Blue Ridge Community and Technical College -- ASCEND Grant Announcement Press Thursday, July 23, 2020 Transcription provided by CaptionAccess For assistance email support@captionaccess.com www.captionaccess.com Speaker: Good afternoon, everybody. Is everybody doing fine? It's good to see some faces after being tucked away from the COVID-19. It's good to see humans on the screen. Speaker: Good afternoon. Dr. Checkovich: Good afternoon. I'm Pete Checkovich, President of the College. We are here today to make an announcement about a really fantastic opportunity, the ASCEND program. I want to thank the chancellor and others who have given us this opportunity to get students graduated more quickly and into the workplace. It's even more important now than it was 8 months ago. I want to introduce Dr. Sarah Tucker, our chancellor. She has provided our school with opportunities for many students. Dr. Tucker: Thank you. I'm really executed about this program this fall. We first launched this award in early January with a pilot program. ASCEND is modeled after a highly successful program at City University New York. This program will help students complete their degrees more quickly. To reach our goal to arm 60% of our workforce with a secondary credential, we are doubling down. We are supporting students in many fields so they have promising careers waiting on them after they graduate. Our goal is to increase the number of students who enter and graduate from high demand programs and move on to high wage jobs. I'd like to commend President Checkovich and his team for getting students and the college ready to go. Under any circumstances, it would be a challenge. In these circumstances, it's been a great challenge. Now I'd like to introduce Erin Crossett to share a few words. Erin Crossett: Hi, everyone. Can everybody hear me? OK. For some reason it's saying I can't start my video. Speaker: We can hear you. Erin: OK. Thank you so much for that. Thank you, everybody for taking the time to be here today. As you know this model was developed by CUNY in New York and has been shown to significantly increase the number of students graduating with a postsecondary credential. It's been studied using control trials, the gold standard of research. ASCENT nearly doubled the college graduation rate in one study. Here in West Virginia we are excited that more citizens can graduate with degrees in higher wage fields including nursing and welding. This will be especially important in coming years as has been mentioned. We are very excited to support this program. I want to congratulate the president and chancellor and their team for launching this program. We look forward to our continued partnership. Thank you. Speaker: Thank you, Erin. Lisha Burks: OK. Thank you, Erin. I want to thank everybody for coming to listen today. I'm going to start by telling you what ASCENT stands for: accelerating student completion; encouraging new dreams. We are encouraging new dreams by helping to alleviate or lessen financial pressures, including tuition waivers, assistance to help with any remaining balances, and a monthly incentive like gift cards. On the academic side, students will have a dedicated advisor from entry to graduation to provide the one on one attention many of them need, as well as support like tutoring assistance. We want to not only strengthen retention but accelerate our student graduation rates through the supports from ASCEND. We want to help more students earn certificates and associates degrees. This pilot year we have 60 spots in the ASCEND program. We are almost full. We are focusing on 17 programs with potential to add more in coming years. Who is eligible for the ASCEND program? First, you have to make sure you've completed your admission requirements to start in fall. You have to have completed a FAFSA and accepted any assistance. We are focusing on students with 10 credits or less. Other students can apply but there is more for the requirement. The GPA requirement depends on the program with nursing program students needing a higher GPA. Students must maintain full time enrollment and maintain good academic standing. They also must live in our metro area. This sums up the program. I'm really excited to be a part of this. At this time, I'll open it up for questions. Speaker: We do not have any questions at this time. Lisha Burks: OK. I want to thank everybody for taking time this afternoon and logging on to listen to this opportunity. This is going to be a game changer for many of our students. I'm excited to be a part of it. I like to see our students grow. It's one thing I love to see in my career. So I hope as many students as can will take opportunity of it. Please reach out to us if you have any questions. Dr. Checkovich: I have a comment. I don't know how we were lucky enough to hire Lisha but she's been a star performer at the college. She's a dream fit and I think we will do wonderful things with the program with her in charge. Dr. Tucker: We are thrilled to work with you, Lisha. Lisha Burks: Thank you. You've given me big shoes to fill. [laughing] Dr. Checkovich: Am I the narrator? Where does that take us now? Lisha Burks: Closing, I think, if there are no questions. Dr. Checkovich: OK, we have no further questions or comments? Once again, thank you for this opportunity. It's going to be a life changing experience for many students. They don't realize how lucky they are now but will soon. So thank you. Speaker: Thank you all so much. Take care. Speaker: Thank you. [ End of Transcript ]