For several years, Carousel has been working alongside CCRI administrators and instructors to help align student skillsets with those of businesses requiring skilled labor. Over the course of its close cooperation, Carousel has also hired several CCRI students to work in various capacities within its Network Operations Center (NOC), accounting and other departments.

During a brief acceptance speech, Gardner highlighted how the partnership between CCRI and Carousel has resulted in an overwhelmingly positive impact, stimulating increased cooperation among CCRI, Carousel, government officials and CIO's of various higher education institutions. Following a visit to Carousel headquarters in 2012, Connecticut Senator Jack Read invited Gardner to visit Washington, D.C. to work on a panel with Senators and their guests for a discussion on how to stimulate job growth and prepare future employees for the challenges of the modern business environment.

In December of last year, Carousel was also honored at CCRI's Changing Lives Celebration, which honors champions of community, education and business. In attendance were several of Carousel's employees who either graduated from CCRI or were currently attending the college for post-graduate work, along with senior executive staff from Carousel.

"It is very gratifying to work in close partnership with CCRI on so many levels," commented Jeff Gardner. "I am not only grateful for the positive impact we are able to impart on the broader government and educational communities we are involved with,

but also for our many employees who were educated at CCRI. They bring important skillsets in many areas, each of which are highly valued by our organization. This speaks to the very important role that community colleges play for businesses around the country."

For more information on CCRI, visit CCRI's newsletter on this topic at: http://www.ccri.edu/marketing/news_events/2013/december/clc.html.

About Carousel:

Carousel Industries consults, integrates, and manages technology solutions that solve business problems and contribute to your organizations' growth. This includes unified communications, managed services, virtualization, Voice over IP (VoIP), video conferencing and collaboration and data infrastructure solutions.

Today we have over 6,000 customers, including 35 of the Fortune 100. Carousel has been recognized by both VAR and CRN Magazines as one of the top technology integrators in the US and we've been listed in the Inc. 500/5000 seven times. Carousel is headquartered in Exeter, RI, with over 1,000 employees working from offices in 30 locations across the US, including over 250 service technicians deployed across the country. For more information visit: http://www.carouselindustries.com.