As local educational partners, Vance-Granville Community College and Eaton-Johnson Middle School in Henderson help inspire young students to prepare for higher education. A faculty member recently made a visit to the middle school and brought along an EJMS alumna who is now a VGCC student.

VGCC Public Services Department Chair Steven Hargrove was accompanied on his visit by McKallah Pendergrass of Henderson, a Criminal Justice Technology student who had not set foot in her old middle school in years. Pendergrass is preparing to graduate this academic year and plans to transfer to either North Carolina Central University or UNC-Charlotte.

Hargrove and Pendergrass met with the middle school’s lead counselor, Dr. Priscilla Chavis-Lockley, who took them on a tour of the new EJMS Paxton/Patterson lab. Established under the leadership of the school’s new principal, Dr. Brad Jones, the lab features hands-on stations that help students learn about various fields, including manufacturing, robotics, forensics, audiovisual production and computer graphics.

Hargrove noted the clear connections between all the lab’s different skill areas and VGCC’s Business and Applied Technologies programs, showing students that they could continue to study these fields at their local college. As a longtime Criminal Justice instructor, Hargrove was particularly interested in the forensic science computer program that students were using to create a digital reconstruction of the face of a criminal suspect. He noted that now, students have a new opportunity to complete an entire bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice without leaving VGCC’s main campus, thanks to the “Eagle Voyage” partnership with North Carolina Central University. The program is set to graduate its first students in 2017.

“It is important for us to talk to eighth-graders about college,” Hargrove noted, “because that is when they start thinking about careers. They need to start planning their high school and college education and they need to see pathways. We must let students and their parents know about the opportunities that are available.”

Planning for college studies at the middle school level has become increasingly important in recent years, as students have options to enroll in Early College High Schools, offered by VGCC in partnership with local school systems, starting in the ninth grade. In addition, new Career & College Promise pathways have been developed for students in traditional high schools to earn college credits, tuition-free.

Eaton-Johnson’s partnership with VGCC is largely the result of the efforts of Dr. Chavis-Lockley, who earned two degrees at Vance-Granville — early childhood education and associate in arts (college transfer) — before moving on to North Carolina Central University for a bachelor’s degree and three master’s degrees, and to North Carolina State University for a doctorate in education and counseling. She also established a student ambassador program at EJMS that has partnered with VGCC’s own ambassador program in the past.

Days after the visit to the middle school by VGCC, the partnership continued as a group of EJMS students visited the college campus for the annual “Manufacturing Day” event to learn about technical careers.