News and Features

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.

Central Piedmont Community College’s Small Business Center will partner with small business centers in the state’s Southwest region on the 2021 “53 Ideas Pitch Competition.” Sponsored by Fifth Third Bank, this pitch competition is intended to help address income inequality and equity through entrepreneurship. Anyone with an idea has the opportunity to compete for cash awards, plus take advantage of training resources, and find social connections to help remove barriers and to launch a viable business. The top prize winner of the competition will receive $10,000 in seed money for a start-up business. 

“Last year, ideas came pouring in across the 10-county region. The community responded, and the response to the ‘53 Ideas’ pitch competition was different. Contestants did not mirror the historical demographics of entrepreneurs,” said Renee Hode, regional director for the NC Small Business Center Network. 

More than half of the participants at last year’s competition were women; more than half of them were minorities, with the majority earning less than $50,000 a year. 

Studies show that four out of five entrepreneurs do not access bank loans or venture capital. Instead, their sources of funding are personal network, generational wealth or connections to networks. The “53 Ideas Pitch Competition” exists to help lessen this inequality in entrepreneurship. 

“Any successful business starts with an idea,” said Lori Thomas, executive director projects and market resources at Central Piedmont. “Share your idea with us, tell us your plan, and Central Piedmont will provide the resources and training to help you make it happen.” 

The “53 Ideas Pitch Competition” is an open call for business ideas from residents across the region. Individuals will have 53 seconds to pitch their idea in the form of a video submission that may be uploaded to 53ideas.com. For open, inclusive access, if someone has an idea but does not have the technology to submit an entry they can visit their local small business center for help and access to enter the competition. 

Judges will review the submissions and select the top 53 pitches. Top entrants will each receive a $50 award, as well as the opportunity to advance in the competition. Training and coaching on pitching, financing, forecasting, and general business will be available to every participant, even if they do not make the top 53. These free resources will be offered by Small Business Centers located at community colleges throughout the region, including Central Piedmont, Cleveland, Gaston, Mitchell, Rowan-Cabarrus, South Piedmont and Stanly. 

After the training period, the top-53 entrants will participate in a closed virtual pitch event, where the judges will narrow the field down to 10. The top 10 will receive $250 each and go on to compete on a virtual stage for the top awards: first place receives $10,000, second place earns $5,000, and third place receives $2,500 in seed funding to help turn their ideas into a viable business. 

To learn more about the “53 Ideas Pitch Competition” or to upload a video submission by the May 31 deadline, visit 53ideas.com.

The N.C. State Board of Community Colleges has awarded Central Piedmont Community College its 2021 Distinguished Partners in Excellence Award for its successful, ongoing partnership with Bank of America and Year Up.

The State Board’s Distinguished Partners in Excellence Award honors an exemplary employer, business or industry group that has demonstrated decisive involvement and a firm commitment to the professional development of its employees and/or to the development of North Carolina's workforce through its partnership efforts with one or more of the 58 community colleges.

Central Piedmont’s partnership with Year Up and Bank of America represents the award’s criteria well. The Year Up Charlotte program – which receives support from the Duke Endowment and the John M. Belk Endowment as well as Bank of America – strives to prepare low-income students throughout the Charlotte region for economically mobile careers. Nationwide, more than 90 percent of Year Up students identify as a person of color.

“We are proud of the partnership between Central Piedmont Community College, Year Up and Bank of America to continue to strengthen the economic mobility opportunities within the Charlotte market. Collectively our partnership provided the students the tools, but it is important to note these motivated and smart young adults leveraged the resources and proudly exceed all of our expectations,” said Charles Bowman, Bank of America’s Charlotte Market President. “We look forward to deepening the partnership and continuing to make a positive impact for the young adults and adults of this community and region.”

Launched in 2019, Year Up Charlotte offers first-semester students the opportunity to take credit-bearing technical courses taught by Central Piedmont faculty along with professional skills classes taught by staff of the national non-profit Year Up. Students earn a stipend and have access to the college’s many services, including its library and tutoring resources.

“Through their commitment and support, Central Piedmont and Bank of America have given Year Up Charlotte students the opportunity to learn in-demand skills and make an impact in corporate America,” said Elise Ford, site director for Year Up Charlotte. “We are thrilled to continue partnering with Central Piedmont and Bank of America as we work to empower more young people to redefine what talent looks like and where it comes from.”

In their second semester, Year Up Charlotte students enter a full-time, credit-earning internship at Bank of America or another corporate partner. There is no cost for students to participate in the program. Bank of America’s advocacy and strong leadership role, coupled with Year Up’s outcomes, have led other Charlotte-area companies to extend workplace-learning opportunities for the involved student population.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in spring 2020, Central Piedmont and Year Up provided laptops and personal Wi-Fi hotspots so students could continue their instruction online. Bank of America provided the interns with the same technology their employees use so they could work remotely.

“Central Piedmont is honored to receive the Distinguished Partners in Excellence Award with Bank of America and Year Up,” said Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer, president of Central Piedmont. “When the

Year Up Charlotte program was launched at Central Piedmont in 2019, it was the largest opening class of students in Year Up’s history. From that point forward, with Bank of America’s generous support and intense engagement, Year Up Charlotte has been a superb, high-quality program that is transforming the lives of students. Central Piedmont’s goal is to help ensure the Year Up Charlotte program continues to be a model for other schools and cities to replicate.”

Of the partnership’s first cohort, 70 percent of graduates are now working at Bank of America full-time; 10 percent are enrolled in school full-time.

Year Up is a national nonprofit organization that serves more the 5,000 young people annually.

Learn more about Year Up.

Learn more about Central Piedmont.