Former Dallas Cowboy addresses VGCC students
A former NFL defensive lineman visited the Main Campus of Vance-Granville Community College on March 16 and spoke to students, faculty and staff about his experiences and the keys to success.
Greg Ellis spoke in the VGCC Civic Center for an hour-long presentation that was sponsored by the college’s Male Mentoring Program. That program’s co-coordinator, VGCC Academic and Career Coach Anthony Pope, was Ellis’ middle school football coach in Wendell, his hometown.
Ellis recalled that Pope “was the first coach who saw athletic potential in me” and that middle school was where his football career began. Ellis graduated from East Wake High School and went on to become an All-ACC player and second team All-American at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He graduated as the school’s all-time sack leader, even surpassing Lawrence Taylor. He earned a degree in communications studies at UNC.
Drafted as the eighth pick in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys, Ellis was later selected for the 2007 Pro Bowl. He suffered an Achilles tendon injury that was thought to be a career-ender, but returned to the field and was named NFL Comeback Player of the Year in 2007. Ellis played his final season with the Oakland Raiders before retiring in 2010. Today, he is the father of three children and CEO of his Texas-based multimedia production company, Play Now Enterprises.
In his remarks to VGCC students, Ellis started by focusing on “RTP,” which for him stand not for Research Triangle Park, but for “Rules, Tools and Preparation.” He explained that we all must take the time to learn the rules that govern any endeavor in order to succeed. Second come the tools. “I believe that God has put tools in all of us that will allow us to be successful,” Ellis said. “It’s up to us to figure out what those tools are, and then be willing to develop those tools. You want to become a master at whatever you are doing.” Finally, success requires preparation. “Are you willing to prepare?” Ellis asked. “That’s where most people get lost. They’re not willing to put the time and effort into becoming a good football player or a good student or a good coach or whatever it is you want to do. Most people aren’t willing to pay the price.”
Ellis went on to outline for his audience the stages of motivation, inspiration and manifestation. “Motivation is not enough,” he said. “Motivation helps us to get started, but it won’t propel us to the end.” Motivation can turn into inspiration, he explained. “Inspiration means you sacrifice and work hard, and that’s what makes you successful,” Ellis said, citing the example of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. “Jerry functions out of inspiration,” he said. “He’s a man who’s willing to burn the midnight oil.” Only through inspiration can anyone experience the manifestation of success, Ellis maintained.
One of his recent projects has been “Carter High,” a feature film based on a true story of a high school football team in Texas. Ellis was the executive producer of the movie, which stars Charles S. Dutton, Vivica Fox and David Banner. He played the film’s trailer for the VGCC audience. “It’s not just about football, it’s about making the right choices and the consequences of the decisions you make,” Ellis explained.
Supported by a grant from the N.C. Community College System, the VGCC Male Mentoring program involves an active, intensive, and engaging process of academic coaching and case management to help male students succeed. For more information on the mentoring program, contact Anthony Pope at popea@vgcc.edu or (252) 738-3395, or Greg Nash at nashg@vgcc.edu or (252) 738-3305.
Former Superintendent Shearin Has Died
Dr. Norman Shearin served as Superintendent of Vance County Schools from January 2003 until his retirement in April 2011.
Public Information Officer Terri Hedrick released the information this morning by email. Dr. Shearin passed away late Tuesday.
Hedrick said, “He indeed made his mark here in Vance County, including leading the re-establishment of Western Vance High as an alternative high school and the construction of Clarke Elementary.”
Visitation is scheduled at 12:00 pm, Friday, March 25th, at the Kure Memorial Lutheran Church followed by the funeral at 1:00 pm. The church address is 117 3rd Avenue, Kure Beach, NC. Burial will follow at Oleander Memorial Gardens, 306 Bradley Drive, Wilmington.
Condolences to the family at https://www.andrewsmortuary.com/ — Andrews Mortuary & Crematory Valley Chapel of Wilmington.
Dr. Shearin’s obituary can be found on the Andrews Mortuary web site or as it appeared in the Wilmington Star-News online.
VGCC holds Summer Term New Student Orientation sessions
Registration for classes and orientation sessions for new students have begun for the Summer 2016 term at Vance-Granville Community College, which starts Monday, May 23. Students who wish to enroll at VGCC starting in the Fall 2016 semester may also attend one of the orientation sessions for summer.
Attending an orientation session is required for all new students who wish to enroll in any of the college’s curriculum programs, and for students who are returning to VGCC after being away for three or more years. Students must also meet with an advisor or academic/career coach before registering for classes.
To attend an orientation session, a student must sign up in advance by visiting orientation.vgcc.edu.
VGCC now offers orientation in both an online and a traditional face-to-face format. In either format, orientation sessions help students learn where to find resources on campus or online, including how to register for classes through WebAdvisor.
Face-to-face orientation sessions are scheduled at VGCC’s Main Campus in Vance County on Tuesday, March 29, at 9 a.m.; Tuesday, April 19, at 9 a.m.; Thursday, April 21, at 2 p.m.; Tuesday, May 10, at 9 a.m.; and Thursday, May 12, at 2 p.m.
At the Franklin County Campus near Louisburg, orientation sessions are scheduled on Tuesday, March 29, at 2 p.m.; Tuesday, April 12, at 2 p.m.; Tuesday, April 19, at 5 p.m.; and Tuesday, May 3, at 9 a.m.
Orientation sessions are scheduled at VGCC’s South Campus, located between Creedmoor and Butner, on Wednesday, April 6, at 9 a.m.; Thursday, April 14, at 2 p.m.; and Wednesday, May 4, at 9 a.m.
Students who want to attend a face-to-face orientation session at the Warren County Campus in Warrenton should call (252) 257-1900 for more information.
Registration for summer classes is set to end on Thursday, May 19. College officials encourage students to apply for admission, attend orientation/advising, and register for classes as early as possible. Course schedules are now available online at schedules.vgcc.edu.
All summer curriculum courses are eight weeks in length and will end on July 25. The VGCC course selection for this summer’s term is more robust than in years past, including a variety of online and on-campus sections.
Summer term offers opportunities for eligible high school seniors to get a head start on college by taking courses through the Career & College Promise (CCP) program. University students may also use the summer to earn transferable credits while they are at home.
The tuition payment deadline is Thursday, May 19, by 5 p.m., if paying in person, or by midnight, if paying online through WebAdvisor.
For more information, contact VGCC at studentsuccess@vgcc.edu or (252) 738-3330, or visit any campus.
Pre-K and Kindergarten Registration
Parents of children who will be entering pre-kindergarten and kindergarten for the 2016-2017 school year may now register their children for enrollment at any Vance County Schools elementary school.
Children who will be four years old on or before August 31, should apply for pre-kindergarten and children who will be five years old on or before August 31, should register for kindergarten.
Applications for pre-kindergarten for the upcoming school year are now available at any elementary school or by going to the school system’s website at www.vcs.k12.nc.us and downloading the necessary forms.
Parents are encouraged to register their children early.
Special registration events for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten also will be held at each school during the week of April 11-15.
(VCS Press Release)
VGCC’s new ‘VanGuarantee’ to help area residents afford higher education
Dr. Stelfanie Williams, the president of Vance-Granville Community College, announced a major new commitment yesterday to eliminate financial barriers to higher education for residents of Vance, Granville, Franklin and Warren counties.
President Williams said a new need-based scholarship program, called the “VanGuarantee,” is designed to cover tuition, student fees and textbooks for eligible students whose financial needs are unmet by federal financial aid and other means of support. She made the announcement at a meeting of the VGCC Board of Trustees and was joined by school superintendents and members of the boards of education from the four counties served by the college.
VGCC already has a robust, almost 40-year-old Endowment Fund that provides primarily merit-based scholarships.
“The VanGuarantee program enhances our college’s commitment to supporting deserving students, particularly those who demonstrate the greatest financial need, because we do not want the cost of attendance to be a barrier for any student at any stage,” Dr. Williams said. “We want to guarantee that every student in our community who wants to earn a college degree can do so.”
Making the VanGuarantee possible is a $1.6 million bequest to VGCC from the estate of Wilbert A. Edwards. The gift, announced in 2015, is the second largest in the history of the college. A resident of Oxford at the time of his death in 2001, Edwards was a native of Vance County and a decorated World War II fighter pilot. In addition to the VanGuarantee, funds from the Edwards estate are being used for faculty development and for college facilities.
In its scope, the new program is believed to be unique in the North Carolina Community College System. As policymakers and students have expressed growing concerns about the rising cost of college, VGCC joins colleges across the country in creating innovative “promise” or “guarantee” programs to make education more affordable and accessible.
Some colleges have made such commitments only to recent high school graduates, but the VanGuarantee applies to all students in the four counties, reflecting VGCC’s longstanding tradition of helping adults retrain for new careers at any age, Dr. Williams explained. Nevertheless, she encouraged 2016 high school graduates to take advantage of the new opportunity to obtain a debt-free college education.
Among the eligibility requirements for the VanGuarantee, students who reside in the college’s service area must enroll in at least nine credit hours per semester in any VGCC curriculum program. They must first apply for and meet the eligibility requirements for federal and state financial aid programs. Next, they will apply for endowed VGCC scholarships. When students still lack the funds to pay for their education after exhausting those and other sources, the VanGuarantee program will help to fill the gap. That makes the program an example of what is often called a “last-dollar scholarship.”
The VanGuarantee will be available in the fall 2016 semester, which starts in August. All residents of the four counties served by the college, regardless of their age or whether they have attended VGCC before, may benefit if they meet the eligibility criteria. Once enrolled in the VanGuarantee program, students must maintain at least a 2.5 grade point average (GPA) to continue receiving the scholarship.
For more information on the VanGuarantee, students can visit www.vgcc.edu/fao/vanguarantee.
AT&T sponsors new VGCC Summer Bridge program
AT&T North Carolina has made a $10,000 contribution to Vance-Granville Community College to support a new student success initiative. For the first time, the college will offer a “Summer Bridge” program this year for incoming first-year students. With AT&T’s sponsorship, the program will be available at no cost to participating students.
“Thanks to the strong support of AT&T North Carolina, in a few months, our faculty and staff will be able to offer some extra help to students to prepare them to succeed as scholars at the college level,” said Dr. Stelfanie Williams, the president of VGCC.
Robert Doreauk, AT&T’s regional director of external affairs, formally presented the donation in February at a luncheon honoring donors to the college, held at the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford.
“We understand that there is no better way to make a lasting difference in a community than by helping support the education of its young people,” Doreauk said. “Through our signature philanthropic initiative, AT&T Aspire, we support opportunities to foster skills that will meet the needs of the future workforce while helping all students make their biggest dreams a reality. We appreciate the opportunity to support the Summer Bridge program and are excited about the impact it will have on students’ lives and futures.”
VGCC Dean of Arts and Sciences Cynthia Young explained that Summer Bridge will be a comprehensive, two-week program with two overarching themes. “The first theme is providing targeted support, supplemental instruction and skill-building to help students accelerate their pathway from developmental education to regular curriculum courses,” Young said.
Most VGCC students take placement tests as part of the admissions process to evaluate their current skills in reading, writing and mathematics. Placement test scores are used for academic advising and correct course placement. Students may be placed in a developmental math course, for example, to build math skills before moving on to more challenging college courses that are required for diploma and degree programs.
“The second theme of the program is college readiness,” Young said. “Students will participate in orientation and meet with faculty from various curriculum programs so that they understand the opportunities that are available to them here at Vance-Granville. In addition, our coaches from the Student Success Center will help students in the program to create academic plans in line with their career goals.” Young said that the program will serve North Carolina residents who are high school or high school equivalency graduates, are entering VGCC for the first time, and have placed into developmental education.
“We are excited about introducing this program,” said Young. “It will give students more tools to be successful.”
The Summer Bridge initiative is being developed as Dr. Williams and other college leaders across the country are increasingly focused on bringing students up to speed quickly, so that they can start their college-level coursework earlier and graduate on schedule. According to a new report from the Center for Community College Student Engagement, 86 percent of students nationwide believe they are academically prepared to succeed in college, but 67 percent test into developmental coursework.
For more information on the Summer Bridge program, contact Cynthia Young at youngc@vgcc.edu or (252) 738-3424.
VGCC students partner to register bone marrow donors
The SkillsUSA chapter at Vance-Granville Community College recently teamed up with national organizations and a local cancer survivor to find some potential heroes.
The survivor, Whitney Johnson Espinosa of Henderson, who calls her campaign against childhood cancer “Whitney’s Hope,” organized a bone marrow registration drive in the Civic Center on VGCC’s Main Campus. She connected with the SkillsUSA student organization through her mother, VGCC Dean of Business & Applied Technologies Angela Gardner-Ragland.
Espinosa was working in concert with three national organizations, “There Goes My Hero,” Delete Blood Cancer and the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults, to register new bone marrow donors. “Your college drive is an amazing opportunity to impact the lives of patients around the world who need bone marrow transplants by improving their chances of finding a matching donor,” Kristina Gaddy of There Goes My Hero wrote to Espinosa.
There Goes My Hero was founded by transplant recipient Erik Sauer in 2008, and seeks to provide hope and nourishment to leukemia patients and their families. Since its founding, the organization has added over 10,000 new people to the bone marrow registry.
The event at VGCC registered 30 new donors. Students, faculty, staff and community members signed up and swabbed their cheeks to provide DNA samples. The painless registration process took only a few minutes, but could save a life if a participant turns out to be a match for someone in need of a bone marrow transplant. Such treatments are the only hope for many people diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia and other blood cancers and diseases. VGCC held a similar drive in 2015 in partnership with the Project Life Movement and the “Save the Fox” campaign.
The initiative is one of several community service projects that have been conducted under the auspices of the college’s SkillsUSA organization. VGCC recently joined the national partnership of students, teachers and industry, working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. Students in a variety of VGCC programs are eligible to join SkillsUSA. For more information on SkillsUSA at VGCC, contact Public Services department chair Steve Hargrove at hargroves@vgcc.edu or (252) 738-3467.
For more information on becoming a bone marrow donor, visit www.ThereGoesMyHero.org or www.deletebloodcancer.org.