In August 2013, Great Basin College was awarded a Challenge Grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities, one of the few colleges of its size to win such an award. The grant provides the foundation of the Humanities Center at GBC Center and its mission.

At the heart of the Virtual Humanities Center are the core skills which the humanities encourage and which GBC students will need to succeed in their careers and their lives: critical and creative thinking, communicating complex ideas through a range of media, technological understanding, and personal and cultural awareness. These are not only college skills, but those actively sought by employers and necessary for democratic society. The HC@gbc enriches and stimulates the development of these skills across all GBC programs.