The Gate Scholarship program is a Rural Demonstration of the U.S. Department of Labor.  Unfortunately, it does not serve the Urban counties of North Carolina. If you live in an urban county in North Carolina,  you must meet two additional criteria to qualify for the GATE program:  1. You must have been laid off from a job in a rural county, and; 2. You must plan to start your business in a rural county. If you answered yes to both criteria, you are eligible to apply for GATE through the Virtual site.  If you don't meet both criteria, you can still access the resourses of the Small Business Center Network and your local JobLink Career Center.