A note from us
Hello, all. Nation here with another edition of Awake58. If you missed the last edition of Awake58 discussing our latest 100 county journey, you may find it on our website.
EdNC is conducting our annual impact survey… The State Board of Community Colleges meets this week… The 2023 Dallas Herring Lecture is today…
We are thinking about our work and our impact in North Carolina. How are we doing? What changes or improvements would you like to see?
This has a been a big year for all of us at EdNC. We’ve covered a long legislative session, budget negotiations, and the expansion of Opportunity Scholarships. We covered the search for a new system president, all of the State Board of Community College meetings, and innovative approaches to serving adult students.
We survey our audience regarding our work and impact once a year. Please let us know what you think by taking the survey on our website. Your responses will inform our work moving forward.
This survey will take no more than five minutes. Speak freely. Results will only be used anonymously and in aggregate unless you grant EdNC.org permission to use your comments alongside your name. If you leave your name and email in the final question you will earn a chance to receive one of five $100 Amazon gift cards.
We will skip Awake58 next week due to Thanksgiving. Please enjoy your time with your family and friends!
I’ll see you out on the road,
Nation Hahn
Chief of Growth — EdNC.org
EdNC reads
A new initiative is ‘breaking down barriers’ for Latinx students in eastern NC
My colleague Alli covered a new collaborative initiative, Train the East. Learn more about the work on our website:
For the first time in its history, Lenoir Community College has a director of Latino outreach and recruitment. The role is thanks to funding from the Train the East initiative, a new two-year education initiative focused on Latinx students at Lenoir, James Sprunt, Wayne, and Sampson community colleges.
Each college is receiving a $250,000 grant from the Anonymous Trust for implementation on their campuses. The funds are supporting both a recruitment success coach and student scholarships to support the cost of tuition, books, and other fees for Latinx students.
“What we’re finding is that we’ve got to go back to the basics of connecting with the families and working with school systems,” said John Paul Black, senior vice president of student services and workforce development at Lenoir Community College.
The initiative provides a focus, a framework, and a fund for the schools with the goal of recruiting, training, and supporting students from Latinx communities in rural eastern North Carolina to build a skilled and credentialed workforce in their respective counties.
Alli has all of the details in her story.
Around NC
The State Board of Community Colleges will meet this week. You may find the agenda here. As always, we will be present reporting on what unfolds.
The Dallas Herring Lecture is today at 1 p.m. You can still register to watch online on the Belk Center’s website.
The UNC System continues its “North Carolina Transfer Tour” this week. Check out this tweet for details of the visits at several of the state’s community colleges.
Gov. Roy Cooper recently proclaimed Nov. 13-19, 2023 as Apprenticeship Week in North Carolina. The U.S. Department of Labor’s celebration of National Apprenticeship Week will occur concurrently on the dates proclaimed in Cooper’s proclamation, per an ApprenticeshipNC release.
The second issue of the second volume of the North Carolina Community College Journal of Teaching Innovation (NCCCJTI) is now published. To learn more about the journal, the editorial staff, submission requirements, or to access articles individually, visit the NCCCJTI website.
Other higher education reads
Why is it so hard for community college students to transfer credits to 4-year institutions?
October was transfer month — and we published several perspectives analyzing the process and potential reforms. MarketWatch analyzes the national data in a recently published article:
Most students who start at community colleges don’t plan to end their education there. Nearly 80% of them intend to transfer to a four-year institution and obtain a bachelor’s degree. But less than a fifth of students manage to do it within six years.
This week, the Department of Education released, for the first time, national data looking at which colleges are best serving transfer students.
In some cases, the transfer system breaks down.
…
Student Marissa Nicholson retook the classes that didn’t transfer, and she hopes to graduate with a bachelor’s in chemistry in 2027. But this experience is pretty common: The federal government estimates transfer students lose more than 40% of their credits on average when they move between schools.
It’s almost like students are going from one country, the community college, to another, the four-year institution. And the new one says, “Your money’s no good here. We don’t take those credits.”
“Sometimes you have a cultural reluctance to accept community college courses as being identical to what was taught at the university,” said James Kvaal, undersecretary for the Department of Education.
You can read EdNC’s recent perspectives on strengthening the transfer process on our website.
