Every day I go to work knowing that the work we do at Forsyth Technical Community College will be meaningful and valuable to our students and our community. That’s what community colleges do.
We are difference makers: providing access to high-quality postsecondary education, helping students succeed and achieve their goals and dreams, and driving workforce development by connecting graduates to jobs with sustainable family wages. However, some days the work we do is more transformational and life-changing. August 10th was one of those days at Forsyth Tech.
We are one of ten community colleges participating in the NC Reconnect initiative thanks to the John M. Belk Endowment (JMBE) for the group’s vision and support and funding from the North Carolina General Assembly. NC Reconnect helps colleges stay laser-focused on bringing adults who have attended our colleges within the past three years but haven’t completed their credential, so they can graduate and enter a family-supporting career.
Over the past several months, we have contacted over 500 alumni from this category. With the support and resources provided by JMBE, we have worked to re-engage as many adult students as possible and help them achieve their goals. As our fall semester begins, more than 130 former adult students will re-enroll and return to the streets to find better skills and better jobs.
Earlier this month, we held our first NC Reconnect Adult Learner placement. We invite our returning adult students to orientation to learn about all the academic and non-academic resources available to them, where to go and who to contact if they have problems or need help. We want to actively and intentionally connect with each student, building relationships with them and giving them space to build relationships with each other.
From the very beginning of their journey, Forsyth Tech cares – about them – and we are committed to loving and serving each student for success. Because, unfortunately, many community college students, and especially adult students, are at risk of dropping out from the moment they enroll.
Some are unprepared in their studies. But they often don’t give up because they can’t succeed in the classroom; They stop because life happens. They have to repair their car to get to class every day but they can’t afford the repair cost. They’re a single mom, and their kid gets sick, or they can’t get childcare, so they have to choose to go to class and take care of their kid. Too many of our students’ college careers are derailed by “life happens” events, and when obstacles arise, going to school may not be their top priority.
The adult students who contacted us are some of the ones who were unable to stay in school the last time, and on August 10th, we hope to show them that we are ready to walk by their side this time. Providing comprehensive, comprehensive support to keep you moving forward, no matter what life throws at you.
We plan this event to be inspirational and tactical. We wanted to encourage stories from mature graduates who faced similar obstacles but persevered to graduation. We want them to connect with counselors, care navigators and other support staff who are available to help them through any hurdles. We want to give them time to interact with current adult students as they visit departments designed to give them the support they need and as life gets in their way. We also want them to have support outside of college, so we invite each student to bring a supporter, family member or friend. As Forsyth Tech students, we want them to focus on all the services and support available to them, so we’ve removed the barrier by providing childcare.
The event was certainly important and meaningful to the adult students involved in the reunion, but it was also important and meaningful to all the Forsyth Tech staff and faculty who made this event possible. All of us honored to be a part of helping these adults rejoin college and begin their journey to better skills and careers are humbled to be inspired by the students’ joy and hope.
This is Kahim. He smiled all night. I had the opportunity to speak with him for a few minutes when he returned from his visit with the student ambassadors. I asked him what program he was enrolling in and he said he was getting his associate in art degree but didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. He knew he needed the degree to get on the right path. I told him about our career center and the career counselors eager to help him understand his goals and chart a path to his dream job. Kahim smiled like this all night – it was contagious!
I spoke with another student named Megan, who brought her son to help her. He just graduated from Wake Forest University in May, and I wish everyone could hear the joy and love in his voice as he tells me how proud he is of his mom. Megan participated in our student focus group when we started NC Reconnect, and unfortunately, she had a bad experience getting the support she needed the last time she signed up. She was crying tears of joy, “Thank you for tonight – it’s amazing!” she said I told her how sorry I was that her last experience was not what she deserved; But she thanked me by saying, “This time it’s going to be different,” and told me that it was okay.
Another of the young women who participated was Kayla. Several of us met Kayla a few weeks ago when we went to lunch at a local restaurant, and she was our server. I went back to the same restaurant last week for a business lunch with a colleague, and Kayla was our server again. She said, “I remember you!” she said to him. She went on to tell us that she had been at Forsyth Tech the week before and was excited to go back to school next Monday. In the year She told me she attended in 2017, so she wasn’t in the NC Reconnect group of former adult students we reached out to. She originally started in nursing, then changed her program to business, and finally life, and she quit. I invited her to the NC Reconnect Orientation in person. When I entered the conference center, Kayla was the first student. She was beaming, “I did it! I came straight from work, so I didn’t have time to change, I hope this is okay?” At the end of the night, as she left, Kayla told our group, “This was not what I expected…it was more!” she said to him. She believes she has the support she needs to succeed this time, and so do I.
Students who can’t make it to the event will still receive a Trailblazer Success bag full of Forsyth Tech swag and other cool stuff to help them with their studies (thanks Blue Ridge Community College for that great idea!). Our NC Reengagement Student Success Coach and Reengagement Coordinator also meet with each student individually and work one-on-one to ensure they have the resources and connections they need to succeed. This work is not only useful and influential – it is transformational and life-changing.
Education changes lives. Community colleges drive workforce development and economic prosperity for our region by preparing skilled workers to meet the needs of businesses and industries in the communities we serve. Community colleges open their doors to all, providing access to high-quality public higher education and meeting every student where they are—and taking them as far as they can go. Community colleges are engines of equity and catalysts of economic activity that help students build bridges out of poverty.
Every day is a good day to be a change maker at Forsyth Tech, or at any of the “Great 58” community colleges in this great state, or at any of the more than 1,100 community colleges in the United States. But when we meet real people one-on-one—the days of endurance, courage, and perseverance—those refresh and encourage me, fill my heart in ways that are hard to describe.
In the words of the Irish poet WB Yeats, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Our NC Reconnect mission is to light a fire, and our team of Forsyth Tech Trailblazers is helping these students keep that fire burning—loving and serving every mature student for success.
