Leaders from Fayetteville Technical Community College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill today (Oct. 20) launched a new partnership to help veterans and active-duty military earn associate and bachelor’s degrees. The partnership was announced on the campus of Fayetteville Tech.
Leaders from Fayetteville Technical Community College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill today (Oct. 20) launched a new partnership to help veterans and active-duty military earn associate and bachelor’s degrees. The partnership was announced on the campus of Fayetteville Tech.
The new program will identify talented veterans and military personnel early in their Fayetteville Tech careers; guarantee their eventual admission to UNC-Chapel Hill, provided they complete an appropriate associate degree and successfully complete the program; offer special events and advising, both at Fayetteville Tech and at UNC, while they are pursuing their associate degrees; and provide exemplary support and transition services once they complete their associate degree and enroll at UNC. In two years, once the program is fully phased in, Fayetteville Tech and UNC-Chapel Hill expect 15 to 20 veterans and military personnel to enter the University each year.
“We’re proud to be launching this partnership with Fayetteville Tech,” said Chancellor Holden Thorp of UNC-Chapel Hill and a native of Fayetteville. “More important, we’re proud to be serving those who have given so much in service to us.
“Our veterans and active-duty military deserve our support as they make the transition to civilian life. For many, this transition will involve enrollment in a college or university—a step that can be challenging for any student, and especially for those who have spent years away from the classroom in service. We at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill would be honored to be a part of these servicemen and women’s success.”
These students will contribute greatly to the education of their classmates and make UNC a better, stronger university, he said.
“We welcome this partnership with UNC, which will provide the veterans and military personnel in our area an affordable, convenient way to achieve a bachelor’s degree,” said J. Larry Keen, president of Fayetteville Tech. “The discipline of these students, combined with the excellent support and guidance they will receive through the program, will ensure that they make a successful transition to UNC.”
The new partnership is based on the Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program (C-STEP), founded at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2006 with a grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Designed to help low-income students transfer from community colleges to UNC-Chapel Hill and graduate on time, C-STEP has proven to be extraordinarily successful. To date, 86 percent of all C-STEP students have earned their bachelor degrees within five semesters of their enrollment at UNC—a rate which equals that of first-year students at the University, who are among the best-prepared college students in the nation.
Fayetteville Tech and UNC-Chapel Hill will immediately begin working to identify a group of five to 10 students who can complete their associate degrees and enroll at UNC in August 2011.
Key Elements
These are the key elements under the new partnership:
- C-STEP at Fayetteville Tech will be led jointly by two faculty or staff members designated by Keen and representatives from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at UNC-Chapel Hill.
- Faculty and staff leaders from Fayetteville Tech will help identify students who would benefit from the program; serve as advisers and mentors to students in the program; and host regular meetings of these students to foster a sense of community and a strong peer-support network within the group.
- C-STEP students are guaranteed admission to UNC-Chapel Hill provided they complete the associate of arts or associate of sciences degree; achieve a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0; complete the UNC-Chapel Hill foreign-language graduation requirement while enrolled at Fayetteville Tech; and participate as fully as possible in C-STEP activities, including those held at UNC-Chapel Hill.
- To foster engagement with UNC-Chapel Hill and to underscore a strong sense of community, C-STEP provides peer mentoring for students while they are still enrolled in community college and once they have enrolled at UNC-Chapel Hill.
- Once enrolled at UNC-Chapel Hill, C-STEP students will be guaranteed campus housing and receive support from faculty and peer mentors. They will also continue to meet regularly for events that foster community and provide additional support.
- Currently Carolina is home to more than 300 military veterans or their family members who are enrolled in both undergraduate and graduate programs at the University and receive support from the GI Bill. Collaboration between the Veterans Certifying Official in the Office of the University Registrar, the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid, and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions office will ease the transition from Fayetteville Tech to UNC-Chapel Hill. Staff and faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill will collaborate with C-STEP leaders at Fayetteville Tech and with one another to provide exemplary support and transition services to students in the program.
C-STEP contact: Steve Farmer, (919) 966-3992, sfarmer@admissions.unc.edu
News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415, susan_houston@unc.edu