Students take chance to get ahead at WCC
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on January 9, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Rosewood High School students Kayla Ely, left, and Amber Flood meet with Lorie Walker, cooperative program director at Wayne Community College, about participating in College and Career Promise, the dual enrollment program.
A program allowing students to simultaneously start earning college credits while working toward a high school diploma continues to be a popular option at Wayne Community College, officials say.
College and Career Promise, or CCP, has been around for two decades, albeit under different names.
"It has changed names over and over, depending on the governor," Lorie Waller, cooperative education coordinator at Wayne Community College.
Perhaps its most popular and well-known moniker was Jump Start, which was how it was referenced in the 1980s, she said.
"I think they were still using (Jump Start) when I did this 10 years ago," she said. "Then Learn and Earn, Learn and Earn Online."
CCP is the name adopted under Gov. Bev Perdue's administration, she said.
Despite the economic decline in recent years, the state-funded tuition-free program weathered the storm and never completely disappeared.
Open to qualified high school juniors and seniors from public, private and home-school settings, CCP is the umbrella to several options for them to pursue -- college transfer, career and technical and innovative. The latter applies to Wayne Early/Middle College High School and Wayne School of Engineering, which operate under different guidelines and have a larger number of students participating in the program.
Ms. Waller and Lynn Mooring are advisers to students at the outset and throughout the program.
"Students walk in off the street, parents walk in, some are referred here from high school counselor," Ms. Waller said. "They can get here on their own or through the proper channel, which is the high school counselor."
Those pursuing the college program, from the public and private sectors, must first be approved by the counselor to verify eligibility, which includes having a grade-point average of 3.0.
"You have to be college ready, a buzz word from Raleigh, in English, reading and math," she said.
Chandler Evans, a 2014 graduate of Goldsboro High School, took advantage of the program his junior and senior years. Now 19, he is in his first year at UNC-Chapel Hill but is considered a sophomore because of his accumulated credits.
With plans of becoming an entertainment lawyer, he said the local opportunity better prepared him to go off to college.
"It gave me a lot of time to mature, I believe," he said. "Once I got into the more tougher coursework at Wayne, I could see how different college was from high school."
It also provided a cost savings for his family.
"One credit hour of class at UNC costs me about $300 but just one at Wayne cost about $70, so that's almost four times as high at Carolina," he said. "The only thing I paid for (at WCC) were my books."
The only thing he would have done differently, he says now, is earn even more than the 30 credit hours he amassed at WCC.
"I probably would have taken summer courses between my junior and senior year and then before I left," he said.
Many opt for the college transfer program, but there are other pathways offered, in the career and technical areas.
"A student with the career and technical earns a certificate, they graduate and go into the workforce with that certificate or they can come back to WCC and pick up where they left off and earn a degree," Ms. Waller said.
The average student, if they start in junior year, can earn 12 credit hours by the time they graduate. But there have been cases where students have graduated from high school and also earned an associate's degree.
That happens in schools like Wayne Early/Middle and Wayne School of Engineering, where students have a "fifth-year" option to continue in high school and earn additional college credits while taking high school requirements.
It certainly pays off for families financially, Ms. Waller said.
"It's tuition-free. The only thing students are paying for is technology fees or student fees and the cost of textbooks," she said. "A three-hour English class, which would be $239, high school students pay $23, saving $216.
"Basically, one class is $23. Two or more are capped at $46."
In this case, financial aid is not an option since the state is already picking up the tab for the tuition.
Another benefit is that students become "totally immersed" in the college environment early on.
"They're not distinguished as high school or college," Ms. Waller said. "They can join the clubs, take whatever online classes, day classes, evening classes, classes on base."
About half of those enrolled in the program take on-campus classes, while the other half opts for online versions.
"This fall, I have 293 students taking 58 classes," she said. "Most are college transfer."
The biggest concern or question heard from students, she noted, has to do with whether classes taken will transfer to another school.
"These classes are guaranteed to transfer course for course," she said. "It's not going to transfer as an elective. It's going to transfer course for course to a four-year college or university because of our comprehensive articulation agreement with the UNC system. So that should go anywhere, unless it's a private or out of state (college)."
The spring semester classes began this week, but second eight-week classes starting March 9.
Interested students are encouraged to seek information from their counselors, then get the necessary transcript and copies of required tests and a release form before making an appointment with Ms. Waller.
For more information on the program, visit waynecc.edu/career-and-college-promise or contact Ms. Waller at 919-739-6757 or loriew@waynecc.edu.