HAMLET – More than half of the 182 high school students who met the requirements for the Richmond Community College Guarantee will be taking advantage of two years of free tuition beginning this fall.
Director of K-12 Partnerships Kary Edmondson provided a report Tuesday to the Richomond Community College Board of Trustees on the growing number of high school students taking dual enrollment classes with their sights ultimately set on qualifying for the Guarantee.
“Since the announcement of the RCC Guarantee, we have seen an increase in dual enrollment for high school students,” Edmondson said. “The number of dually enrolled high school students this summer increased by 195 percent, and fall numbers for dual enrollment students are up 21 percent with high school students continuing to request these classes daily.”
One of the requirements for the Guarantee is for a student to have successfully completed two Career and College Promise dual enrollment courses at RCC while in high school. Another requirement is the unweighted 3.0 grade-point average a student must have upon graduating high school.
“In January, we identified 195 students as potential qualifiers for the Guarantee. These students and their parents were mailed letters explaining what the RCC Guarantee was and the necessary requirements to qualify,” Edmondson said. “In April, we hosted an Open House and Guarantee Celebration to recognize those potential qualifiers and further inform them of the steps required to take advantage of the Guarantee. We feel the Guarantee was a very good incentive to students who were just under a 3.0 GPA to pull their grades up before graduation.”
As of July 26, there are 74 students who have completed all the necessary steps to take advantage of the RCC Guarantee beginning this fall semester.
Dr. Dale McInnis, president of the college, also presented enrollment information at the Board of Trustees meeting.
“We had an all time high for summer enrollment, exceeding our previous all time high set in 2012 by more than 100 students,” McInnis said.
This summers enrollment topped out at a record 908 students.
“Interestingly, if you were on our campus this summer you wouldn’t have gotten this impact because a majority of these classes were online,” McInnis said, adding that many taking these online classes were CCP dual enrollment students.
The Board of Trustees also heard a report on the tremendous growth in the usage of Career Coach, an online tool for exploring and researching careers. The College provides free access to this resource through its website, www.richmondcc.edu.
Career Coach users can;
— Take a career assessment and explore matched jobs.
— Search for specific jobs.
— Research degrees that apply to a career path.
— Determine what jobs are growing and paying high wages.
— View data on wages, employment and training.
— Create a professional resume.
“This is a software package the college purchased to give students — as well as anybody in the community — the tools to explore careers, search for jobs, assess their skills and interests and build resumes,” McInnis said. “This is a powerful tool, and we encourage not just our students to use it but anybody in the community.”
There has also been two vacant spots filled on the RCC’s Board of Trustees. The Board welcomes Jennifer S. Greene of Hamlet and Jerry L. Austin Jr. of Rockingham.
Appointed by the Richmond County Commissioners, Greene is a pharmacist with Mabry’s Drug and Home Care in Hamlet.
Austin, who serves as Richmond County Solid Waste and Recycling Director, was appointed to the Board by the governor.
The Board of Trustees also approved a change in its meeting schedule. It will now meet every other month versus monthly. The Board will have six regularly scheduled meetings in August, October, December, February, April and June. The Board will still meet the first Tuesday of these months, but it will now meet at noon.