The Community College of Baltimore County announced Tuesday it has received a $500,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities.

The college will use the money to create a Center for Global Education on its Catonsville campus that will give students, faculty and staff of the humanities a more global perspective, said Kenneth Westary, the school's vice president for institutional advancement.

"It's more of something that we're going to overlay and infuse in our courses to give students an edge," Westary said of the center. "The college president (Sandra Kurtinitis), the faculty members and all of the research we did pointed to this gap in knowledge of college students, not just at CCBC, but nationally."

The school was one of five community colleges in the country to receive this grant and will receive the money over the next four years, Westary said.

The NEH challenge grant is to be used specifically for humanities-based initiatives designed to increase global awareness in education.

In addition to enhancing programs for the students, the grant will enable CCBC professors to travel overseas and attend workshops, according to a release from the school.

A portion of the grant money will be used to renovate the second floor of the Hilton Mansion on CCBC's South Rolling Road campus in Catonsville, according to the release.

In addition to the center for global education, the mansion will serve as a living history center that will display artifacts and photographs of the historic building, the release states.

Terms of the grant stipulate that the college must raise $1 million in nonfederal donations over the next six years, school spokeswoman Hope Davis said.

The school has already developed a fundraising plan and hopes to raise the funds in less than four years, Westary said.

He said the first step is forming a grant committee made up of representatives from local companies and individuals involved in global business.