills to communities large and small along the Western Slope.”

The lab was funded with gifts from the Sturm Family and ANB Bank and features mechatronics training and high-tech learning equipment. The Bringing the Future to You tour will stop in Montrose, Grand Junction, Parachute and Glenwood Springs on October 17-18 and will visit additional rural communities in the coming spring.

“The commitment from WCCC is that this facility will deliver programming and training to every community in western Colorado who wants it,” said Vice President of Community College Affairs Brigitte Sündermann. “From the North Fork and Uncompahgre valleys to the Wyoming border and the Continental Divide, this lab has the capability to change how we think about the delivery of education in our service area.”

Sündermann is already scheduling additional trainings and demonstrations with local businesses in the region with numerous organizations interested in signing up.

The new mobile facility came with external graphics that make the vehicle eye-catching from the outside, but the equipment inside is what really matters in terms of community benefit. The lab contains a host of advanced mechatronics equipment. Mechatronics is a manufacturing and technology discipline that integrates software, programmable electronic controls, sensors, robotics, and mechanical systems into automated equipment and advanced manufacturing processes. The equipment inside the truck is state-of-the-art.