A donor who wishes to remain anonymous has made a $10-million gift commitment to Central Piedmont Community College. The gift is the single-largest individual donation in Central Piedmont’s 58-year history and among the largest gifts ever made to a community college nationwide.

Central Piedmont will use the gift to transform its role as a community resource for arts and humanities programming and learning. Plans for the gift include:

• establishing an endowment that provides resources to attract and retain outstanding arts and humanities faculty members;
• creating a scholarship endowment to provide Opportunity Scholarships for students who are pursuing degrees in arts and humanities;
• creating and launching an arts and humanities series which will bring renowned authors, artists, and performers to Central Piedmont for the benefit of students, faculty, staff and the greater Charlotte-Mecklenburg community;
• establishing a public art fund, which will provide resources to commission public art for the enhancement of outdoor spaces at the college, enriching the lives of students, faculty, staff and visitors on a daily basis;
• enhancing instruction in the visual arts; and
• creating an endowment to support and expand instruction and learning in the arts and humanities at the college.

“This magnanimous gift will strengthen Central Piedmont’s capacity to educate, train, and empower well-rounded individuals who will understand, appreciate, and participate in the rich and diverse cultural traditions that strengthen the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community,” said Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer, Central Piedmont president. “The generous donor believes regardless of students’ academic background and desired education and career pathway, their perspectives should include experiences in the arts and humanities to achieve a better comprehension of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future. Through our conversations, it’s clear the donor believes Central Piedmont is a critical community resource for Mecklenburg County residents beginning their higher education journey, seeking skills to build a family-sustaining career, or needing additional credentials for career growth.

“A gift of this magnitude will be transformative for the college and the community. As a result of this gift, Central Piedmont students will gain a greatly enhanced appreciation of the arts and humanities, aiding them as they build productive lives of meaning and service. At the same time, Central Piedmont will be able to establish itself as a national leader in arts and humanities education among community colleges,” Deitemeyer added.

The $10-million gift commitment comes to the college as part of its ongoing “Powering a Stronger Future campaign.” Powering a Stronger Future is an ambitious, five-year, comprehensive, fundraising effort focused on providing students with greater access to outstanding educational and career-preparation opportunities, addressing the workforce needs of business and industry in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The campaign will conclude on June 30, 2022.

In recognition of a $2.5-million grant from The Leon Levine Foundation to support health sciences education and health careers preparation at Central Piedmont Community College, the college is naming its new health programs facility on its Central Campus the Leon Levine Health Sciences Center.

Located at the corner of Charlottetowne Avenue and Elizabeth Avenue, the Leon Levine Health Sciences Center opened in August 2020. While many Central Piedmont students still were taking classes remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students in a number of health careers programs that require in-person instruction began taking classes and labs in the new facility immediately.

Covering approximately 74,450 square-feet of space, the Leon Levine Health Sciences Center provides a home base for multiple health professions programs, including dental assisting, biomedical equipment technology, surgical technology, and polysomnography, and hosts a state-of-the-art virtual-anatomy classroom. In addition, the facility provides students with a number of hospital simulation rooms, including, trauma, mother and child, pediatric, typical patient rooms, an operating room, clinical laboratory, and pharmacy. The building is also home to the geomatics and civil engineering programs and provides several general use classrooms.

“The Leon Levine Health Sciences Center has already made a significant and positive impact on the learning experience of our health professions students,” said Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer, Central Piedmont president. “The center is a state-of-the-art, cutting edge facility, in which the college can prepare its students well for the professional work environments they will enter and the equipment they will use.

“We thank The Leon Levine Foundation for its generous grant, which will help Central Piedmont continue to provide a comprehensive offering of health careers programs that are among the best in North Carolina. Students in our nursing and allied health programs will continue to thrive at Central Piedmont and enter the workforce well-prepared to provide superb care.”

The Leon Levine Foundation grant comes to the college as part of its ongoing “Powering a Stronger Future Campaign,” which seeks to raise $40 million to support students, programs and faculty development. Central Piedmont will use the grant to support programs aimed at providing health careers training and help ensure a broad range of students have access to these programs.

“We are honored to be part of investing in Central Piedmont Community College’s ability to offer top-notch academic healthcare instruction and a career pathway for generations of students to come,” explained Tom Lawrence, president of The Leon Levine Foundation. “The new facility will also help promote access to quality medical care by creating a pipeline of professionals for the region’s healthcare sector and by providing valuable medical resources to both students and the community.”

The Leon Levine Health Sciences Center at a glance:

• Construction began – September 2017
• Facility opened to students – August 2020
• Square footage – 74,450
• Source of funding – 2013 Mecklenburg County bond referendum
• Architects – Creech & Associates working with Morris-Berg Architects
• Project manager – Rodgers Builders

About The Leon Levine Foundation
Established in 1980 by Leon Levine (Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Family Dollar Stores, Inc.), The Leon Levine Foundation supports programs and organizations that improve the human condition through investments in education, healthcare, human services and Jewish values. Based in Charlotte, N.C., the Foundation invests in nonprofits across North Carolina and South Carolina with strong leadership, a track record of success, and a plan for financial sustainability. Through its investments, the Foundation intends to create pathways to self-sufficiency, champion strategies for permanent change, and facilitate opportunities for growth. Learn more online or follow on Twitter and Facebook @LeonLevineFdn.

For the third-consecutive year, Central Piedmont Community College was selected to participate in the Metallica Scholars Initiative and receive $25,000 in funding to support its career and technical education programs.

Funded by Metallica’s All Within My Hands (AWMH) and led by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the Metallica Scholars Initiative was created in 2018 to fundamentally improve the earning potential for students who become Metallica Scholars.

Central Piedmont will continue to use the grant funds to provide direct support for students enrolled in its healthcare career programs but who need financial assistance to complete their studies and become licensed healthcare professionals. These programs include: nursing, physical therapy assistant, and occupational therapy assistant. The goal of the initiative is to ensure students receive relevant jobs skills that will make them competitive in the healthcare field.

“We are proud to work with Metallica to advance the career and technical education provided by the nation’s community colleges,” said Walter G. Bumphus, AACC’s president and CEO. “Colleges across the country provide pathways to well-paying jobs through programs, services, and training that lead to in-demand skills, certificates and degrees for students. These programs are responsive to the needs of local businesses and provide a pipeline of qualified workers to local industry. It’s a win-win for our students and the local economy. For Metallica to continue to invest in these students and communities is a testament to the power of the workforce education community colleges provide and we are proud to do this work with them.”

Learn more about the Metallica Scholars Initiative at Central Piedmont.

Linda Lockman-Brooks has been elected to chair the Central Piedmont Community College Board of Trustees by her fellow board members. Lockman-Brooks, a college trustee since 2016, is the first female and the first Black person to chair the board in Central Piedmont’s 58-year history.

Lockman-Brooks is a Charlotte business executive with extensive leadership experience at large public companies, as well as expertise as a small business owner and entrepreneur. She is founder and president of Lockman-Brooks Marketing Services, which provides strategic marketing and communications services and executive talent development resources to a diverse book of clients, including AT&T, Bank of America, Novant Health, The Dallas Mavericks, Luquire Agency, and The Nature Conservancy.

Appointed and reappointed a Central Piedmont trustee by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education, Lockman-Brooks served on the board’s Finance and Facilities Committee from 2016-2018, and Executive Committee since 2018. She has chaired the Student Success and Strategic Initiatives Committee since 2018. She also is a co-chair of the Central Piedmont Foundation’s ongoing “Powering a Stronger Future Campaign,” the most ambitious fundraising effort in the foundation’s history. The campaign, with a $40-million goal and extraordinary success with a year to go, is aimed at supporting students, programs and faculty development and providing even greater access to underrepresented persons.

“Central Piedmont has been fortunate to have Linda Lockman-Brooks as a highly engaged and thoughtful Trustee since 2016. Now, we are even more fortunate to have her chair the board,” said Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer, college president. “Linda assumes leadership of the board at a crucial time, as Mecklenburg County emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the college readies itself to help a growing number of Mecklenburg County residents restart their careers or begin their higher education journey to greater economic mobility.

“The college will look to its trustees for sound counsel and guidance as it works to extend education and job-training opportunities to all who seek them,” Deitemeyer added.

Lockman-Brooks is past chair and serves on the board of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library Foundation and on the board of visitors for Johnson C. Smith University. A sustaining member of the Junior League of Charlotte, she has also chaired the boards of the Arts and Science Council, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte and the YWCA of the Central Carolinas. She is a Senior Fellow of the Charlotte Chapter of the American Leadership Forum and was the Executive in Residence in 2020 for the Wake Forest University MBA program in Charlotte.

Lockman-Brooks succeeds Edwin Dalrymple, who has chaired the Central Piedmont board since 2014. Dalrymple will remain a college trustee through June 2023.

The UNC School of Government’s ncIMPACT Initiative announced recently the selection of 15 community collaboratives to an inaugural cohort working to better align their education systems with the needs of their regional economy. This intensive two-year project will position the cohort to significantly increase the number of individuals with postsecondary degrees, credentials, or certificates of value in the workforce. It aligns with the state’s legislative goal of 2 million individuals between the ages of 25-44 who possess a high-quality credential or postsecondary degree by 2030.

Funding was provided by the John M. Belk Endowment and Dogwood Health Trust, a private foundation based in Asheville, N.C., with the sole purpose of dramatically improving the health and well-being of all people and communities of 18 counties and the Qualla Boundary in Western North Carolina.

Central Piedmont Community College, the multi-campus college serving Mecklenburg County, is among the 15 chosen collaboratives. Aligning with their efforts to facilitate student learning, success, and completion, Central Piedmont is working closely with Mecklenburg County, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, and Bank of America.

“These collaboratives offer an organized way to respond to future work challenges that no single institution or even an entire sector can effectively tackle,” said Anita Brown-Graham, professor and director of the ncIMPACT Initiative. “We are eager to begin this important work together.”

Each team, or “collaborative,” may cover an individual county, a municipal-county partnership, or a multi-county region. The 15 selected collaboratives are led by the organizations identified below and serve the counties listed:

• Cape Fear Workforce Development Board (Brunswick, Columbus, Pender, New Hanover);
• Central Carolina Community College (Chatham, Harnett, Lee);
• Central Piedmont Community College (Mecklenburg);
• Eastern Carolina Workforce Development Board (Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, Onslow, Pamlico, Wayne);
• Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro (Guilford);
• HIGHTS, INC (Jackson, Macon, Swain);
• Land of Sky Regional Council (Buncombe, Henderson, Madison, Transylvania);
• Made in Durham (Durham);
• McDowell County Schools (McDowell);
• Elizabeth City State University (Pasquotank);
• Sampson Community College (Sampson);
• Strategic Twin Counties Education Partnership (STEP) (Edgecombe, Nash);
• Surry Community College (Surry, Yadkin);
• Wingate University (Anson, Union); and
• Work in Burke (Burke).

Each participating community will benefit from: Five regional forums at which teams will establish goals, identify strategies, set plans for implementation, collaborate across sectors, and learn from experts; technical assistance support throughout the process; $15,000 to assist with the costs of hiring a community project manager; $10,000 in implementation funding for the project; evidence-based resources that respond to immediate learning loss concerns and prepare for longer-term planning; and a Local Attainment Collaborative Toolkit to implement and sustain demand-informed local collaboration with regional employers. The myFutureNC field-based regional impact managers will serve these collaboratives in partnership with ncIMPACT, as well as other communities across the state so they are positioned to join a future cohort of collaboratives.    

"Building a strong talent pipeline will require a new level of cross-sector coordination. Among others, key strategic partners in these collaboratives must include PreK-12, universities, community colleges, workforce development boards, economic developers, chambers of commerce, county commissioners, policymakers, and civic leaders. And most critical to the overall success is ensuring decisions are being made based on data and research, and the voice of communities, businesses, industries, and employers is in the center of these important conversations,” said Cecilia Holden, president of myFutureNC.

Forty-six project applications were received, representing 82 counties across the state. The selection committee sought to deliver a cohort with regional, economic, and demographic diversity; demonstrated community commitment; prior experience with educational attainment efforts; and identified barriers to educational attainment in the community. The ncIMPACT Initiative will manage this first cohort of collaboratives. myFutureNC will leverage the model developed through this cohort to identify and support additional collaboratives moving forward. 

Central Piedmont is partnering with Aviso to provide students, faculty, and staff with a new digital tool to maximize student success and increase retention. It will be our centralized hub to keep students better connected with their success team (navigator and/or academic advisor) and other college resources.

Aviso allows all departments in the college to have a customized, holistic view of our students to better identify their individual needs and provide a streamlined -- and proactive -- way to help them at every step of their college journey. 

Aviso also provides an early alerting system and robust data reporting tools to help us identify students who might be at risk -- early enough for us to most effectively intervene -- allowing us to impact students in a positive way to help them reach their individual goals. 

For students, Aviso will give them personalized access to college resources and easy ways to contact their navigator and/or academic advisor. They’ll get alerts about grades and class progress, and about tasks that need to be completed along their journey at the college. We’ll send reminders about important dates and deadlines through the channels they use most -- text and email -- to make it simple to stay on track and stay connected with their success team. 

“With the implementation of Aviso Retention, Central Piedmont will have the technology-enabled tools required to make a beneficial and crucial difference in the lives of our students,” said Dr. Chris Cathcart, vice president of student affairs. “Student success is not an independent task but instead a communal effort to identify and implement a strategy that best promotes success among our students. Aviso Retention is a helping hand for institutions ready to make that change.”

Aviso rollout and training is underway for employees, and the tool will launch to students during the upcoming fall 2021 semester.

Governor Roy Cooper announced this week the launch of the North Carolina Longleaf Commitment Grant, a program for eligible 2021 North Carolina high school graduates who plan to attend one of North Carolina’s “Great 58” community colleges starting in the fall 2021 semester. 

Thanks to the new program, high school graduates may be eligible to receive grant funds – not a loan – to cover tuition and fees toward a degree or to attain transfer credit.

Full-time eligible students are guaranteed to receive $700 to $2,800 per academic year, for a total of two years. Part-time students may receive a partial award. The Longleaf Commitment Grant ends at the conclusion of the 2023 spring semester.

In addition, the Longleaf Commitment program will provide matching grants to affiliated colleges to help the institutions expand their student advising, success coaching, and related services to support student success after students have enrolled.

“This is tremendous news for prospective students,” said Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer, president at Central Piedmont. “The funds provided by the Longleaf Commitment Grant will help our incoming students persist and complete, achieve their academic goals, secure a better paying job, begin a family-sustaining career, or pursue further education.”

Learn more about the North Carolina Longleaf Commitment Grant, including its eligibility requirements, and get connected to helpful resources.

Contact the Financial Aid office.

Central Piedmont Community College hosted multiple commencement ceremonies outdoors on its Overcash Lawn, located in front of Overcash Center on Central Campus, on May 12 and 13, to ensure the celebration of its 2021 graduates was conducted safely and in accordance with NCDHHS and CDC guidelines amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The following outdoor commencement ceremonies were held:

• Wednesday, May 12, 2021
  • 11 a.m.: Health Science programs
  • 2 p.m.:  Skilled Trades, College and Career Readiness
     
• Thursday, May 13, 2021
  • 9 a.m.:  Business, Engineering, and Technology
  • 11 a.m.: Transfer Degree Programs
  • 2 p.m.: Transfer Degree Programs

More than 800 students from the 2021 spring semester, as well as the 2020 summer and fall semesters, “marched” and received their college degrees during the first outdoor commencement ceremony the college has hosted in 35 years. (The last outdoor ceremony was held in 1986, on the Central Campus Quad.) More than 2,430 students were eligible to graduate this year.

During the May 12 festivities, Mr. Marco Gallardo Cuervo, who graduated from Central Piedmont with an Associate in Applied Science in Welding Technology degree, addressed his fellow graduates. Ms. Emma Hoff, an Associate in Arts student delivered the May 13 commencement address to her peers.This is the fourth consecutive year Central Piedmont has had student keynote speakers at graduation. 

Central Piedmont Community College will offer an increased number of on-campus, in-person classes during the upcoming summer and fall semesters. The college also plans to offer 1,000 afternoon, evening, and weekend class sections during the fall.

More than a third of Central Piedmont’s summer semester classes, which begin May 17, will include on-campus sessions. The fall 2021 semester will resemble the fall 2019 semester with a majority of class sections being offered on campus. 

With pandemic safety protocols in place, Central Piedmont continued offering on-campus classes in programs that require in-person instruction in May 2020. Now, with everyone in North Carolina age 16 and older eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines, the college will expand its on-campus class offerings to include courses that had been offered primarily online since pandemic began.

The college will continue to follow safety practices, such as requiring masks and social distancing indoors, as long as recommended by the N.C. Department Health & Human Services. By the fall semester, class sizes will be back to their pre-COVID levels; usually 20 or fewer students per class.

“Central Piedmont is happy to bring so many classes back to campus this summer and fall,” said Jeff Lowrance, vice president for communications, marketing and public relations. “Students have told us they prefer to attend classes on campus where they can interact with their classmates, talk easily with their instructors, inquire about services in person, and just gain a better sense and feeling of community.

“At the same time, we know many students will be trying to work while going to school, so the college is making a real effort to offer more afternoon, evening, and weekend classes to better meet students’ busy schedules,” Lowrance added.

Central Piedmont will continue to offer a significant number of classes online for students who prefer remote learning or whose schedules or family responsibilities accommodate online classes more readily.

Central Piedmont’s Military Family and Veterans Services is proud to announce that it has added a SALUTE Veterans National Honor Society to its already impressive list of student clubs and organizations. The Chapter of SALUTE at Central Piedmont will provide veteran students with a rewarding community of resources, opportunities, and support.

“SALUTE Veterans National Honor Society is pleased to be the first and only academic honor society to recognize students who serve their country and community, and who demonstrate outstanding academic performance,” said Karla Schwartz, national director for the SALUTE Veterans National Honor Society. “A Central Piedmont student’s designation into SALUTE Veterans National Honor Society will help distinguish them to employers and educational institutions by signifying their military honorable service, academic excellence, and a commitment to superior success, which can all lead to achieving meaningful employment and educational opportunities in the future.”

The benefits of membership include:

• A certificate and military-style challenge coin commemorating membership
• Access to unique scholarship opportunities
• Assistance with resumes and engagement in local leadership positions
• Opportunities to network, as well as receive and give assistance to fellow student veteran members
• Wear SALUTE Honors regalia to demonstrate academic achievements as a veteran at graduation
• Participate in local and national SALUTE programs

“The Chapter of SALUTE at Central Piedmont will help our student veterans persist and complete,” said Richard Bartell, director of Military Families and Veterans Services at Central Piedmont. “In addition to providing additional scholarships to fund students’ education, the chapter will help them engage and connect with their peers, providing them with the support network they need to achieve their academic goals.”

The honor society application window opens May 2021. For more information on the Chapter of SALUTE at Central Piedmont and how to join, visit Military Families and Veterans Services.