Editorial Column for Daily Herald
Publication: 12/12/07

HCC'S Student Success Activity Grant: Reaching Out to You!
Dr. Ervin V. Griffin, Sr.
President, Halifax Community College

Halifax Community College has recently received a Student Success Activity Grant from the North Carolina Community College System. The purpose of the grant is to reach out to those in our area's population who have multiple barriers to education, including our citizens with limited English proficiency. This plan will offer an innovative recruitment and retention initiative and will target the importance of motivation in achieving student success. The college-wide project involving students, faculty and staff will also include community members, providing another opportunity to collaborate with our community partners.

The Student Success Activity grant will start in January 2008 and we will be able to hire [for the first time] a part-time Assessment-Retention Counselor. Our aim is to have an Assessment-Retention counselor working with this program during the months of March, April and May 2008. For three months, our project will work on recruiting hard-to-reach students and also focus on retaining those students until they complete the requirements for their GED.

Working alongside the Assessment-Retention counselor will be current and former GED students, who will become “student recruiters.” Many students hear about HCC's programs through family and friends—word-of-mouth advertising. We believe that our students and former students will be some of the best recruiters for the college.

Our student recruiters will receive Literacy Recruitment Bags. The Literacy Recruitment Bags will be filled with literacy education materials and other HCC resource materials. The Student recruiters will be encouraged to provide the literacy materials to family members, friends and community members. Our goal is that their efforts will assist us in bringing non-completers back to the basic skills program and encouraging prospective students to enroll.

Among the many activities that we will have starting in January 2008 include a GED Kickoff featuring testimonials from former GED students, a motivational speaker and words of wisdom from yours truly. Staff, GED alumni and other community personnel will facilitate our motivational mini sessions. We'll also form a Student Success Committee, which will include current GED students, graduates, Basic Skills staff and other HCC staff in an effort to improve student success. Ultimately, we would like to form an HCC GED Alumni Association to involve students who have completed GEDs and to create a scholarship for deserving GED graduates to help them further their education.

Our current Literacy Education Program is an outreach program aimed at individuals with multiple barriers to education, including those for whom English is a second language. Our Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language components offer small group and individual attention to students who need to learn to read, improve basic skills and obtain a high school equivalency diploma. These additional activities can only strengthen our existing opportunities and, we hope, reach prospective students who most need these services.

For more information about the new Student Success Initiative, contact our Literacy Education staff: Tamba Thompson at (252) 536-7235, Therman Taylor at (252) 536-6362, Brian Hopkins at (252) 536-6395, or Brenda Cousins at (252) 536-7240.

From the President's Perspective, I believe this program will be another way that HCC can reach out to our service region and assist our citizens in realizing their untapped potential. It provides another opportunity for our citizens to earn a diploma. We always encourage students to continue their education at whatever level they find themselves. Feel free to send me an email message at president@halifaxcc.edu with your thoughts or ideas about this initiative. Also, to learn about our current or new programs—stop by campus, call us at (252) 536-HCC1 (4221), or visit us online at www.halifaxcc.edu.