SBA opens site at Spark Center SC.

Spartanburg Community College and the U.S. Small Business Administration South Carolina District office have opened the Spartanburg Alternative Work Site at college's Spark Center SC on the Tyger River Campus in Duncan.

This partnership and office location were started to increase awareness of SBA programs and services in the Upstate, and to position Valerie Torstenson, the new outreach marketing specialist, as a community resource, according to a news release.

"SCC is the number one economic driver for wealth development per capita income growth in the Upstate so it makes sense that we partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration and welcome them to the Upstate, to the Spark Center and Tyger River Campus, which is the site of tremendous economic development growth and success," G. Michael Mikota, president of Spartanburg Community College, said in the news release. "Ultimately our students have the opportunity to move mountains through their educational career but this partnership is a way for us to sustain the entrepreneurial needs of our students and our residents seeking loans in order to grow and invest in themselves. When individuals grow and invest in themselves, it has an impact on all lives and makes our communities stronger. Through our sustained relationship with SBA to support our students and our residents, we will further help and develop individual lives through our teaching and learning in the classroom, but also beyond the classroom experience through economic development as well."

The Spark Center SC was designed to assist entrepreneurs and businesses launch, build, expand and reorganize.

"Ultimately we have been tremendously successful with the Spark Center and Tyger River Campus continuously looking at opportunities for what our future success will be," Mikota said in the release. "But if we do not tackle the opportunity for equitable recovery during this pandemic, then we will not grow as fast as we want to, and we all want S.C. to continue to explode and have successes both in big manufacturing...