Wednesday (Oct. 1)
8 a.m. – 9 a.m.
Carolina Advising Corps at West Charlotte High School
2219 Senior Drive, Charlotte
New University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp will continue a statewide tour in Charlotte on Wednesday (Oct. 1) with stops at West Charlotte High School to see the Carolina Advising Corps in action and at UNC-Charlotte.
At 8 a.m., Thorp will visit West Charlotte, where Pharen Bowman, a recent college graduate, works with high school seniors through the Carolina Advising Corps, a UNC-Chapel Hill initiative expanded this fall to 38 high schools around the state that serves about 7,000 students.
Advisers like Bowman are working with high school seniors to encourage them to pursue a college education by supplementing the help they receive from school guidance counselors in areas such as college admissions and financial aid applications.
Bowman also works at West Mecklenburg High School, and the advising corps is active at E.E. Waddell and Garinger high schools in Mecklenburg County. All four schools are part of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Achievement Zone Learning Community. The Carolina Advising Corps is part of a privately funded national network based at the University. Media representatives are invited to observe Thorp’s visit to West Charlotte. School system officials request that you check in at the front office; students will help direct attendees to the visit activities.
Later in the morning, Thorp will stop at UNC-Charlotte to meet with Chancellor Philip Dubois and to visit the Renaissance Computing Institute’s (RENCI) UNC-Charlotte site. RENCI
reflects a collaboration among several universities, including UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Charlotte and the State of North Carolina.
The tour started at Chapel Hill High School today (Sept. 29) and includes stops in Asheville (Sept. 30), Elizabeth City, Greensboro, Morehead City and Wilmington. Stops include visits to high schools, with UNC students and with other chancellors at UNC system campuses. The tour ends Monday, Oct. 6, when Thorp returns to his own alma mater, Terry Sanford High School in Fayetteville. Thorp says he wants to demonstrate his personal commitment to the University’s mission of public service and engagement before his installation on University Day, Oct. 12. Despite having lived in North Carolina most of his life, he said the tour was important because “I’ve still got a lot to learn.”
For more information, visit these links:
News release about the tour: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/chancellortour.html
Thorp’s Web page: www.unc.edu/chan, and installation information, www.unc.edu/chan/installation
News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415, susan_houston@unc.edu
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools contact: Tahira Stalberte, (980) 343-6775, tahira.stalberte@cms.k12.nc.us