Montgomery College student Stephen Moungara says he’s thrilled about the recent opening of the college’s East County Education Center in Silver Spring because the commute time for classes from his home in the Briggs Chaney area has been cut in half.
“Finally, Montgomery College is next to my house!” said Moungara, 35, who is majoring in aerospace engineering and business administration and now attending classes at the college’s Takoma Park and Rockville campuses.
Montgomery College’s East County Education Center (ECEC) at 2221 Broadbirch Drive opened April 1. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 10:30 a.m. April 20 at the center.
The entrance to Montgomery College’s East County Education Center has student lounges and study areas and a welcome center for student support, enrollment and admissions. Credit: Elia Griffin 
The library at the center will open on May 28. Credit: Elia Griffin 
A nursing lab at the center. Credit: Elia Griffin 
There are three computer labs at the center. Credit: Elia Griffin 
The student wellness center has a food pantry for students to grab snacks, meals and toiletries for free. Credit: Elia Griffin 
An empty classroom. Credit: Elia Griffin 
Student lounge and common area sits directly outside of classrooms. Credit: Elia Griffin
The East County center is the largest of the community college’s three education centers, according to Hamrawit Tesfa, the interim director of ECEC. Each year, the college serves around 60,000 students, according to the Maryland Association of Community Colleges.
Opening an education center in the East County has been years in the making, according to Tesfa, who said the college established a community engagement center inside the East County Regional Services Center in Silver Spring in 2015. The new center is part of the college’s planned expansion that was first announced in November 2022.
Montgomery College operates campuses in Germantown, Rockville and Takoma Park/Silver Spring. The college also has two workforce development and continuing education centers in Gaithersburg and Wheaton. Tesfa said the community college plans to eventually construct a larger campus in the East County.
“Our vision is to make sure we’re right at the center of the community and not only distance-wise, in every way to make this place friendly for the community, Tesfa said. “We plan on doing aggressive outreach as well as partnership with community members.”
She said the new center provides equitable access to educational and career opportunities in the East County, which includes Black and Latino communities as well as immigrants with African backgrounds.
“What I’ve seen is that there is a lot of need for taking classes but that there was an inability because of lack of resources and also because the college was kind of too far for them,” Tesfa said.
She also noted that during the first week after the center opened, she met a former student there who she said is now thinking about returning to the college because the student’s commute would be five minutes in comparison to 35 minutes to the Rockville campus.
Moungara, who has been taking classes on and off since 2015, said that commuting to the Rockville and Takoma Park campuses usually takes him about 25 to 30 minutes. Once he begins taking classes at the East County center, his commute will be about 10 minutes.
The 55,000-square-foot, single-story center consists of 11 classrooms, 10 labs including nursing and computer labs, study rooms, lounges, an event space, a library, a learning center, and Raptor Central, which is a student support, admissions and enrollment center. The center also features a Student Health and Wellness (SHaW) Center, which will provide students with a food pantry and counseling services, and an office for WorkSource Montgomery, the county’s workforce and career development service.
No new construction was required for the center, which is located in a space that the college outfitted in an existing building. The center is near the Westech Corner shopping mall, Adventist Health Care White Oak Medical Center, a state Motor Vehicles Administration office and the proposed site of the White Oak Town Center development.
This spring semester, the center will offer noncredit courses including citizenship preparation classes, technology foundations and pathways classes for those interested in an information technology career, and electrician training programs offered in Spanish, according to the Montgomery College website.
According to Tesfa, more credit and noncredit courses and programs will be available to students in the upcoming summer and fall semesters.