Wayne Community College is a finalist for a national award that recognizes best practices in community colleges.
WCC’s Clearing a Path to Student Success (CAPSS) Initiative has been selected as one of 10 Bellwether Finalist Winners in the Planning Governance and Finance category.
The CAPSS initiative is a campus-wide initiative that embraces a “guided pathways” approach to supporting students as they progress to completion. Faculty and staff were involved in the redesign of academic programs and student support services. Those changes resulted in measurable improvements to student completion and increased employability skills.
The next step is for a delegation from the college to present about the program at the Community College Futures Assembly in San Antonio in February 2019.
That presentation will be a factor in the decision on the 2019 Bellwether Award winner. In addition to the division in which WCC is competing, awards will be given in the workforce development category and instructional programs and services category.
More than 1,000 community college programs were nominated for Bellwether Awards this year.
The Bellwether Awards are an integral part of the Community College Futures Assembly, established in 1995.The Assembly is sponsored by the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Florida and focuses on cutting-edge, trendsetting programs that other colleges might find worthy of replicating.
The Bellwether College Consortium is an elite group of colleges charged with the mission to address the critical issues facing community colleges through applicable research and the promotion and replication of best practices addressing workforce development, instructional programs and services, and planning governance and finance. Each year, the BCC holds a policy summit addressing pertinent issues facing our community colleges and the Community College Futures Assembly that addresses the best practices occurring nationally and internationally at community colleges.
Wayne Community College is a public, learning-centered institution with an open-door admission policy located in Goldsboro, N.C. As it works to develop a highly skilled and competitive workforce, the college serves 12,000 individuals annually as well as businesses, industry, and community organizations with high quality, affordable, accessible learning opportunities, including more than 70 college credit programs. WCC’s mission is to meet the educational, training, and cultural needs of the communities it serves.