Success In A Small Town: Students ‘Race’ To Norlina For GED
Visit the Vance-Granville Community College GED site in the former town hall in Norlina on a Tuesday or Thursday evening, and you’ll find about 20 enthusiastic men and women working toward their high school diplomas.
On a recent trip to the site to hang a “Race For Literacy” banner on the wall, Sue Grissom, director of Basic Skills Community-Based Programs for VGCC, met the 33rd successful GED student since Rupert Jenkins began teaching the GED there less than four years ago. Peggy Bolton passed her last of five tests to acquire her high school diploma on April 13. She began her quest in September 2004.
“I had been out of school 40 years, and I thought it was time to get my diploma,” Bolton said. She has raised a family and now has grandchildren, and she said, “I wanted to set an example and make them proud of me.”
Rupert Jenkins, a former Warren County teacher, coach and principal, said, “Teaching these students is a real joy for me. Most of them have wandered around for years with no educational skills and have not been able to achieve their goals. A high school diploma opens doors for them that have not been open before.”
Many of these students are 45 to 50 years old, have worked for years in factories, but have become jobless because of plant closures, Jenkins said. “They find they cannot get a job without a high school diploma,” he said.
Most of the students working toward their GEDs are older men and women, but Jenkins said recently he has been getting more in the 18-25 year-old range. One of these younger applicants, Nelson Mustian of Norlina, recently earned his GED with a total score of 3200, the highest achieved at the Norlina site. He now plans to enroll in a degree program at Vance-Granville.
Jenkins said he recently talked to two of his former students who earned GEDs, and they are currently working on degrees at VGCC. “Vance-Granville is offering a heck of an opportunity to our citizens to get their diplomas here and go on to further their educations and be successful in life,” he said.
One woman in the class, Lorraine Underwood, drives from Hillsborough twice a week to attend the Norlina class because she likes the way Jenkins teaches. A granddaughter of Underwood earned her GED at Norlina, and another is working on hers.
“I teach the old-fashioned way, using a blackboard and not computers,” Jenkins said. “I use the one-on-one approach, getting to know the students and getting to know their families.
“My biggest role is motivating these people,” he said. “Sometimes it is a tremendous challenge.”
Sue Grissom is highly complimentary of Jenkins. “He has personally taken many of the students to the main campus in Vance County where all GED applicants take their tests,” she said.
The Norlina site is a cooperative effort between the college and the town of Norlina. The town provides the classroom space and utilities in the former town hall on Hyco Street next to the library, which Jenkins also runs.
Vance-Granville Community College offers the GED classes at all four of its campuses, including the Warren County Campus in Warrenton, and at numerous community-based sites. One of these sites is at Glen Raven Inc. in Norlina. Any adult interested in getting their high school diploma may visit the Norlina site or call Sue Grissom at (252) 738-3315.
The North Carolina Community College System has begun a ” Race For Literacy” to help everyone in the state earn their high school diploma. Two recent GED graduates at Vance-Granville Community College’s Norlina site, Ellen Watson, left, of Warrenton, and Melvin Mustian, right, of Norlina, help instructor Rupert Jenkins hang a “Race For Literacy” banner in the classroom on Hyco Street. Race For Literacy is a statewide community college effort to help everyone in North Carolina earn a high school diploma.
