WCC to offer new degree program
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on August 10, 2016 1:46 PM
Wayne Community College will roll out a new degree option this fall -- associate in engineering.
The pathway does not replace any of the engineering programs at the college, officials said, but focuses more on getting students better prepared to go on to a four-year college or university.
Currently, students in such WCC programs as mechanical and manufacturing engineering work toward becoming technicians. The associate in engineering degree is designed for students attempting to enter more diversified fields.
"One of the biggest barriers that our students face is that when they transfer, they're taking those higher level courses that they may not have been ready for at that level. The classes are larger. They don't have the one-on-one connection like they would with the faculty members here," said Brandon Jenkins, division chair of arts and science. "It will knock out at least one of those first three difficult calculus courses.
"With this degree plan, these students will not leave here work-ready. Their skill set will not be such that they are work-ready. They are transfer-ready. They'll go on and get a four-year degree and they'll be the engineers supervising the technicians that we're producing in the other programs."
The new degree is the result of an ongoing conversations between the community college and universities, said Dr. Gene Smith, interim president at WCC.
"Several years ago there was a Building Pathways to Engineering Careers grant that the community college system worked on," he said. "Basically what we found was that there were more engineering jobs in the state of North Carolina than there were graduates.
"We've been trying to develop a partnership with the university system such that we can more effectively transfer students to the engineering programs."
From that came the associate in engineering degree, being introduced at several community colleges across the state.
"It is a two-year program if students come in with the appropriate math prerequisites already completed, and science, and they're ready to move forward," Jenkins said. "It could take longer -- math and physics and engineering courses are all prerequisite and co-requisite heavy. In some cases you can't start one until you've completed the other and then you can't take one if you're not simultaneously taking the other one."
The goal of the program is to provide a better foundation for students. But it is not for the faint of heart, Jenkins said.
"It is a difficult program and students are going to want to be dedicated to be in it," he said, adding, "With the exception of the math and the science component, it is a typical college transfer curriculum.
"They have to have six hours of English, which is standard, six hours of humanities and fine arts, six hours of social behavior science, and those are largely standard to what our typical college transfer students have to experience."
It also requires 12 hours of math -- specifically Calculus 1, 2 and 3 -- as well as chemistry and physics.
There are basically three designated engineering courses, introduction to engineering, engineering statics and engineering dynamics.
"The community colleges have not offered statics and dynamics in the past. They have had to get those at the university," Smith pointed out.
Through a comprehensive articulation agreement signed last year between the University of North Carolina and the N.C. Community College System, courses transfer directly to the university.
But what about students who may uncertain if this program is for them?
"That's the beauty of coming to WCC and the value of a community college is that students get a chance to decide what their academic goals and career goals can be without spending a whole lot of time or money," Smith said. "In our college transfer program, we've always had associate in arts and associate in science. The associate in science is where these students who will be going to associate in engineering now were held before. They just took electives that were specific for the university they wanted to transfer to."
The college also has counselors on staff fielding such questions and guiding students into the appropriate course of study, as well as a college transfer "success class."
"A large part of this college transfer success class is really getting an understanding of what they're doing at WCC to prepare them for success at a university, knowing what resources we have here, doing a career inventory so that gets back to knowing, am I selecting what best fits my skill set or my traits and also involves doing research at the university. I think we ask them to do research on two universities that they think they may want to transfer (to) -- look at the courses required, develop a plan for where they are now, how to get to the university, how to apply for financial aid, all the way down to how much it's going to cost to park," Smith said. "It's a really good way for someone to make sure this is what they want to do."
Registration for the fall session will be Aug. 16 and 17. Applications for classes and financial aid are also online through the website, www.waynecc.edu, or by calling 919-739-6755.