April is recognized as Community College Month, and to kick it off, we’re highlighting some of the ways Wilson Community College impacts you and our community.
Everyone thinks about community colleges differently, but have you thought about how WCC serves our community? From partnering with local businesses and industries, to preparing students ready to work, to training law enforcement officers and firefighters, certifying healthcare workers, and helping start new and counseling existing small businesses, Wilson Community College truly invests in Wilson.
Wilson Community College has been on its original campus since 1958, and we’re one of 58 community colleges in North Carolina. You can imagine the thousands of people we have served since then. Many of them live and work right here in Wilson.
We meet you in the middle to offer classes that fit your busy schedule by scheduling classes both day and night, face-to-face, and online (or hybrid courses, which is a mix of face-to-face and online). We’re affordable. Scholarships and financial assistance are available to qualifying individuals – which is typically around 90 percent of students. Our students can use our computer labs for free, on their own time. And we have a food pantry for students to visit while on campus, to meet any food insecurity needs.
Our Customized Training Program provides education and training opportunities for eligible businesses and industries here in Wilson. All training is tailored to the company’s specific needs and is delivered on-site, at times convenient for the company. It is completely free for businesses and industries that are experiencing job growth, deploying new technology, or seeking to enhance the skills of an existing workforce.
What about Wilson residents who never finished high school? How do we help them? Our Basic Skills program is set up just for them and affords them the opportunity to earn their high school diploma or high school equivalency. It includes the Adult High School Diploma, NC High School Equivalency, and English Language programs. We offer testing during the week to get those interested in the program.
And we serve our current traditional high school students too through our Career and College Promise program, or CCP for short. It’s completely free for them. Eligible students take college courses for dual credit (earning high school and college credit at the same time). Our two early colleges – Wilson Early College Academy (WECA) and Wilson Academy of Applied Technology (WAAT) – are dually-enrolled in high school and WCC – also for free. WECA is on our main campus, and WAAT is at Beddingfield for now. But if you take a drive over to our Lee Technology Center, you’ll see that a brand-new building is going up for WAAT, and we can’t wait to have their home base on our campus in the near future. So, what’s the difference between early college students and our traditional high school students in the CCP program? Early college students earn a high school diploma and a two-year degree at the same time – just on a five-year track. Many still complete both the high school diploma and the associate’s degree in the traditional four years, however.
You can see that WCC has a great story to tell and how your own community college impacts Wilson. Just imagine how community colleges are impacting our state, our nation.
It just so happens that registration for summer and fall semesters kicks off during community college month – beginning this week. For more information, give us a call at (252) 291-1195, visit our website at www.wilsoncc.edu, or just give me a call for a campus tour at (252) 246-1271. #WilsonCC We make Wilson work.
What’s Happening
- All Month – Summer & Fall Registration
- April 7 – New Student Orientation
- April 14 – Donor Appreciation Reception