Discover Wayne Community
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on February 20, 2018 9:52 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Dean of Allied Health and Public Services Patty Pfeiffer speaks to a group of high school juniors and seniors at Wayne Community College who are interested in the major during the annual Discover Wayne Event. The event was open to both public and private schools to attend.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Gene Smith, Dean of Academic Student Services at Wayne Community College, talks to a group of students about what the college has to offer in comparison to other colleges and universities in North Carolina.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Junior and seniors from area public and private schools listen to a presentation in Moffatt Auditorium at Wayne Community College Tuesday during the Discover Wayne Event.
College application season is either coming up or already underway for Wayne County high school juniors and seniors, and Wayne Community College wants to make sure students consider staying local.
To that end, the college welcomed nearly 200 students from several Wayne County high schools Tuesday, where they toured the campus and visited the program areas of their choice.
Hannah Stephenson, a recruiter for WCC, said that the event was designed to give high school juniors and seniors a chance to see the college atmosphere first-hand.
"It's to promote the school, and give them some hands-on learning," she said. "They saw an overview of the school and four programs, public safety, allied health and public services, applied technology and business and computers. Then they got to choose which one they wanted to go see."
From there, the students dispersed across the campus to see their interests in person. Holly Gurley, a senior at Wayne Christian School, chose to check out the allied health and public services program. Gurley said she is likely to attend WCC after graduation, and aims to pursue a career in a medical profession. Getting to see things first hand made her realize that her options are wider than she anticipated.
"I wanted to see the nursing program, because the nursing program here is one of the best in the state," she said. "It was really nice, they have a really good program here."
Beyond nursing, however, Gurley said she learned more about the WCC dental program than she expected.
"They took us through the whole thing, and they actually used a camera and showed us the inside of a man's mouth so we could see how it all worked," she said. "It makes me more aware of what I can do, whether it's nursing or dental hygiene or whatever else."
After the students returned to the auditorium, the program finished with several speakers. Gene Smith, vice-president of academic and student services, shared some of the merits of a WCC education, including lower tuition, the ability to live at home to cut down on rent or room and board expenses, and the school's open-door admissions policy.
"That means that, even if you didn't do so well in high school, you get a clean slate here," he said. "I have seen so many people who didn't do great in high school succeed here, because they were focused and took advantage of free resources."