Central Piedmont and Queens University of Charlotte announced the launch of its RoyalUp program – a new pathway to a bachelor’s degree that aims to expand college access to more students – on Sept. 25.

Students who enroll in RoyalUp will take their first two years of classes at Central Piedmont and finish their bachelor’s degree at Queens. Students who maintain a 2.5 GPA or above are guaranteed admission as well as a $10,000 annual scholarship at Queens. This plan offers a new, cost-effective and direct pathway for Central Piedmont students who want to pursue a four-year degree.

“This public-private partnership is unique and will be a great benefit to students in Mecklenburg County. We are excited to offer this option and pathway to our students who will thrive at Queens, where they will enjoy small class sizes, relationships with professors and a strong surrounding community,” said Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer, president of Central Piedmont. “At the same time, this partnership is a great example of the higher-education community in Charlotte working together to build more avenues to greater economic mobility.”

Learn more about the RoyalUp program.

Missed the event? Watch the digital recording of the live announcement.

Central Piedmont Community College is participating in the State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) Foundation Bridge to Career Cohort Program, an initiative that seeks to remove financial barriers for students seeking to obtain state-regulated or industry-recognized credentials through the workforce continuing education division of their local community college. The goal is to help students establish sustainable wage careers within their local communities.

Central Piedmont is one of 50 community colleges in the state to receive funding for up to 30, $500 scholarships, as well as an additional $3,000 to hire an Education Navigator through the Bridge to Career Cohort Program. The Education Navigator is responsible for administering the program, guiding the cohort through the program and connecting them with the soft skills and interview preparation trainings needed to alleviate any barriers to job attainment.

The scholarship program will be administered by Central Piedmont’s College and Career Readiness department with support from the college’s Financial Aid office and the Grants Administration team. The College and Career Readiness department will identify and select eligible students currently enrolled or planning to enroll in the college’s commercial driver license, welding and phlebotomy programs; and provide support services to the student cohort. Once named a scholarship recipient, students may apply their scholarship monies toward registration fees, books, certification fees, course supplies or any other educational expenditures charged to their college account.

“Our team is excited to help students receive the workforce training and assistance they need to find employment opportunities in Mecklenburg County and beyond,” said Sheena Ashley, director of career development and NextGen at Central Piedmont. “We will walk with them every step of the way, providing them with support services, such as advising, career planning and coaching, to ensure their personal and professional success.”

All 58 N.C. community colleges were invited to participate in the Bridge to Career Cohort Program for FY 2020-2021. To apply for the increased scholarship funds available through the cohort program (scholarships: $15,000; program support staff: $3,000), Central Piedmont had to submit a Request for Funding Proposal.

To learn more about the SECU Bridge to Career Program, the eligibility requirements and more, please visit cpcc.edu/financial-aid/scholarships.

To help small businesses navigate any startup and/or growth challenges they are experiencing during the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Small Business Center is offering a series of free government contracting webinars in September and October.

The series will focus on the following topics:

• Sept 22: Responding to RFPs, RFQs, and ITBs
• Sept. 29: Developing a Capability Statement
• Oct. 7: How to do Business with the City, County, and CLT Airport
• Oct. 13: Business Certifications
• Oct. 20: Proposal Writing 101

Be sure to register early; slots fill quickly.

Questions? Email renee.hode@cpcc.edu.

The City of Charlotte, in partnership with Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont and Central Piedmont, is launching an additional fall cohort of its Renewable Energy and Efficiency Workforce (RENEW) training program on Oct. 6.

RENEW provides paid training in the areas of construction; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); and the electrical trades.

“These skill sets are in high demand in the Charlotte region,” said Brian Lucas, associate dean of skilled trades at Central Piedmont. “RENEW will teach eligible students the basic skills they need to succeed in the workforce and potentially place them in successful full-time, entry-level employment opportunities upon completion.”

The upcoming 16-week training classes will be held virtually and in person at both the Goodwill Construction Skills Training Center, located at 1335 Alleghany St., and on Central Piedmont’s Harper Campus, located in southwest Charlotte. The classes are scheduled from Oct. 6, 2020 to Feb. 5, 2021, and will focus on a variety of subjects, including:

• basic residential and commercial construction
• HVAC training, with an emphasis on energy efficiency and building automation systems
• basic electrical training that can potentially lead to job placement in facility management, electrical trade work, solar/photovoltaic panel installation and maintenance, and/or electric vehicle maintenance and charging infrastructure careers
• general energy management concepts

In addition to learning real world skills, students will receive: a stipend of $15/hour, career counseling in preparation for a paid work-based learning opportunity, OSHA 10 and EPA 608 certifications, and full-time employment within the industry.

The deadline to apply for participation in the fall 2020 cohort is Friday, Sept. 25, 2020.

Questions? Contact Marvin Kelley with the Goodwill Construction Skills Training Center at 704.839.4235 or via email.

How do you go from just trying to get through life to fulfilling what you were born to do with your life?  WTVI PBS Charlotte General Manager Amy Burkett shares what she's learned over 30-plus years in leadership and broadcasting in her recently published book "The 7 D's to Your Destiny." 

Inside its pages, readers will learn how to immerse themselves in the 7 D’s to destiny and hone their talents, moving from ordinary to extraordinary while fulfilling their life’s purpose.

Burkett weaves her decades of learning and growing from New York Times Bestselling Author John Maxwell throughout the book’s pages, sharing the many tools readers will need to unlock their awesomeness and seize the destiny that is out there waiting on them.

“The 7 D’s to Your Destiny” is available on Amazon.com.

Central Piedmont’s Wilton and Mary W. Parr Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence has been featured in the 2020 Achieving the Dream (AtD) Teaching and Learning Toolkit, a resource that is shared on the organization’s website and with its 277 partner institutions located in 44 states across the country.

AtD assembles the toolkit each year for the nation’s college faculty and teaching staff to build institutional capacity in teaching and learning. The toolkit offers best practices for teaching remotely and in the classroom and an assortment of higher education case studies focused on promoting student success through policies and practices.

Central Piedmont’s Parr Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence is featured in Chapter 5 of the Toolkit titled, “A Hub for Innovation & Change: Strengthening Your College’s Professional Learning Infrastructure.” The chapter focuses on the importance of having Professional Learning Hubs – a term AtD uses to describe any college-wide unit that organizes, develops, and supports faculty professional learning activities – on higher education campuses.

Central Piedmont’s new Parr Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence fits AtD’s Professional Learning Hub definition, as detailed in the article. Chapter 5 describes how the college’s Teaching and Learning Excellence Team used data to not only support the creation of a Center at Central Piedmont, but also to determine the Center’s focus areas (faculty programming, faculty development, faculty engagement, etc.); mission, vision, and values; and more.

“The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence at Central Piedmont is a hub for innovation,” said Shantell Strickland-Davis, executive director for the Parr Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence. “It’s an anchor, an intentional place for faculty and teaching staff to not only build a culture of excellence for teaching at the college, but also raise awareness of Central Piedmont as a quality two-year college across the region, state, and country.”

NC State’s Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research recently released its International Education at North Carolina Community Colleges report, and Central Piedmont’s efforts in providing international education opportunities to its students were featured in the report’s findings.

The report is a collaboration between the Belk Center and the North Carolina Community College System Office and uses data collected during the 2019-2020 academic year to explore how North Carolina community colleges address the system’s mission to “develop a globally and multi-cultural competent workforce.”

The report provides a broad overview of what sorts of international education opportunities are available at NC community colleges and suggests that international education is much more prevalent at NC community colleges than national data indicates.

Central Piedmont has been offering study abroad experiences to its students and members of the local community in for more than 20 years. Each year, during spring break and the summer term, Central Piedmont faculty members lead short-term study abroad excursions to a variety of locations across the globe, including: Ecuador, Italy, Greece, Japan, Thailand, Peru, Tanzania, and many others.

Since the college’s 2020 study abroad programs were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global Learning Office has turned its attention to:

• providing students with virtual, international exchange experiences
• encouraging students to apply for the Scholars of Global Distinction program
• ensuring the college’s curriculum includes a global learning perspective

To learn more, please email Global Learning.

Charlotte Pipe and Foundry Company, through its charitable giving arm The Dowd Foundation, has awarded Central Piedmont Community College a $1-million grant to support plumbing and pipefitting scholarships and instruction at the college.

Charlotte Pipe and Foundry Company, founded in 1901, has a deep and ongoing interest in strengthening Charlotte’s construction and infrastructure sectors. Charlotte Pipe, the nation’s leading manufacturer of cast iron and plastic pipe and fittings for plumbing applications, has been working for more than a century to ensure the plumbing and pipefitting trades remain viable career paths for future generations.

“Charlotte Pipe and Foundry and The Dowd Foundation are proud to support the plumbing and pipefitting trades,” said Hooper Hardison, president of Charlotte Pipe and Foundry. “We know how essential these career paths can be for young people, as well as for our nation’s infrastructure. We are delighted we have resources like Central Piedmont in our region to provide an education pipeline for the construction trades.”

Central Piedmont will allocate Charlotte Pipe’s gift in the following ways to recognize the company’s important role in the region’s plumbing and pipefitting sectors: 

• Charlotte Pipe and Foundry Company Scholarship Fund ($500,000)—This is a permanently endowed scholarship fund that will provide support for financially needy students enrolled in Central Piedmont plumbing and pipefitting courses.
   
• Charlotte Pipe and Foundry Company Instructional Fund ($500,000)—This fund will support instruction in plumbing and pipefitting at Central Piedmont, providing the resources needed to purchase equipment and materials, invest in faculty development and address instructional capacity.

“We are so grateful to Charlotte Pipe and The Dowd Foundation for this generous and impactful grant,” said Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer, Central Piedmont president. “The Charlotte region needs many more skilled tradespersons, such as plumbers and pipefitters. These are stable, sustainable, and well-paying careers. This grant will help the college recruit and educate more individuals, setting them on a path to career success and economic mobility.”

Learn more about Central Piedmont’s construction management technology program. 

Central Piedmont Community College and WGU North Carolina, an affiliate of national online nonprofit Western Governors University, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreement that will ease the transition for Central Piedmont graduates to pursue bachelor’s degrees offered by WGU, provide tuition discounts, and offer access to scholarship funds.

The MOU establishes the principles that all articulated associate degrees at Central Piedmont will transfer to WGU, thus facilitating a seamless process for graduates who wish to pursue a bachelor’s degree. WGU is fully accredited and offers more than 60 undergraduate and graduate degrees in the high-demand fields of business, information technology, and education and healthcare, including nursing.

In addition, Central Piedmont graduates, faculty, and staff will receive a five-percent discount on WGU’s already cost-effective tuition of around $3,225 per six-month term for most undergraduate programs. They also will be eligible to apply for scholarships through the WGU Community College Partnerships scholarship program, which provides each recipient with a tuition credit of $2,000, awarded over four terms at $500 each term. WGU will provide webinar training to Central Piedmont faculty and staff to ensure understanding of the partnership and articulation pathways, and provide relevant print materials and a designated landing page with customized information.

“Central Piedmont is happy and excited about this partnership with WGU North Carolina because it offers our students another direct pathway to a four-year degree as well as an avenue to greater economic mobility,” said Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer, Central Piedmont president. “This program will serve the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community well as we work together to produce more individuals with bachelor’s degrees to meet our ever-growing workforce demands.”

WGU North Carolina officially launched in October 2017 through a partnership between the state and nationally recognized Western Governors University. More than 3,700 North Carolina residents are enrolled currently at WGU, and more than 4,000 alumni live in North Carolina.

“For nearly six decades, Central Piedmont Community College has been a champion of students and a catalyst for opportunity and business in North Carolina,” said WGU North Carolina Chancellor Catherine Truitt. “It’s an honor to partner with Central Piedmont to provide a seamless transition for its graduates who want to pursue their bachelor’s degrees at a competency-based online university offering programs in high-demand fields.”

For more information about WGU North Carolina, visit nc.wgu.edu.

Central Piedmont Community College announces its inaugural Year Up Charlotte class of 40 students graduated on July 23 during a virtual commencement ceremony, hosted by Year Up Charlotte and its long-term partner, Bank of America.

The college began partnering with the national nonprofit Year Up in August 2019, when the organization launched its Charlotte location with generous support from Bank of America, the John M. Belk Endowment, and the Duke Endowment. The intensive, yearlong program prepares students (ages 18–26) for entry-level technology and customer-facing roles in fields such as business operations, information technology, and software development and support.

Trinity Simpson, one of the students graduating from Year Up Charlotte’s first class, delivered the keynote speech at the July 23 commencement ceremony. Simpson feared that if he stayed in his small town in North Carolina, he would “be working a minimum wage job with no opportunity and become another statistic.” He has completed his Year Up internship at Bank of America in cyber security and has accepted an offer as an operations control analyst at the bank.

The students enrolled in Central Piedmont’s Year Up program at the beginning of the 2019 fall semester. Participants spent their first semester taking technical and professional skills classes taught by Central Piedmont and Year Up staff, and then participated in a full-time, credit-bearing internship at a corporate partner firm during the spring term, learning the real-world skills they would need to excel in the workforce.

“The Year Up Program provides a challenging and nurturing space for students to get the skills they need to succeed in today’s workforce,” said JJ McEachern, dean of enrollment management at Central Piedmont. “As a result, it’s one of the most successful partnerships in higher education. It not only supports students during their educational journey, but also through the career phases of their life.”

The program is provided to students at no cost. Throughout the year-long program, students earn college credits and receive access to a robust offering of services and supports from Year Up to promote their success, including an educational stipend. They also have access to Central Piedmont’s many services, including the college’s library and tutoring resources,

Nationwide, 90% of Year Up graduates are employed or attending college within four months of completing Year Up, with average starting salaries of $42,000/year. Because of the program’s ability to help move the economic mobility needle, it has garnered the support of multiple community partners across the Charlotte region, including the John M. Belk Endowment, the Duke Endowment, Bank of America, and Leading on Opportunity.

• Learn more about the national nonprofit Year Up.
• Learn more about Year Up at Central Piedmont.