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As new members of the Carolina College Advising Corps, two UNC graduates will work at high schools in Rockingham County this school year to help low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students apply for college and financial aid. Kristen Simmons will be an adviser at Reidsville and Rockingham County high schools, and Brian Woodard will help students at Morehead and McMichael high schools.

As new members of the Carolina College Advising Corps, two UNC graduates will work at high schools in Rockingham County this school year to help low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students apply for college and financial aid. Kristen Simmons will be an adviser at Reidsville and Rockingham County high schools, and Brian Woodard will help students at Morehead and McMichael high schools.

The Carolina Advising Corps, based in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of 13 partnerships in the National College Advising Corps (also headquartered at UNC). The corps places recent Chapel Hill graduates – many of them first-generation college students themselves – as college advisers in low-income high schools across the state.

Advisers work closely with guidance counselors and other school personnel to create programs that meet the needs of the students in North Carolina high schools. Typically, an adviser works in two high schools, helping students research and apply to a broad range of two- and four-year schools, with the goal of finding the one that fits each individual best.

Simmons was born in Charlotte and graduated as valedictorian from Garinger High School, a school that is now part of the advising corps program. She graduated from UNC in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

“The program immediately piqued my interest because it offered a unique opportunity to work directly with students and their families on issues relating to college access,” she said, adding that she hopes to touch the lives of various students throughout her involvement in the program. “I also hope to be affected in the same positive way by them.”

Woodard was born in Snow Camp and attended Southern Alamance High School. He earned an associate’s degree from Alamance Community College and later transferred to and graduated from Carolina in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in history, through the Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program (C-STEP). Funded by the Jack Kent Cook Foundation, C-STEP identifies talented low- to moderate-income students and guarantees their eventual transfer admission to Carolina if they earn an appropriate associate degree at one of three partner colleges, including Alamance.

“I was most attracted by the ability advisers have to create change in high schools across North Carolina,” Woodard said of his initial interest in the program.

For Woodard, being an adviser gives him the opportunity to provide encouragement and support to high school students during the college application process. He said he hopes to increase the rate of students who attend college from Rockingham County.

“I believe this program is vital to improving access to higher education for underserved communities,” Woodard said.

More than 75 applicants, mostly graduates of UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, competed for the eight adviser positions open for the fall, said Program Director Jennifer Cox Bell.

The advising corps, now entering its third year, has 19 advisers serving 40 high schools in 21 counties across North Carolina. Funding for the adviser positions in the four schools in Rockingham County came from a grant from the Reidsville Area Foundation.

kristen simmons

Kristen Simmons

Brian Woodard

Brian Woodard

Carolina College Advising Corps Web site: http://advisingcorps.org/page/carolina-advising-corps

Carolina College Advising Corps contact: Jennifer Cox Bell, (919) 843-7286, jcoxbell@admissions.unc.edu

News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415, susan_houston@unc.edu

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