Robeson Community College partners to send more grads to UNC Chapel Hill

(Chapel Hill, N.C.—June 16, 2016) – The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program (C-STEP) and Robeson Community College (RCC) in Lumberton are partnering to increase the number of RCC students transferring to and graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill. With this agreement, RCC becomes the 10^th North Carolina community college to partner with C-STEP and Carolina.

 Through C-STEP, talented low and moderate income high school and community college students who enroll in one of the program’s partner colleges are guaranteed eventual admission to Carolina if they are admitted to and complete the community college portion of the program successfully.

 “We are excited about our new partnership with C-STEP,” said Dr. Pamela Hilbert, Robeson Community College president. “This partnership will open new doors of opportunity for hard-working students, many of whom are from a diverse population, throughout Robeson County and help improve the prosperity of our community for years to come.”

 “Carolina will be a better place because of the talents and perspectives brought by more students from Robeson County,” said Stephen Farmer, vice provost for enrollment and undergraduate admission. “We look forward to working with RCC to help students excel at Carolina, thrive here and ultimately graduate, thus achieving their goals of better lives for themselves and their families.”

Students invited to participate in C-STEP agree to earn an appropriate associate degree and participate actively in the program. While pursuing their associate degrees, C-STEP offers students special events, advising and transition and support services both at their home college and at Carolina. The program also provides transition and support services once students have enrolled at Carolina and are pursuing their bachelor degrees.

Now in its 10^th year, the Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program was launched with the support of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation in an effort to enable more community-college students to transfer to and graduate from Carolina. Approximately 800 transfer students enter UNC-Chapel Hill annually, with about 25 percent coming from North Carolina community colleges.

C-STEP currently serves almost 580 students; 489 of those have already enrolled at Carolina and 271 have graduated. The remaining students are expected to enroll after completing their community college courses. The average C-STEP graduate GPA is 3.0 and the overall graduation rate is 79 percent (2016). Recent C-STEP graduates have become nurses, teachers, lawyers, university administrators and entrepreneurs following graduation.

Current partners include: Alamance Community College; Cape Fear Community College; Carteret Community College; Central Carolina Community College; Craven Community College; Durham Technical Community College; Fayetteville Technical Community College; Sandhills Community College; and Wake Technical Community College.

(This is a press release)