Vol. 8 No. 6 June 2002
Home Builders of Greater Asheville
left (l-r): Huskins Bill students J.B. Brookshire, Nathan Honeycutt from Erwin High School, Jimmie Buckner and James Lewis from Asheville High School. Right: President Bailey and HBAGA Vice President Bruce Goforth.
If you asked J.B. Brookshire a year ago, where he would seek employment upon graduation from Erwin High School, he would have told you McDonald's.
College was never part of J.B.'s future plans - until a new scholarship funded by the Home Builders Association of Greater Asheville (HBAGA) was offered to students at his high school. The Erwin senior and several other area high school students have been attending afternoon classes at A-B Tech and are already skilled in carpentry, heating and air, refrigeration and electrical. A North Carolina initiative called the Huskins Bill makes it possible for area high school students to take tuition-free college courses and get a jump start on college.
Upon graduation, J.B. and the other students have been encouraged to apply for the HBAGA Scholarship Fund to attend A-B Tech in the fall.
"If it wasn't for this, I would be working at McDonald's. There is no way I would have been able to go to college," explains J.B., adding, "Now, I have already been promised a job in construction."
According to HBAGA Vice President Bruce Goforth, the scholarship program has been offered due to the critical shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry. The renewable $1,000 scholarships are available to high school students during their junior/senior years and graduates wishing to pursue a building construction trade.
"We wanted to give something back to the community and fill this need at the same time," explains Goforth. "There's a good future and a high demand in building construction. Job opportunities are great. Look in the daily newspaper - ads every day. As a general contractor, I have noticed how hard it is to find finish carpenters and there's not a lot of young people. We have to begin training and educating these young people for these jobs."
According to A-B Tech Engineering and Applied Technology Division Dean Dr. Robert Anderson, the college is renowned for its commitment to constantly re-evaluating and updating to meet the needs of the workforce in Western North Carolina.
Home Builders Association of Greater Asheville Scholarship Fund Contributor's List: Merillat Industries, Stan Caton, Bruce Goforth, Paul Sullivan, Ron Butler, McNutt Service Group, Bullman Heating, Metromont Materials, Robert Spear, Steve Williams, Tim Alexander, Centura, Asheville Savings, MWB R-Pro, Sherwin Williams, Progressive Lighting, Freeman Gas, Beverly Grant, Appalachian Rubber Wall, Southern Door, Blue Ridge Timber, Tri-State Elevators, Math Insurance, Carolina Brick & Block, Westall. Return to top
OD Corner
We are getting ready to begin our accreditation reaffirmation process which will culminate in an on-site visit in March or April 2004. The previous approach to reaffirmation focused solely on compliance. The new process highlights three fundamental principles:
- Integrity is a core value essential to the purpose of higher education.
- Quality enhancement is at the heart of the Commission on College's philosophy of accreditation.
- Accreditation standards and processes should give priority to student learning at the collegiate level and to the systems and resources that support student learning.
While the new process addresses compliance with core requirements, comprehensive standards, and Title IV federal requirements, it also facilitates the development of a plan for institutional improvement. This document is called the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).
The QEP is a course of action for institutional improvement that addresses one or more issues that contribute to institutional quality, with special attention to student learning. As a significant component of the reaffirmation process, the QEP should be designed to demonstrate our capacity to address significant issues and aspirations.
In preparing the QEP, we will engage our academic community in a comprehensive and thorough analysis of the effectiveness of the learning environment to support student learning and to accomplish our mission. Although the quality enhancement planning process complements the institutional effectiveness process, it does not replace it. Instead, it offers an opportunity to take a broad college issue and identify specific ways that each area of the college can address it.
There are two distinct components of the reaffirmation process. We will conduct our internal review, preparing both a Compliance Certificate and the QEP. There is a twofold external review. First, an off-site team will evaluate our compliance, conveying its preliminary findings to A-B Tech and also sending them to an on-site team. The on-site team will visit A-B Tech to follow-up on compliance concerns or questions raised by the off-site team. In addition, it will assess the effectiveness and viability of our QEP.
After the visit, the on-site team will send a Reaffirmation Committee Report to A-B Tech and we will have the opportunity to submit a response. Finally, the Commission on Colleges will determine A-B Tech's reaffirmation status at its December 2004 annual meeting.
We will keep everyone informed about opportunities to participate in this important process through Tech Talk, emails, department postings, the intranet, voicemails, and meetings. If you want to know more, just call ext. 178.
Carol Rovello
Director of Employee and Organization Development
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USA Staffing Turns Salary into Scholarship
(L to R) USA Staffing Branch Manager Mike Ledbetter, Kelly Edwards, ADN student Lee Rule posing as a patient, Nursing Chairperson Brenda Causey, and USA Staffing Human Resources Director Cindy McClain.
When Mike Ledbetter met Kelly Edwards, she was a single mom attending nursing classes during the week and working weekends to make ends meet.
Ledbetter, her boss, told her she didn't have to work anymore. She became a full-time student when he made her salary into a scholarship.
"I could see she was struggling and I know she is going to make a good nurse," said Ledbetter, branch manager of USA Staffing in Asheville. "I hope we can offer this scholarship to more nursing students."
Kelly's $4,000 scholarship will pay for her to complete A-B Tech's Practical Nurse Education program "no strings attached," Ledbetter explains. The program spans one year. Kelly will graduate in August.
Ledbetter says the company is hoping to offer the scholarship each year in the nursing field. Return to top
STG Offers New Scholarship
(L to R): Robin Burress, STG Supervisor, Loretta Changery, STG Operations Manager, A-B Tech President K. Ray Bailey and Tom Ross, Community Outreach Coordinator for NCDC.
STG, Inc. has established a scholarship for students studying computer technologies at A-B Tech in commemoration of the National Climatic Data Center's 50th Anniversary.
A contractor for NCDC, STG will provide more than $500 per semester for one or more students pursuing a curriculum in this field. The NCDC is the world's largest active archive of weather data, produces numerous climate publications and responds daily to data requests from all over the world. Return to top
Headlines
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OD Corner
USA Staffing Turns Salary into Scholarship
STG Offers New Scholarship
more...
Pam Silvers Receives Regional Faculty Award
Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue Addresses Biotech Conference
Nine Employees Honored For Excellence In Public Service
NCAEOP Awards Luncheon
A-B Tech Students Receive Tools of the Trade
Students Among Academic Excellence Recipients
EMS Students Participate in Disaster Drill
A-B Tech Welcomes New Employees
John R. Bubar is the new Chairperson of the Surgical Technology Program. John has an A.A.S. in Nursing from Trocaire College in Buffalo, NY; a B.A. in History and an M.B.A. in Business Administration from State University of New York at Buffalo. He was a Surgical Services Educator at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, FL. and then the Program Director of Surgical Technology at Durham Technical Community College in Durham, NC. He also has experience as a staff operating room RN at the Durham VAMC, and the Duke University Medical Center as well as a Charge Nurse at the UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, NC.
Liubov N. Fesiuk has joined the Custodial Department in Plant Operations. Liubov has his high-school diploma from the Ukraine, and comes to A-B Tech from Trinity United Methodist Church, where he was also employed as a custodian.
Tech Talk is produced for employees of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College by the College Relations Division
Send Submissions to Mona Cornwell, director of communications at <mcornwell@abtech.edu>. Publication of the next issue is scheduled July 1. The deadline for submission is June 18.