News and Features

Central Piedmont alumnus Zach Lokken ’21 will represent Team USA in the Tokyo Olympics, July 23 – August 8. The Associate in Arts graduate will compete in the MC-1 Canoe Slalom event during his first Olympics appearance.

Born in Durango, Colo., Zach has won several awards in the sport of American Canoe, including third place in C1 and C2 during the 2015 U.S. National Team Trials.

When he’s not hitting the rapids, he enjoys skiing and longboarding.

Learn more about Zach.

WCNC-TV News Story: View the complete list of local athletes competing in the Tokyo Olympic games.

Photo credit: AP

Janet LaBar, president and CEO of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, has been appointed to the Central Piedmont Community College Board of Trustees by N.C. Governor Roy Cooper. LaBar’s four-year term begins July 1.

Charlotte attorney Michael Hawley has been reappointed to the Central Piedmont board by Gov. Cooper for another four-year term. Hawley has been a college trustee since 2017.

Caldwell Rose, president of NAI Southern Real Estate in Charlotte, has been appointed to the Central Piedmont board by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education to a four-year term beginning July 1. This is a continuation of Rose’s service as a trustee. He has been a board member since 2015, when he was appointed first by Gov. Pat McCroy.

“The college is excited to welcome Janet LaBar to the Board of Trustees. Janet’s background and experience in workforce development and economic development makes her a great addition to the board,” said Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer, Central Piedmont president. “At the same time, we are grateful Mike Hawley and Caldwell Rose will continue as trustees. They have been highly engaged and have provided insightful counsel and leadership. We will rely on our 2021-22 board members heavily as the college welcomes more students back to campus and helps Mecklenburg residents find a post-pandemic path to career growth and greater economic mobility.”

LaBar has led the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance since 2019. Prior to coming to Charlotte, she served as president and CEO of Greater Portland Inc., a regional economic development organization. Her other career positions include chief performance officer of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, and research and communications manager for the Center for Workforce Development, a part of the Maricopa County Community Colleges District in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Hawley has practiced tax and business law in Charlotte since 1983, with the global firm K&L Gates and its predecessor Kennedy Covington Lobell & Hickman. He also worked as a visiting professor of law for the University of Florida College of Law, and as a vice president with First National Bank of Tampa.

Rose is a native of Charlotte, and joined NAI Southern Real Estate in 1988. He has served in a leadership role on the Central Piedmont Board of Trustees, chairing the Finance, Facilities and Audit committee since 2018. He holds real estate brokerage licenses in North and South Carolina.

The Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC) has recognized Central Piedmont with its Distinguished RRT Credentialing Success Award. The award is presented as part of the CoARC's continued efforts to value the Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) credential as a standard of professional achievement.

To qualify for the award, Central Piedmont's respiratory therapy program had to meet the following criteria:

• have three or more years of outcome data
• hold accreditation without a progress report
• document RRT credentialing success of 90% or above
• meet or exceed CoARC thresholds for TMB high cut score and retention

Congratulations to the program's faculty, students, and alumni on this accomplishment!

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. 

This fall, Central Piedmont Community College plans to offer close to 40-percent more compressed classes – this includes four- and eight-week classes – than it did in fall 2020.

The college’s decision to transition from the traditional, 16-week course schedule is based on national data from peer institutions, such as Odessa College, Ivy Tech Community College, Trident Tech and others, that shows students in compressed courses:

• consistently achieve higher success rates than their peers who were enrolled in full-length courses. This is especially true among part-time students;
• benefit from the constant pacing from term to term;
• excel at a higher level because they have to focus on fewer classes at a time; and
• have the opportunity to earn stackable credentials.

As a result of these findings, Central Piedmont created a pilot program in spring 2021 through a number of its programs, including Business Administration, Criminal Justice Technology, Interior Design, Welding Technology, and others, that offered students the option of enrolling in traditional, 16-week class sections, or taking multiple eight-week classes throughout the spring semester.

“We found students in compressed courses demonstrated improved time-management skills, enhanced focus and motivation, and improved knowledge retention,” said Dr. Heather Hill, vice president of academic affairs at Central Piedmont. “By offering our students more compressed sections, we are not only giving our students the opportunity to build a learning schedule that better accommodates their lifestyle, but also helping them complete and achieve their educational goals faster and on time.”

Central Piedmont plans to offer more than 1,000 classes in a compressed format in fall 2021. The fall semester, as well as the first four-, eight-, and 12-week sessions, begin Aug. 16. If you’re interested in learning more about Central Piedmont or registering for fall semester classes, please visit www.cpcc.edu/admissions/registration.

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.

Congratulations to our spring 2021 Central Piedmont Dean's and President's List students!

These lists recognize students enrolled in for-college-credit programs who achieved a high grade point average (GPA) with no Incomplete ("I") or Withdraw ("W") grades and who have completed at least 12 hours of credit in courses numbered 100 through 299. Dean's List students earned a 3.50 or higher GPA; President's List students earned a 4.00 or higher GPA.

These students have worked very hard over the semester and have well earned this accomplishment.

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.