Fort Lewis College’s new computer engineering program, set to start in the fall, got a financial boost from Vantiv this week.

Vantiv, a payment-processing company, donated $25,000 to the degree program.

“We hope this grant will help encourage more students to become interested in financial and payments technology and careers in this field,” said Lori Stafford-Thomas, a spokeswoman for the company in a statement.

Vantiv supported the college last year when it applied for a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to create curriculum for its computer engineering degree program, and this grant was a continuation of those efforts, she said.

“As we were designing the degree, there was a great degree of interest from local tech firms because they are always in need of talent,” FLC spokesman Mitch Davis said.

The donation has not been designated to fund anything specific within the program yet, he said.

Enrollment in the program is not yet available, but he expects it will appeal to students already studying engineering and new students.

Vantiv employees will also be volunteering to support the computer engineering students, an email from the company said

Employees may speak to college students and help with capstone projects or hackathons, collaborative software development events, although plans are not final, Stafford-Thomas said.

mshinn@durangoherald.com