NCC Joins April #CCMonth Campaign
Nash Community College (NCC) announced this week that it is joining #CCMonth, a grassroots education and stigma-busting campaign coordinated by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) for the month of April.
“Community College Month is an opportunity to demonstrate that community colleges should be a top-of-mind first choice for students and why community colleges are vital to our local and state economies,” said Sam Dickens, NCC Board Member and Chair of the North Carolina Association of Community College Trustees.
The primary goals of #CCMonth are to improve awareness of the economic, academic and equity advantages of attending community colleges, and to break through longtime stigmas wrongly associated with public two-year colleges.
“In the past year, Nash Community College has proven its value in the community as much if not more than any year before,” NCC President Dr. Lew Hunnicutt said. “Emergency medical services, law enforcement, fire, healthcare and other programs deemed essential in the response to the pandemic are among the programs our community depends on every day.”
Public community colleges are a unique educational model designed to guarantee access to affordable, high-quality higher education for all people.
“For years, acquiring training from a North Carolina community college has been undervalued and misunderstood,” NCC Board Chair Sonny Foster said. “The community college concept originated after World War II when North Carolina shifted from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Encouraging a post-high school community college education took years of convincing,” Foster continued, “however, community colleges have long been proven as the engine that educates a skilled workforce, enhances the quality of life within a community and promotes economic development.”
Community colleges are often the primary educators of in-demand, necessary skilled laborers. Moreover, they serve as an onramp to bachelor’s, master’s and higher-level degrees for many students and particularly for the most demographically and socioeconomically diverse students.
Community colleges guarantee fair admission for all students and offer support for adult students who have to work to support their families. Without community colleges, many American students would not be able to access higher education.
Despite all this, many people wrongly believe that community colleges are inferior institutions, and in most states, universities receive significantly more per-student state support than community colleges do. These negative attitudes and disparities support and encourage ongoing socioeconomic and demographic disadvantages and inequities in the United States.
“Community colleges are engines of diversity, equity and inclusion,” said ACCT President and CEO J. Noah Brown. “They give opportunities to all students, and they support all students throughout their educations, whether they attend to attain an associate degree or certificate, intend to transfer on for a bachelor’s or higher degree, or they take one or a few courses to learn a new skill or expand their horizons.”
For more information about Nash Community College, please visit www.nashcc.edu.
