Writing these columns for the past few years has been an incredible journey as I’ve shared thoughts, information, and stories about Wilson Community College programs, students, and employees. As the College is heading into our winter break and wrapping up 2023, I am also wrapping up my time at WCC and beginning a new chapter in January. I look forward to reading these columns as other College employees share about the great things happening here.
And speaking of rounding out the year, I wanted to recap the impact Wilson Community College had on our community in 2023.
- Since January 1, WCC has served 5,783 students.
- Of the 5,783 people served this year, 773 were high school students in our Career and College Promise program, or CCP for short. These students take FREE college courses for credit while still in high school. That’s pretty incredible!
- We will wrap up our 122nd Basic Law Enforcement Training Academy with a graduation ceremony next week. Back in May, eight cadets graduated from the Academy. And we trained 2,489 sworn law enforcement officers this year at our Coastal Plain Law Enforcement Training Center. This equates to 48,409 hours of training. These officers travel to our facility from all over the state.
- Our 50th Fire/Rescue Training Academy, which has four fire cadets, will finish up on December 12. We will also celebrate all 50 Academies with past graduates at a special celebration and luncheon that day.
- We held our May commencement ceremony with 203 graduates. Our youngest graduates were 17 years old (and there were several of them!), and our eldest was 69 — proving it’s never too early or too late to get started at WCC.
- We offered 15 online courses during the five-week Winter Semester – and saw registrations skyrocket because of the offerings, with 215 students taking advantage of the shorter semester.
- We awarded more scholarships for just the fall semester than ever before, totaling almost $80,000. And we’ll award nearly that same amount for the upcoming spring semester.
- We trained employees from 9 companies – a total of 278 individuals – through our customized training program. The companies were 3C Store Fixtures, Alliance One, Bridgestone, Collins Aerospace, Linamar, Merck, Old Saratoga, Strategic Materials, and Sun River. The total cost savings to the companies in providing this training was over $53,000.
- Our Small Business Center helped start 29 new businesses.
- And we held a Car & Truck Show in September and a golf tournament in October, raising thousands of dollars for student scholarships because of the support of our community.
For more information about WCC, give us a call at (252) 291-1195. Of course, you’re always welcome to tour the campus. #WilsonCC We make Wilson work.