VGCC Offering GED Classes In Downtown Henderson
Vance-Granville Community College is partnering with the Eagle’s Community Empowerment Center in downtown Henderson to provide pre-GED and GED classes.
The Empowerment Center is located at the corner of N. Garnett and Montgomery streets. Leo Kelly Jr., VGCC’s dean of Adult Basic Skills, noted that instruction for the General Education Development diploma has come full circle with the new off-campus site. GED classes were offered in the basement of the former Vance Hotel, just across the railroad tracks from the Empowerment Center, soon after Vance County Technical Institute, the forerunner of VGCC, was established in 1969.
“This site is in easy walking distance of a great number of Henderson citizens who need their high school diploma and who do not have transportation to travel to the college’s main campus,” Kelly said.
Dr. Joseph Woods, director of the Empowerment Center, is also pastor of Eagle Faith Ministries in Louisburg. He said that 80 percent of his congregation is from Vance County, and he became aware of numerous educational needs of members of his congregation. Having operated similar centers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, he established the Empowerment Center in the former Satterwhite Furniture store to address community needs.
The Empowerment Center partners with Vance County Schools to offer several other programs for young people. These include the Success Club after-school program, a daily summer camp, summer enrichment tutorial, mentoring for boys and girls, and the Eagle Academy. The latter is a suspensions alternative and intervention program, which permits suspended students to continue their academic work and receive life skills counseling and training.
Vance-Granville Adult Education classes will be held at the Empowerment Center on Mondays and Wednesdays, in the day from 9 a.m. to noon and evenings from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Placement testing will also be done at the center to ease transportation problems for potential students.
Persons interested in taking GED classes at the Eagles Empowerment Center may visit the center or call the VGCC Basic Skills Office at 492-2061.
IN THE RACE – Leo Kelly Jr., left, dean of Adult Basic Skills at Vance-Granville Community College, and Dr. Joseph Woods, director of the Eagle’s Community Empowerment Center, prepare to hang a banner identifying the center as an off-campus site for Vance-Granville’s GED training. GED instruction will be in full swing in July at the center, preparing adults for their high school diploma. (VGCC Photo)
