Vance-Granville Community College recently received a $17,234 grant from the North Carolina Community College System to fund the Male Mentoring Success Initiative at the college for the 2016-2017 academic year.
All first-year male students at the college will now be involved in the expanded program, according to Anthony Pope, a VGCC academic & career coach who coordinates the initiative.
Representatives of VGCC and other colleges that received the grants attended a system-wide kick-off event on Aug. 30 at Wake Technical Community College. Then, in early September, VGCC held a series of study skills workshops at all four college campuses, entitled “How to Maximize Your Study Time,” as the Male Mentoring Success Initiative’s first events of the new academic year. The VGCC Academic Skills Center collaborated with the MMSI on those workshops. Pope added that collaboration with departments throughout the college is key to the success of the initiative.
Various VGCC faculty and staff members serve as “coaches” in the program. New for this year, Pope is recruiting student “mentees” who have already completed one year at VGCC to serve as “peer mentors” to students at one of the college’s four partnering Early College high schools.
For several years, under different names, the MMSI has worked to help male students stay in school and on track to graduate or transfer to a four-year university. Pope said that events planned for this year include tours of North Carolina universities, guest speakers and educational workshops. He also hopes to take a group of students to an NBA game and send a delegation from VGCC to the National Mentoring Summit, Feb. 1-3, 2017, in Washington, D.C.
For more information on the mentoring initiative, contact Anthony Pope at popea@vgcc.edu or (252) 738-3395.
00WIZS Staffhttps://wizs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/wizswebsitelogoimage.pngWIZS Staff2016-09-28 12:42:012017-01-20 02:37:29Good News: VGCC awarded grant for revamped Male Mentoring initiative
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Vance County Schools has issued the following press release:
Tracy Thorpe has been selected to represent Vance County Schools as the Exceptional Children’s “Educator of Excellence” for 2016-2017.
Thorpe teaches students with autism at Northern Vance High School.
She has a total of seven years of experience in education. Thorpe has a passion for teaching and is dedicated and committed to the academic success of her students.
She will be recognized for her outstanding contributions made to improving students’ outcomes during the 66th N.C. Conference on Exceptional Children at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, November 9-10.
00WIZS Staffhttps://wizs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/wizswebsitelogoimage.pngWIZS Staff2016-09-26 10:16:302016-09-26 10:16:30Educator of Excellence Tracy Thorpe
Public Information Officer Terri Hedrick has announced in a press release that Vance County Schools will host two information sessions open to anyone in our community during the evenings of Thursday, September 29, and Monday, October 3.
The sessions, entitled “The State of Our Schools,” are scheduled from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 29, in the multipurpose room at Clarke Elementary School on Garrett Road south of Henderson, and from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Monday, October 3, in the multipurpose room at New Hope Elementary School on N.C. 39 north of Henderson.
Representatives from each of our 17 schools will be on hand at each of the sessions to share information about their services, programs and achievements for their students. Dr. Anthony Jackson, superintendent of Vance County Schools, also will be sharing information about the achievements of our students and schools during the 2015-2016 school year and our plans for this year and beyond.
Students and parents from our schools, as well as local business and church leaders, and all community residents are urged to attend. We hope citizens from throughout Vance County will attend one of these sessions to receive valuable information about our public school system.
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Vance County Schools will host school bus driver training sessions Monday, October 10, through Wednesday, October 12, at L.B. Yancey Elementary School.
Interested persons must attend the training on all three days to receive certification. The training will be for individuals to drive school buses for the school system.
The training sessions will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at approximately 3 p.m. each day.
Those interested in participating in the training sessions must register five days prior to the sessions with the school system’s Transportation Department, located at 226 Welcome Avenue off Raleigh Road south of Henderson. For additional information, call the Transportation Department at 438-5012.
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Vance County Schools hosted its “Leadership Celebration” in McGregor Hall last night and announced the selection of Linwood Swann of Eaton-Johnson Middle School as the school system’s 2016-2017 Teacher of the Year, Crystal Richardson of Clarke Elementary School as the 2016-2017 Principal of the Year and Joy Suther of Dabney Elementary School as the 2016-2017 Assistant Principal of the Year.
Approximately 120 school officials, educators, family members and other invited guests attended the event, which was held in the McGregor Gallery between the Perry Memorial Library and McGregor Hall performing arts center on Breckenridge Street in Henderson.
Nominees for each of the three district awards were honored individually and presented with gifts by Gloria J. White, chairwoman of the Vance County Board of Education, and Superintendent Anthony D. Jackson. Assisting them in the presentations were Robin Wilson of New Hope Elementary and 2015-2016 Teacher of the Year; Heddie Somerville of Pinkston Street Elementary and 2015-2016 Principal of the Year; and David Cooper of Aycock Elementary and 2015-2016 Assistant Principal of the Year.
Swann was selected from an outstanding field of 16 top teachers in the district who each serve as their school’s Teacher of the Year. Each received a commemorative gift from the school system for their recognition and Swann was presented with a 2017 Toyota Camry, which is generously provided by Dave Genetti and his dealership, Toyota of Henderson. Swann will drive the vehicle for the next year as the district’s Teacher of the Year.
Swann is an English/language arts teacher at Eaton-Johnson Middle School, where he has worked as a faculty member since August of 2010. He began his career in teaching in 2007 with Brunswick County Schools. He has been a leader among the faculty members at Eaton-Johnson since he began work at the school. Swann is very involved in extra-curricular activities for students, as well. He notes that his teaching philosophy is two-fold.
“As well as advancing children’s learning toward the achievement of academic excellence, I believe in promoting the development of their character,” Swann writes. “I work to achieve this by applying creative and dynamic teaching techniques that take into consideration curricular objectives, learners’ needs, diverse learning styles and teacher modeling. I aim to develop a rich resource of expertise, experience and materials that, when effectively put to use, motivate and engage my students.
“I feel it necessary to create a collaborative relationship between the home and the school, so we can work more effectively toward a common goal,” he added. “Personally, I want to approach educational challenges with optimism to ensure continual improvement and growth as a lifelong learner, continually acquiring and developing new knowledge and skills to benefit my students.”
Swann was joined as a nominee for the district Teacher of the Year honor by: Edward Ortega of Aycock Elementary; Lavonda Williams of Carver Elementary; Shannon Bullock of Clarke Elementary; Jacqueline Creech of Dabney Elementary; Robin Young of New Hope Elementary; Cheryl Jones of Pinkston Street Elementary; Susan Nutt of E.M. Rollins Elementary; Yvonne Woolfolk of L.B. Yancey Elementary; Christina Welch of E.O. Young Jr. Elementary; Ann Hanson of Zeb Vance Elementary; Adith Williams-White of Henderson Middle; Lynn Conlee of STEM Early High; Joannie Aldridge of Northern Vance High; Amy Simpson of Southern Vance High; and Brian Parrish of Vance County Early College High.
Richardson was among three nominees for the district’s Principal of the Year. Additional nominees honored were Kristen Boyd of Aycock Elementary School and Stephanie Ayscue of Southern Vance High School.
Richardson has been the principal of Clarke Elementary since 2012. She has been in education for 28 years and worked all of that time in Vance County Schools. Prior to becoming principal at Clarke, she was the principal at New Hope Elementary School for one year. She also served as an assistant principal at Clarke Elementary School, Clark Street Elementary School and Henderson Middle School. Richardson was an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Henderson Middle for 14 years before moving into administration.
Under Richardson’s leadership, Clarke Elementary has made significant academic gains over the last few years. She notes in her philosophy of instructional leadership, “As principal, it’s crucial to provide effective resources for my staff as well as their request in some instances to need additional resources to achieve effective teaching for a conducive learning environment. During our instructional meetings or workshops, it has been important to stress communication as the key element and/or belief that all students are capable of learning regardless of their weaknesses or disabilities. Also, with equipping students and teachers with the sufficient resources, it creates empowerment, motivation and inspiration for both parties. However, from a leadership perspective the ultimate goal is trust in a manner of complete investment in the learning process along with an effective and dedicated staff.”
In addition to Suther, Dr. Jacqueline Batchelor Crosson, now assistant principal at Pinkston Street and L.B. Yancey elementary schools, also was nominated for the district’s Assistant Principal of the Year award. She was nominated for her work last year while serving as assistant principal at New Hope Elementary, in addition to Pinkston Street.
Suther has approximately 20 years of experience in education, with almost all of her time spent with Vance County Schools. She has served as the assistant principal at Dabney Elementary for the last two school years. Prior to joining the Dabney administrative staff, she was an assistant principal at Pinkston Street and E.O. Young Jr. elementary schools. Suther has spent most of her career in education as an elementary school teacher. She has taught at both E.M. Rollins and Zeb Vance elementary schools in Vance County.
At Dabney, Suther stresses that her role is to support Dr. Michael Putney, the school’s principal, all faculty and staff members and the students as they work together to achieve academic excellence. Suther says she takes particular pride in working directly with teachers, especially in kindergarten through second grade, to use innovative strategies and technology to enhance classroom instruction. She says she is always looking for new approaches to assist teachers in all grade levels to effectively reach every child with daily instruction, to assess student achievement and use available data to determine how to help students be successful.
–Vance County Schools Press Release–
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Vance-Granville Community College and three partnering community colleges formally kicked off a new initiative on Aug. 30, made possible by a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Labor that totals almost $4 million.
An event to launch the North Carolina TechHire Program was held at James Sprunt Community College in Kenansville. JSCC is serving as the lead institution in the consortium of colleges, which includes VGCC, Alamance Community College and Halifax Community College. Attendees were welcomed by JSCC President Dr. Lawrence Rouse, who said that the purpose of TechHire is to help North Carolina residents “overcome barriers to employment.”
Each college will use its share of the grant funding for workforce development initiatives that meet the unique needs of the area it serves. The four colleges plan to train 400 people through the grant, between now and June 30, 2020.
During the Aug. 30 event, representatives of the colleges made remarks on how they plan to use the funding. Dr. Ken Lewis, VGCC’s vice president of institutional research and technology, spoke for his institution. “I want to thank Dr. Rouse for the invitation to join the NC TechHire Alliance and for hosting this event,” Dr. Lewis said. “Through TechHire, Vance-Granville will be offering certificates from our information technology and advanced manufacturing programs, including Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), automation and 3-D computer aided drafting. We’re excited to be able to help our students increase their ability to get jobs while also improving the economy of our communities.”
Lewis added that eligible students may receive support in the form of mentoring as well as financial assistance to help them pay for course fees, certification fees, tuition and other support costs. College officials are currently working on scheduling the first classes that would be part of the TechHire program. For more information on the program and eligibility, contact Ken Wilson at wilsonk@vgcc.edu or (252) 738-3259.
Carla Byrnes, who chairs the Eastern Carolina Workforce Development Board, congratulated the colleges on receiving the grant during the event in Kenansville. She said her organization partners with community colleges to address “skills gaps” and prepare candidates for the types of jobs that are going to be expanding. Jay Briley, CEO of Vidant Duplin Hospital, added that it was “great to see collaboration like this across North Carolina’s outstanding community college system, because we must invest in workforce development to have economic growth.”
The North Carolina TechHire Program was one of 39 innovative partnerships across the country that received a total of $150 million in the Department of Labor’s competitive TechHire grant program.
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year. She also served as an assistant principal at Clarke Elementary School, Clark Street Elementary School and Henderson Middle School. Richardson was an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Henderson Middle for 14 years before moving into administration.
she was an assistant principal at Pinkston Street and E.O. Young Jr. elementary schools. Suther has spent most of her career in education as an elementary school teacher. She has taught at both E.M. Rollins and Zeb Vance elementary schools in Vance County.