A slight turn of phrase can provide a whole different perspective on things, and Vance-Granville Community College President Dr. Rachel Desmarais is looking forward to hearing from the wider community as plans for the future develop.
Take the phrase “community college” for example. Change that to “community’s college,” and you gain some insight into plans for an upcoming series of community engagement nights the college is planning.
“We really want to listen to our community,” Desmarais said on Wednesday’s TownTalk. As a way of implementing its new theme, “Your Community, Your College,” Demarais said the meetings are a way to be intentional about creating a plan that will be the best fit for the communities that VGCC serves.
There’s always room for improvement, she said, and getting feedback from these meetings is a good start.
“We don’t want to stop doing something that is helpful,” she said, adding that “feedback is part of the learning process.”
As students in a classroom need feedback on their activities and work, so does an institution like VGCC, she said.
“If you don’t know what you’re doing right or wrong, you’re not learning anything,” she said.
Individuals interested in participating in the meetings are encouraged to RSVP. A link to the sessions is expected to be available on the www.vgcc.edu website Thursday.
Each session will begin at 6 p.m. and will last until about 7:30 p.m. Small groups – each with a VGCC rep and a person taking notes – will discuss various issues related to their community’s needs.
With the understanding that different people and different communities need different things, Desmarais said she wants VGCC to “be a convener and a catalyst” that brings different organizations together to work for common good.
“Little nudges that we each do can have a wonderful ripple effect in the end,” she said.
And that’s the point of the meetings – to point the community’s college in the direction that the community needs and wants in order to grow.
Below is a list of sites and dates for the community meetings:
- Thursday, Sept. 7 – Warren County Armory Civic Center, Warrenton
- Tuesday, Sept. 12 – Perry Memorial Library, Farm Bureau Room, Henderson
- Wednesday, Sept. 13 – VGCC Main Campus Civic Center, Henderson
- Thursday, Sept. 14 – Wake Electric Operations Facility, Youngsville
- Thursday, Sept. 19 – Karl T. Pernell Public Safety Complex, Louisburg
- Wednesday, Sept. 20 – Mary Potter Center for Education, Oxford
- Wednesday, Sept. 27 – VGCC South Campus, Room G1131, Creedmoor