Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Robin Gary Cummings, left, and Richmond Community College President Dale McInnis sign a Growing Your Own partnership agreement during a college ceremony in Hamlet.
Courtesy photo | UNCP
PEMBROKE – A new partnership between the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and Richmond Community College will create a perfect path for aspiring teachers to become part of the state’s teacher network.
Chancellor Robin Gary Cummings and RCC President Dale McInnis launched the Creating Your Own Teachers partnership during an autograph event at the RCC on Thursday in Hamlet. The initiative aims to recruit teachers who want to serve their communities.
The contract allows RCC students to complete the Associate of Arts or Associate of Science in Teacher Preparation before being transferred to UNCP to complete an Educator Preparation program, or EPP. Both membership degrees are new to RCC.
“This partnership is a step forward to promote a line of well-trained, experienced and educated teachers who will return to the counties of Richmond and Scotland, to educate teachers, doctors, engineers, scientists – tomorrow’s leaders,” Cummings said.
The agreement will offer four new prerequisite courses at the RCC and students will be enrolled through double enrollment in the last semester in Richmond. Students will also have the chance to take Praxis while at RCC and take advantage of scholarship opportunities, such as the Memorial Lois McKay Smith and RCC Guarantee, and NC Promise Tuition Plan at UNCP.
“We will be able to use all the tools and means to recognize the prestige, esteem and value that teachers deserve,” said McInnis. “We are going to share resources, instead of competing for resources. This initiative makes it truly integrated. “
The partnership will address the issue of teacher evasion in the region, McInnis said.
“Rural North Carolina needs to develop our own teachers because the current business model is not sustainable. We have talent, intelligence and willpower right here at home, ”he said. “They just need one way – a push in the right direction. We need to remove several obstacles, and that is exactly what this agreement will do ”.
Gretchen Martin’s path to obtaining a UNCP professor’s degree began at RCC. She currently teaches in Richmond, her native county, and has since returned to UNCP to obtain a master’s degree in reading.
“This partnership makes competitive education achievable for a diverse population of students – traditional and non-traditional. Starting at RCC and transferring to UNCP saves time, money and hassles for many families, ”she said.
Loury Floyd, dean of the UNCP Higher School of Education, also spoke during the signing, saying that if there is not a strong supply of well-prepared teachers, nothing else in education can work.
“As the leader of the UNCP EPP, our mission has been, and will continue to be, to ensure that southeastern North Carolina has a large supply of well-trained teachers,” he said. “This path will help to achieve that goal.”
In his closing comments, Cummings said partnerships like these are vitally important to the continued growth of the Southeast North Carolina economy and essential to leveraging the power and potential of RCC and UNCP to improve students’ lives and lead to region ahead.
Mark Locklear is a public communications specialist at University Communications & Marketing at the University of North Carolina in Pembroke.