VGCC Students Tour College Campuses
As students face the future, they will make choices that may make all the difference in their lives.
Student Support Services invited VGCC college transfer students to attend visitation at four-year universities and colleges in the Raleigh-Durham area. College transfer students Angela Simmons, Natasha Lofton, Cameron Eaton and Artishia Johnson visited Saint Augustine’s College, North Carolina State University, and North Carolina Central University.
Saint Augustine’s College has a history of excellence in higher education. Prominent Episcopal clergy founded the school in 1867 in Raleigh to educate freed slaves.
Over the years, Saint Augustine’s has become one of the country’s most highly respected private, historically black, accredited coed institutions for higher learning. The college consists of a main campus of approximately 117 acres that accommodates 37 buildings and facilities.
VGCC students toured the chapel, St. Agnes Hall, which was a hospital in the mid-thirties, and Taylor Hall, both of which are historic landmarks. Saint Augustine’s is the first historically black college in the nation to have its own on-campus radio and television stations, WAUG and Cable Channel 20. Saint Augustine’s provides a strong liberal arts foundation for its students.
Of Saint Augustine’s more than 10,000 living alumni, a very high number have distinguished roles and professions. Bessie and Sadie Delany, who in 1993 became known throughout the country as centenarians at the ages of 102 and 104, while at the same time completing a best-selling memoir titled, “Having Our Say,” is alumnae in whose honor Delany Hall dormitory is named.
Saint Augustine’s college provides enough flexibility to allow students to make educational and career choices comparable to the vast opportunities available in an ever-changing society.
While touring the campus of North Carolina State University, attendees learned that current enrollment is 27,000, with 50 states and 99 different countries being represented. VGCC students asked questions and discussed the strong academic program the university offers, the great location, low cost and career advantage opportunities.
North Carolina Central University in Durham was the last stop on the tour of college campuses.
Founded in 1910 by Dr. James E. Shaped as the first liberal arts school for African Americans, NCCU today, has 6,000 students and faculty members with 85 majors offered. A newly added residence hall, education building and the Julius Chambers Biomedical/Biotechnical Research Institute are now part of this liberal arts community.
Also on the tour was a visit to the NCCU Art Museum, located on the NCCU campus. The museum recently celebrated 25 years of African American art offered to the surrounding community.
Student Support Services will be hosting another tour to various campuses in the future. Look to upcoming editions of the VanGran for tour information and dates.
