School officials meet at VGCC
Administrators and guidance counselors from high schools and middle schools in Vance, Granville, Franklin and Warren counties met with Vance-Granville Community College staff on Nov. 3 at the college’s Civic Center for a forum on how the various educational institutions are working together. In years past, college officials have met with high school personnel on a county-by-county basis, but this was the first time that all four counties in the VGCC service area were able to meet at one time. Also for the first time, representatives of middle schools, private schools, charter schools, and home-schools were invited to attend as well.
Attendees were welcomed by Dr. Angela Ballentine, the college’s Vice President of Instruction, who said that the purpose of the meeting was to share information and to continue to build the longstanding partnerships between VGCC and local schools. After the premiere of a new video highlighting opportunities available at VGCC, Randy Parker, the president of the college, addressed the educational professionals. “We appreciate what you do every day guiding our youth and preparing them for higher education,” Parker said. “I often hear our students say that they came to college because of the encouragement they received from a high school counselor, even if it took them several years after graduating from high school to enroll at VGCC.” Parker asked school officials to remind their graduating students of the opportunity to start in the VGCC College Transfer program and then move on to a four-year university. He said that statistics showed that such VGCC transfer students tended to perform better academically after transferring to a UNC system school than the students who started at those universities as freshmen.
Parker went on to discuss VGCC’s joint high school programs, including Dual Enrollment , the Huskins program , Learn & Earn Online (LEO) and the early college high schools. Recent changes in state laws and guidelines have placed certain restrictions on the growth of some popular programs that allow high school students to earn college credit, and have placed the emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) courses. One of the purposes of the Nov. 3 forum, Parker said, was to explain some of these changes. “As it is yours, our goal continues to be to raise the educational level of our citizens,” Parker said. “We look forward to working with you as partners and helping you to meet your students’ needs.”
For more details, Parker called upon Antonio Jordan, Director of Pre-College Programs for the North Carolina Community College System, to speak to the forum. Other VGCC officials talked about procedures for applying and registering for classes, services for students with disabilities, financial aid and scholarships. The college’s three academic deans, Bobby Van Brunt of Business and Applied Technologies , Angela Gardner-Ragland of Arts and Sciences and Dr. Ray Goldberg of Health Sciences , gave an overview of their curriculum programs. Music for the event was provided by VGCC and Vance County Early College High School students, and snacks were prepared by the VGCC Culinary Technology program.
Above: Antonio Jordan, Director of Pre-College Programs for the North Carolina Community College System (at podium) addresses attendees at Vance-Granville Community College’s forum for high school and middle school officials. Jordan discussed the differences between the various programs in which North Carolina high school students take college courses. (VGCC Photo)
