NCC Announces Academic Excellence Award Recipient
Kelsey Skaggs of Tarboro has been selected as Nash Community College’s 2017-2018 Academic Excellence Award recipient. The award is presented annually to North Carolina community college students who exhibit outstanding scholastic achievements.
Skaggs is an Associate in Arts student maintaining a 4.0 overall grade point average. On NCC’s campus, she serves as a student ambassador and English tutor. “Her life experience coupled with her natural aptitude make her a thoughtful and collaborative tutor and mentor to others,” Mike Latham said. “She is outgoing, helpful, and enthusiastic about learning. She has fully embraced her learning experience at Nash, recognizing her studies as both a pragmatic means to achieving her goals as well as a way of achieving life-long learning.”
Skaggs said as a Tarboro High School student, she knew a college education was necessary and even achievable; however, personal hardships prevented her from attending a university after graduation. “Community college presented itself as an affordable and accessible pathway to the education that I desired,” Skaggs said. “What began as a brief journey to bridge a gap between two places turned into a home, a foundation. Shortly after enrolling, I became an impassioned proponent of Nash Community College’s mantra of “Blue Love,” a noble idea that faculty and staff provide students with more than an education. They provide deep, genuine compassion.”
Skaggs is known by her instructors and peers for her willingness to help fellow students. She possesses genuine curiosity, patience and kindness.
“Nash Community College became a family that was determined to cultivate my academic and personal development, which made me realize that I am supposed to be a community college instructor,” she said. “I have gained mentors within Nash’s English department who see my potential, and are determined to help me reach my goals.”
Skaggs said, “To them, I am more than a disenfranchised, first-generation college student who thought that a university was the only ticket to a better future.” She credits her experiences at Nash for showing her the value of a quality education.
The Academic Excellence Award represents the highest academic honor at Nash Community College. Skaggs will represent NCC among North Carolina’s 58-community college system.
