RCC Spring 2023 Magazine

FULL C IRCLE

A nurse, her instructor, and a sign

Randolph Community College marked its 60th Anniversary on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022. The following week, the College celebrated with a Community and Campus Resources Day, an archives exhibit, RCC Impact Day on social media, and a celebration in Azalea Park (pictured).

Magazine Spring 2023

Board of Trustees

F. Mac Sherrill, Chair

T. Reynolds Lisk Jr., Vice Chair

Harvey C. Boone Jr.

John M. Freeze

James G. Gouty

M. Zeb Holden

Robert E. Morrison

Larry D. Reid

J. Brooke Schmidly

Dr. Cynthia G. Schroder

Dr. R. Andrews Sykes

Chris L. Yow

Kassandra Ciriza Monreal, SGA President

Foundation Board of Directors

Gail H. McDowell, President

Vickie H. Gallimore, Vice President

RCC Vice President for Administrative Services, Treasurer

Rebecca Marshall, Secretary

Elizabeth H. Aldridge

James G. Gouty

Robert A. Graves

Neal Griffin III

Baxter Hammer

Nicki McKenzie Hill

Ann M. Hoover

Elbert Lassiter — Interim President

Debi Lagueruela

Justin M. Lee

Dr. Cynthia G. Schroder

H. Dean Sexton

Mini Singh

F. Mac Sherrill

Magazine Staff

Megan Crotty, Managing Editor

Design & Production

Robert Hollingsworth, President/Creative Director, Line

Design Graphics

Photography

Malinda Blackwell, Megan Crotty, Amber Luffman, Lorie McCroskey, Perfecta Visuals/Jerry Wolford and Scott

Muthersbaugh

Contributing Writers

Megan Crotty, Amber Luffman, Lorie McCroskey

randolph.edu

Facebook.com/RandolphCommunityCollege

@RandolphCC

@randolphcommunitycollege

Information: 336-633-0200

Alumni Relations: 336-633-1118

Randolph Community College Magazine is produced by Randolph Community College and the RCC Foundation.

PRESIDENT’S

What a difference a year can make!

Randolph Community College continues to rise and grow while holding on to its core values. We have a continued goal of creating opportunities and changing lives driven by strategic initiatives that consistently put students’ needs first.

Having served as Vice President of Workforce Development and Continuing Education at Randolph Community College, I have been witness to many of the special things that happen on our campuses every day. But now that I have a larger view of our campuses from my seat as the College’s interim president, I am even more aware of the amazing team we have at RCC.

One of our core values at RCC is radical hospitality, and we diligently try to practice that every day with all of our students. We also realize the importance of practicing it with each other. For all of us in the workforce, it can be easy to lose sight of the importance of practicing radical hospitality not only with your external customers but with your internal customers. As we are training students for their first or their next career, the soft skill of empathy toward others on your team is emphasized.

RCC has risen past challenges, moving forward with groundbreaking growth, partnerships, and success. The stories in our Spring 2023 magazine showcase our resolve to positively influence students' lives and the community. Our students continually amaze us. Their determination is a testament to their success and, combined with our dedicated faculty and staff, has generated excitement across campus that drives the RCC mission.

While RCC continues to progress, our strong community partners and donor relationships are the mainstay of our success. Their scholarship, emergency assistance, and program support allow us to create opportunities at a level that would otherwise not be possible.

The success of our students is our story, and I am honored and excited to see where 2023 takes us and look forward to telling their stories.

Elbert Lassiter Interim President

CHEERS

RCC HOLDS FIRST IN-PERSON

By Megan Crotty

Former Randolph Community College President Dr. Robert S. Shackleford Jr. made his way down the ramp and into the crowd for one last photo May 11 as the College held its first in-person graduation since 2019. The moment was bittersweet. While RCC lauded its Class of 2022, which achieved the milestone despite a global pandemic, it also honored its retiring President of 15 years.

“I’m sure you know that you each mean so much to him,” said Vice President of Student Services Chad Williams, who closed the ceremony at the Special Events Center of the Greensboro Coliseum Complex. “In fact, if you’ve ever heard him speak, you’ve heard him share that you are why we do what we do. I have never met someone with stronger passions for students than Dr. Shackleford. So, to honor one of the greatest student leaders I have ever known, and a man who truly appreciates those special moments with students, we would like to capture this moment of celebration with a photograph.”

Bill McBrayer, Vice Chair of the North Carolina Community College System State Board, was the guest speaker, and described the circuitous route he took to earning his college degree, sprinkling the speech with “nuggets” of wisdom for the graduates.

“I’d really like to thank Dr. Shackleford for inviting me,” he said. “It’s an honor for me to give this final commencement address for Bob Shackleford. He’s been a great friend and a great servant at the community colleges. He has been a great servant leader for this institution and our entire system.

“I encourage each of you to try to procure a job that gives you meaning and purpose in life. Nugget number 10: Life is too short to be miserable.”

Shackleford opened the ceremony with a welcome, thanking the Graduation Committee; introducing the College’s Board of Trustees, Senior Leadership Team, faculty, and staff, and recognizing special awards and honors earned by the graduates.

“It is my great honor to welcome each of you to this very special time of celebration,” he said. “Smiles are abundant. Isn’t it wonderful to be here together for this celebration in-person tonight? Our pride in our students and our celebration of their reaching this milestone in their lives is overflowing tonight.

“Our mission at Randolph Community College is: Creating Opportunities. Changing Lives. At RCC, this is not just a catch phrase. Our purpose is for you to use these credentials and go on to have a great life and a great career. What does your diploma mean tonight? It means that you have learned how to multitask. You’ve learned not to just give answers, but

Astudent reads theirgraduation scroll.

Nursing Instructor Dr. Elizabeth Snow smiles as the graduates line up.

& TEARS GRADUATION SINCE

2019

to solve problems. You’ve learned to work hard and give the extra effort to complete an assignment. You’ve learned to work with a team. You’ve learned to deal with adversity and failure and pick yourself up and keep going. You’ve learned to follow directions and be coachable. You’ve learned to keep going with dedication when it’s tempting to give up and quit. Go live your best life. Go live your dream. The best is yet to be. Congratulations, graduates.”

RCC Student Government President Gabriell McArthur gave the opening remarks, starting with thanking the staff at the College and her family for helping her reach the graduation milestone.

“To all the students here today: Well done. You made it,” she said. “I know that this journey has not been easy for you, and I want you to know that I’m proud of you. Everyone here is so proud of you. When you leave here today, whether you decide to go off to a university, to start a new career or even a new business, I want you to know that you can do it. Have faith in yourselves. You have all worked very hard to be able to walk across the stage today, and you deserve to be honored for your dedication.”

After Presidential Scholar Kassandra Ciriza Monreal delivered the invocation, Shackleford introduced McBrayer, and RCC Vice President for Instructional Services Suzanne Rohrbaugh followed McBrayer with the presentation of candidates for graduation.

“This is my favorite day of the year,” she said. “I love what I do. I love the students that we serve. I love the faculty I walk alongside of every day. Tonight is extra special because we’re able to celebrate the incredible success of all the new graduates. We can go down the list and talk about all the obstacles and the challenges — I probably should use the word ‘COVID’ every other word. So, if nothing else is on that resumé, you should say that you are extremely flexible. You all have demonstrated the perseverance and the determination to get here tonight. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your educational journey, and we wish you the best.”

The graduates then crossed the stage one-by-one to receive their degrees, diplomas, and certificates. Board Chair F. Mac Sherrill announced the awarding of all three, and Williams closed the ceremony.

“Your being here tonight required much of you and those who supported you along this journey,” he said. “I encourage you to take a moment right now to look around with those sitting next to you, think about all your family and friends here with you tonight as well as all of those watching online. Capture this moment. As you go your separate ways, you will forever have a special bond as RCC graduates. Congratulations. You did it. We are so proud of you.”

RCC Industrial Programs Department Head Wesley Moore leads the graduationprocessional.

Shackleford delivers the welcome at the ceremony.

By Megan Crotty

A year before the George Floyd protests in 2020, former Randolph Community College President Dr. Robert S. Shackleford Jr. had set a goal of revising the College’s Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) curriculum to include more diversity and de-escalation training for law enforcement. De-escalation is a range of verbal and nonverbal skills used to slow down the sequence of events, enhance situational awareness, conduct proper threat assessments, and allow for better decision-making to reduce the likelihood that a situation will escalate into a physical confrontation or injury and to ensure the safest possible outcomes.

In July of 2020, thanks to reserve funding, the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) started an Impartial Policing initiative in response to the protests of police use of force surrounding Floyd’s death. The content for the training was developed through the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission and the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Education and Training Standards Commission with community colleges acting as the delivery agents.

Four regional instructor training events were held statewide in July and August, including at RCC, with 150 instructors taking part and then sharing the standardized

impartial policing content with police departments and sheriff’s offices at no cost to the officers. The training extended additional instruction on implicit bias, impartial policing, and collaborative community engagement. Implicit bias training is designed to help officers develop awareness of their personal implicit biases, understand how those biases can influence their behaviors, and devise ways to prevent biases from leading to disparate treatment of members of the public, particularly regarding the use of force.

Thanks to these initiatives, RCC’s 88th Basic Law Enforcement Training class was one of the first to be given additional training that many new recruits do not receive. The class took courses in de-escalation and implicit bias — a curriculum designed by Derrick Crews, a 27-year police veteran and nationally-recognized de-escalation instructor.

“The Asheboro Police Department has really jumped on it,” former RCC BLET Coordinator/Instructor Brian Regan said, noting the College offers the training in Continuing Education as well. “Right now, you can just watch the news and see what’s going on. These agencies aren’t providing de-escalation training and de-escalation policies, and it’s really a liability. I try to make it a point to the students to one, stay updated on your training and two, don’t just sign off on a policy. You better read it and you better understand it.

“That’s the one thing I like about Derrick’s class is you can move between de-escalation, using force, and then go back to de-escalation.”

Regan, who chaired the Use of Force Board for the North Carolina Highway Patrol for three years, is well aware of the need for clearly written policies and staying within those guidelines.

“When people get into law enforcement, they think, ‘Oh, it’s an exciting career,’ they don’t think about the other side of things; it’s a high-liability profession,” he said. “You can’t do things outside of what you’ve been trained to do.

“One thing we run into with the younger generation is the communication part. They can send you a text all day long, but when it comes to actual face-to-face communications, they struggle. Hopefully, this will help them with being able to talk to people and not let emotions get in the way,” Regan continued. “[Derrick] shows them a lot of videos where officers let their emotions take over, and then they make bad decisions, and they end up using too much force. One thing I’ve realized working with the patrol is people will call and say, ‘I didn’t like getting a ticket, but they were professional.’ That goes a long way. Being respectful to someone, being professional, and listening to them. I want them to leave with that skill.”

differently — calling for an officer who isn’t emotionally connected to the situation or who recognizes the signs.

Sgt. Jerome Asbell of the Asheboro Police Department taught the implicit bias curriculum to the 88th class, starting with U.S. history and the origins of policing and its connection to slavery.

The curriculum is taught in the classroom — explaining what implicit and explicit biases are, what it means to be impartial, ethics, and the ways stress can impact officers on the job — and outside of the ESTC buildings where the new recruits are put into different scenarios they may face on the job, including traffic stops that get heated.

“One of the reasons why this class was created was deescalation — they never really teach how to transition from de-escalating to hands-on,” Crews said. “You don’t need to de-escalate with someone who wants to comply. The only reason to de-escalate is either they’re trying to bait you into doing something or they want to hurt you.

“When you’re de-escalating and that guy starts getting hyped up, you need to be like, ‘It really looks like you’re upset right now. Can you tell me a bit more about what’s bothering you?’ Set yourself up to where, if things go south, you’re a professional. You’re doing everything you can in your power to avoid confrontation. They chose the confrontation, not you. It’s about empowering officers with cognitive templates.”

Crews added that, when it comes to someone with a mental disorder, officers are taught to deal with the situation

“The history of America was wrought with bias,” said Asbell, showing the class a classified in an old newspaper advertising enslaved people. “They’re basically using people as property, as currency. Think about somebody who is in a predominantly Black community being raised by her grandmother who was raised by her grandmother who was actually part of slavery times. All they know is, ‘When I see law enforcement, they were slave catchers.’ When we got into it, we can’t go into it being biased, and we need to recognize our own biases.”

Outside, the officers worked on traffic stops with Crews and Sgt. Micah Lowe playing various driver roles — anything from a parent late picking up their child from school to someone on the phone to someone reaching for a weapon. Both stopped and instructed the trainee with suggestions on how to better deal with a situation and to tell the officer what they did correctly.

The scenarios included moments when the trainees may have to intervene when another officer on the scene needs to take a step back, or when they need to take a step back.

“Out of 100 cars I pull over maybe two are like this,” Crews said of the more difficult stops. “Every human wants to be cared for or see someone caring for someone else. If I’m not presenting a threat, say, ‘Hey are you OK?’ All you have to do is ask. It takes two seconds to ask.”

Lowe said the atmosphere surrounding law enforcement is much different from when he joined the force.

(Continued on page 10)

“When I came through, you didn’t get any of these trainings just due to the way society was at the time,” Lowe said.

“Still, this isn’t new. After Rodney King and a few more incidents, I started to do what we call verbal judo training. But, after September 11, this country became so patriotic in the sense of what’s right and what’s wrong that whenever I came through, we didn’t have any of this. It was — you ask them to do it, you tell them to do it, if they don’t, you make them do it. It’s a miracle many of us have survived without having to take someone’s life or something of that nature. But you learn from experience. There are plenty who’d never have made it because they didn’t have the skillset and it cost them the job over the stress.”

Lowe admits the training can get personal and the instructors use profanity, but it’s all to prepare the recruits for what happens on the job.

“If you’re short, if you’re overweight, if you’re older than the rest of us, if you look like you’re 12 years old, if you’re female, you’re going to be attacked for that on the street,” he said. “They’re going to exploit it. I’ve seen it time and time again. We’re going to do it out here; we’re not going to avoid it. We’re going to put you in a situation, so you know how you’re going to react to it and so when you get out there you don’t start seeing red.”

On the wrestling mats, students trained for situations when a suspect is on the ground. Lowe and Cpt. Justin Trogdon stressed communication — confirming non-compliance,

telling the suspect everything that is happening, verbally de-escalating even when it gets physical, even introducing yourself.

“If you’re having a hard time at home and you’re not keeping your emotions in check, when you get out on a call and somebody says something that triggers you, we teach them there’s a level, white to black, where they want to stay in the middle,” Lowe said. “We’ve started putting them in a scenario much like some of the scenarios we’ve seen in recent American history. Maybe you’re doing a fantastic job and keeping yourself in check. You’re well aware of your own biases and you’re saying the right things, but perhaps, the other officer is not making the right decisions. Maybe his actions aren’t matching what our goal is. There’s a time to intervene. That’s part of de-escalation, too.

“I always found that, after an argument ensued, it's always easier for the officer who comes from outside that situation to connect with that person on a level where they can communicate and not make them any more escalated than they are. Sometimes I'll go on a scene and just me walking up and saying, ‘Hey man, how's it going?’ Sometimes he’s just happy to see somebody else.”

Recruits also learn how to deal with their own stress, discussing “saboteurs” — personality traits and personal situations that can impact an officer on the job. They even teach breathing techniques — another tool in the chest to keep the new officers calm.

Barrios looks to help community

Like many students who attend Randolph Community College, Jorge Barrios took a circuitous route to his chosen career.

Born in Cuba and raised in a tough Miami neighborhood, Barrios enlisted in the military before he graduated from high school in 2013. Unfortunately, he suffered a knee injury and didn’t graduate from boot camp. Barrios was told to let his knee heal and re-enlist.

While his knee healed, Barrios and his girlfriend (now wife) took a trip to North Carolina to visit her mom and stepfather.

“I just fell in love with the scenery, the nature, the tranquility,” Barrios said. “And you can get land and houses for a fraction of what they cost in Florida. My upbringing in Florida — it wasn’t the best neighborhood. It wasn’t a place where I wanted to bring a kid into the world. So, I moved up here. My mom’s been mad at me ever since.”

Barrios started working for his father-in-law, whose business services and cleans the sterilizing chambers for the surgical wing of hospitals. The job meant lots of travel, which Barrios found exciting as he got to see new places.

When the COVID pandemic hit, Barrios and his father-in-law were in New York.

“You would go to the hospital and see the trailers behind just full of the bodies,” he said. “It was eye-opening. Everything was empty; all the restaurants were closed. It was hotel, work, order food, work. There was no travel, no flying, no nothing. I got homesick at lot of the time.”

Barrios had already been considering law enforcement before he started working for his father-in-law. COVID and the birth of his son convinced him to change careers.

“I want to be not just his dad; I wanted to be a role model for him,” Barrios said. “It’s not just about me anymore. I want my son to grow up in a safe community environment. I wanted a little more job security, too.”

Barrios enrolled in RCC’s Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) program in January 2021. He was used to the physical parts of the training thanks to his short stint in the military, but his class was part of a new breed of law enforcement that was also trained in de-escalation and implicit bias — an initiative started by both former RCC President Dr. Robert S. Shackleford Jr. and the North Carolina Community College System in response to protests against those in uniform.

“When I went through BLET, the election [had] just happened, and everybody hated the police,” he said. “They were putting us in a lot of the situations that were coming out in the news. You realize, ‘Even if I have every right to use my hands in this situation, sometimes it’s best to use your

By Megan Crotty

words.’ It’s eye-opening, especially when you go through training. A lot of officers who get in trouble nowadays didn’t receive that training.

“Situations where you find yourself in a pickle and you think you’d react one way, but when it comes down to it, you think, ‘I really need to train more in this area.’ You revert to old habits and don’t do the proper technique. Your mouth can get you in a lot more trouble, but it can also get you out of a lot more.”

Barrios said that a lot of de-escalation is realizing that many times the person you’re dealing with is having their worst day and feeling hopeless.

“When you corner someone like that who is backed up between a rock and a hard place, you can try and not make them feel like they’re being cornered and there’s a way out of it,” he said.

Coming from a neighborhood in Miami with Hispanic, Black, and white residents, Barrios said it helped him better understand where people are coming from.

“I knew the streets already, but [to be in law enforcement] you have to learn how to talk to people,” he said. “You have to learn how to relax and not be so uptight. When I have the uniform on, I’m held to a higher standard. Because at the end of the day, you have to be professional, too.”

Wanting to be close to home after he graduated from RCC, Barrios took a job with the Randleman Police Department. Life on the force, like the BLET training, has been another eyeopener for Barrios. Police officers wear many hats — whether they want to or not. And not every call is an emergency.

“You sign up for the job, but you realize it’s a job plus dealing with people with mental issues,” he said. “So you’re a therapist, and you have to think about all the laws. You’re the state’s lawyer on the street. And you're the public’s punching bag. They’ll fight you. It gets crazy.”

The life of an officer can also get complicated when you are “different.” Barrios is not only Hispanic, but also stands at 5-foot-2. At 27, though, he’s used to the jabs.

“I always grew up with my brother and I fighting,” he said. In fact, Barrios said he is going to stick it out in law enforcement until he retires. In January, he started at the North Carolina Highway Patrol Academy.

“My favorite part of the job is traffic stops and working accidents,” he said. “It’s getting drunks off the road. Getting meth and heroine off the streets. I want to do more for the community.”

SERVICE TO OTHERScontinues

Dep. Justice McDaniel earns first scholarship honoring longtime RCC instructor

By Lorie McCroskey

Colonel Fred “Freddie” Rutledge II spent his life serving others. Whether it was in his 38 years of law enforcement with the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department or teaching new officers as the Coordinator and Instructor of Basic Law Enforcement Training at Randolph Community College after his retirement from the sheriff’s office, he was always helping people.

When Rutledge died in July of 2020, his friends and family quickly raised enough money to start a new endowed scholarship in his honor. The scholarship would help a student in the Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) program where Rutledge had once taught.

The first student to receive the scholarship is now serving in the same department where Rutledge spent his entire career — the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputy Justice McDaniel has been on the job since February of 2022 and knows all about Colonel Rutledge.

“I met Col. Rutledge before I deployed in 2019,” he said. “He seemed like a great man and was very helpful with getting me in the right track to becoming an officer. I am proud to say, due to some of our conversations back in 2018-2019, it helped me make the right decisions toward getting into law enforcement."

McDaniel is thankful for the kindness of the friends who donated to the scholarship fund to honor the hero’s memory.

“I am so grateful for receiving this scholarship, not just for the money to help pay back some of my book fees,” he said. “I have had the opportunity to work in the same department as Freddy did. I have talked to so many coworkers who worked with Freddy and knew him on a personal level. Hearing what kind of officer and mentor Freddy was is very inspiring to me. “

The legacy scholarship that Colonel Rutledge’s friends established to honor his memory will continue to help future law enforcement officers for many years to come.

WORK EXPERIENCES INSPIRE MOORE

TEACHING THE FUTURE BY LEARNING FROM THE PAST LIFE,

By Megan Crotty

The past is very much prologue for Randolph Community College Industrial Programs Department Head Wesley Moore. Whether it’s RCC’s Automation Engineering Technology or Electrical Systems Technology programs, Moore taps his decades of work in the private sector — as well as profound experiences throughout his life — to create opportunities and change the lives of RCC students.

Moore’s love of teaching — as well as his organizational skills, which helped his department navigate the COVID pandemic — earned him RCC’s 2022 Excellence in Teaching Award.

The industry bug bit Moore in the 1980s when he was taking computer programming classes at Sandhills Community College. One of the instructors teaching microcontrollers (now Programmable Logic Controllers or PLCs) in the electronics lab was having trouble with his computer and asked for help. Moore’s instructor turned the troubleshooting into a lesson for the class.

“When I went to that lab and saw a computer hooked up to machinery, and people using a mouse to make something start up — that intrigued me,” he said. “That was so much more fun than doing a formula.”

After re-starting his major and then graduating from Sandhills with a diploma in Industrial Electronics Technology, Moore plied his skills as everything from an electrical technician at Lucks Foods Inc. for 20 years to an automation manager at Carolina Dairy.

All the while, Moore was teaching Continuing Education classes at RCC when the College needed someone with experience with Mitsubishi technology.

“I’ve always enjoyed teaching,” he said. “The spark of learning, especially with somebody who’s interested in what you’re doing. At work, they’re interested in what you’re doing just so you get it done. The teaching is so much better than doing the actual work, especially when you've got a group that wants to learn.”

Industrial Programs Department

Head Wesley Moore, left, inspires students like Apprenticeship Randolph graduate Joshua DeFreece, who works for Post Consumer Brands.

In 2017, Moore became a permanent member of the Industrial Systems faculty, eventually being named Department Head in 2020.

A big part of Moore’s job is scheduling. With two, two-year programs plus Apprenticeship Randolph, which is a four-year

program, he credits his “past life” in industry and computer programming with his ability to wade into the scheduling maze and come out organized on the other side with a plan.

Recently, Moore restructured the two programs under him — Electrical Systems Technology and Industrial Systems Technology (IST) — and changed IST to Automation Engineering Technology to be more in-line with what industries are demanding of their workforces.

For Moore, the change went beyond semantics — it means more RCC students will graduate with the skills needed for today’s — and tomorrow’s — jobs.

“We’re not trying to teach an engineer how to build an electric motor — that’s already done,” he said. “We’re teaching the technical skills needed to develop, install, calibrate, modify, and maintain automated machines.”

That includes instructions in computer systems, electronics, instrumentation, PLCs; electric, hydraulic, and pneumatic control systems; actuator and sensors, and process control robotics.

“There’s money to be made, and you can work in almost any industry — a modern sawmill, a manufacturing plant, a packaging facility, or a cake factory. That’s the beauty — there are no boundaries,” Moore said.

Graduates from the program will be prepared to work in industries that utilize control systems, computer hardware and software, electrical, mechanical, and electromechanical devices in their automated systems. The job opportunities include Maintenance Technician, Automation Technician, Automation Engineer, Engineering Specialist, Engineering Technician, and Reliability Technician.

The even better news? All the technology needed for the AET program is already at RCC, including Epson SCARA robots, cages and conveyors for the Advanced Manufacturing Center, and three FANUC mobile robots.

“Every ConEd class I’ve ever had — everybody who shows up wants to be there,” he said. “They’re trying to better

themselves. When you teach curriculum, a lot of these kids are here, and they don’t know why they’re here. They may not understand what they got into because ‘Oh, that looks cool,’ and the commercials show robots. Well, that’s a robot working. We get to work on the ones that don’t work.”

In his PLC classroom with “a bunch of blinky lights,” Moore has gotten creative with showing his students how to program the machines to get the right sequence, including having students create a xylophone that plays a specific song.

“I try to give them visuals because some of them have a hard time with the blinky light thing,” he said. “We can’t actually close the clamp, inject the plastic, and turn on the cold water. We have to simulate it with lights. Once they see, ‘Oh, I can make this go back and forth,’ they can run anything.”

Moore tries to give his students realistic lessons for when they enter the workforce. “When I give you a project, the project might be graded on function, but it should matter to you that it looks great,” he said. “Would you buy a car that, when you opened the hood, looked like spaghetti?”

Through his many industry contacts, Moore is happy to help his students find jobs after they graduate. Of course, students never disappear completely for Moore, who has a “Box of Help” in his office. One student bought something he wasn’t sure how to use. Some come back and take a class for extra training after they’ve already landed a job. Another student was having trouble with a FANUC robot, and called Moore. After taking Moore’s advice on something to try, he sent his former instructor a video of the robot working along with a thumbs-up.

“That makes me feel good that he asked me,” Moore said. “I don’t know if he talked to the other engineers, but he didn't have to tell anybody that he talked to me. He came out looking like a hero.”

***

Wesley Moore works with students on an injection molding machine.

Away from school, Moore had a wake-up call in 2019. He and his wife, Tammy, were in a serious car accident the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Along with the physical scars, the crash had a profound impact on Moore. “It made me rethink a lot of things,” he said. “What really is important. I came to work with more energy. It affects you. I’m hoping for the better. Life is temporary. We need to take every opportunity we have. I look back at all the places I’ve worked. Nothing’s better than finishing well. So, I’m at the right place.”

Less than a year later, COVID hit RCC.

“It was pretty devastating for us,” Moore said. “There’s some things you still have to do that aren’t virtual. “Our programs are hands-on and we’re teaching skills — I can’t tell you virtually what it feels like when you turn the screw and you get to the end,” he continued. “That part was a real challenge. Traditionally, we weren’t really vested in Moodle. We didn’t have a lot of content because we’ve got these nice labs. We all scrambled together. Not only that, but I was still recovering from the accident. What kind of software can we use? What can we do? We learned a lot.”

Moore said that when students were able to get back in the labs, they appreciated the time more. “They realized it’s precious,” he said. “I had a student who was quarantined, and he was emailing me, ‘Is there

anything I need to do for extra credit?’ He was afraid he was getting behind, which was a good thing.”

Moore also started embedding more videos on his Moodle page and got a camera that can film him as he instructs. One lesson in his Automation Engineering Technology students learn is that software is always changing, but in industry, whenever a machine is built and validated, to remain validated, the machine must keep the same components.

“The machines making the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, there is somebody out there still has a laptop running Windows 7 to keep those machines running. You can’t just substitute parts because it may not perform the same.” To illustrate his point, Moore brought in a 20-year-old PLC from the former Luck’s Cannery. He plugged it in, and it still worked even though the plant has been offline since 2000.

“Industry works on a different model — if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” he said. “As long as you’re vested in lifelong learning, this is for you because it’s always changing, but you can’t forget the past.”

Which is why, at Moore’s house, a Casio cordless phone from the 1990s still hangs on the wall. “It’s probably on the fifth or sixth set of batteries,” he said. “But it still works.”

SHOAF NAMED ADJUNCT FACULTY OF THE YEAR

By Megan Crotty

Donald Shoaf may have retired from Randolph Community College in May 2022, but he left an indelible mark on the College. Shoaf spent 30-plus years dedicating himself to the medical imaging profession, much of that as a teacher, earning him the 2022 Adjunct Faculty of the Year Award.

“You can tell that Don’s passion is to teach and mold minds,” one 2021 graduate said. “He wants to see you succeed, and he does everything within his power to help you as long as you put forth the effort to make that happen. He truly is one of a kind. He explains things in a way that is easy to comprehend and knows how to deliver instruction so that his lessons stick. I felt like I learned more in the classroom

and lab with him than I ever could online.”

Shoaf earned the Forsyth Technical Community College Excellence in Teaching award in 1987 and the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development Excellence Award in 1991. He also is an active member in the American Society of Radiologic Technologists, serving in various educational capacities including Associate Dean of Health Technologies/Department Chairperson, Radiologic Technology; Assistant Vice President/Dean of Health Technologies, Radiography Program Coordinator, Radiography Clinical Coordinator, and Radiologic Technologist, Clinical Imaging Manager.

The willingness to learn and a love of being a part of a talented team meant Matthew Needham could have started anywhere. Luckily for Randolph Community College, Needham was the Director of Safety and Emergency Preparedness when COVID hit. He was the perfect person for the job. For his tireless efforts to keep the College campuses safe, Needham was named the 2022 Staff Person of the Year.

Before RCC, however, his focus was more on forests than folks.

Needham graduated from N.C. State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Forest Management. A certified arborist, he started a landscaping company, Remember Your Roots, in 2002 with his best friend since elementary school. The two worked mostly in Cary and Raleigh, doing everything from writing tree conservation plans to building water features to basic landscaping.

In the summer of 2008, Remember Your Roots was inundated with work — so much so that the business partners had trouble keeping up. That October, the recession hit, and everything stopped, including the small company’s contracts.

“We were at the point that summer where we were fixing to have to grow and take on some more debt and put on another crew because we couldn’t keep up,” Needham said. “We were fortunate that we did not. We were at a point where all our stuff was paid for, and it was easy for us to just walk away."

But that didn’t make leaving the business he built easy. “I miss parts of it — he and I working together," Needham said, "but the stress of the cash flow and having to drive over to Raleigh and Cary, I don’t miss.”

While his friend found a job as a grounds supervisor at Dorthea Dix Hospital, in 2009, Needham started at RCC as a groundskeeper in the Facilities Department. “It was bottom pay, but for me, at the time, I still had young

With a title like Director of Safety and Emergency Preparedness you would have no idea that Matthew Needham’s career started in the trees.

girls, so it was more about the schedule than pay,” he said. “In the summertime, when I got off at three o’clock, I didn’t have anything that was on me. I was done. That schedule was a blessing. You have ball practices and stuff — I got to experience all that. There’s a lot more to life than money. In the community college system, I would imagine that’s true for a lot of people. You can go other places and make a lot more money, but when you’re in an environment that you like and you have a schedule that you like, you stay.”

When the state started looking at cutting energy costs by a third at all state agencies, Needham moved into a new role, Conservation Specialist, helping the College cut its energy consumption.

Then in 2016, Director of Safety and Emergency Preparedness Robert Graves was elected Randolph County Sheriff, opening the position. Needham quickly learned that he would be wearing many hats — some he didn’t even know about yet. While boasting environmental health and safety experience under his belt, his background wasn’t in security/law enforcement, emergency preparedness, human resources, or dealing with health issues.

“You’re going to have a steep learning curve coming in not having a background in law enforcement or emergency preparedness,” he admitted. “I continue to try and take [any classes] I can to get to be more comfortable with those roles that I have not had that experience with. One of the things we talk a lot about is silos. If you contain information in silos, when the silo head leaves, you’re in trouble. So, any time someone starts doing something — like in technology, and I didn’t come from technology — I say, ‘Show me. I want to see what you’re doing.’ I don’t know all of it, but I know enough.

“The job is constantly moving and changing. What you might think is the priority for that day might not be a priority at all and be moved to the bottom.”

the SafeColleges platform which provides information on topics such as active shooter drills, fire extinguisher safety, CPR, sexual harassment, and email and messaging safety.

Needham consistently looks for the most cost-effective way to ensure the safety of RCC’s campuses while not sacrificing quality, helping in any way he can with pulling wire or doing installations himself. He also developed a proposal to transition to one School Resource Officer and contract officers, so there would be trained SROs on campus even on Saturdays.

“A lot of campuses have moved away from that sworn law enforcement officer on campus, using security hired by the college and/or contracted,” Needham said. “I prefer a ‘good gun’ on campus. Their presence means something.”

The variability of the job has meant taking workers compensation courses and security courses, as well as Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) classes as part of his professional development. Always learning, Needham is sure to pass along his knowledge to keep RCC safe, offering active shooter training to faculty and staff and coordinating tabletop active shooter exercises with local law enforcement. In conjunction with Human Resources, he moved all the faculty and staff training to

Needham also investigated a mass notification system to put out alerts for anything from lockdowns to severe weather. The older system that RCC had didn’t allow integration with the existing technology on campus. So, along with the Information Technology Systems team, Needham researched other systems, eventually learning about Alertus from neighboring colleges. With the help of a “Safe in Seconds” grant, an Alertus program that provides the Alertus DesktopTM Notification at no cost to schools and nonprofits, the College gradually started adding Alertus hardware components.

“I make the best decision I can with the information I have on hand,” he said. “I always try to err on the side of safety. … We want to create a safety culture where people are

involved. I cannot do it by myself. With faculty and staff using Alertus, people are integrated into our safety culture.”

Since upgrading, the Alertus System has been integrated with Rave’s SMS service, Cisco VoIP phones, and an outdoor speaker system. Several Alertus Text-To-Speech Interfaces are connected to speakers inside and outside Photography and speakers throughout CEIC (Continuing Education and Industrial Center) and the Clock Tower. Desktop activator buttons can send alerts for security, ambulance, mental health, or active shooter scenarios.

“The two-way desktop activator buttons allow us to distribute and receive information from our students, faculty, and staff,” Needham said. “Communication is critical, and we wanted to ensure we had a platform to facilitate the two-way street of delivering and receiving information.

“People want information, and if you don’t give it to them, they will find it elsewhere or make it up. It is essential to have a communication platform that delivers information in real-time; otherwise, you are behind the curve.”

Still, no amount of planning or preparation could have prepared Needham for March 2020 when everything, including the College, closed due to COVID. The pandemic put Needham at the front lines. As the go-to person for COVID issues, he called every person who had tested positive or had been exposed and listened to their concerns; followed up with those individuals; consulted with vice presidents, if needed, for a decision about the individuals; sent out emails, and documented everything.

COVID also tested Needham’s skills in mediation.

“We are duty-bound by general statute to create an environment that is free of known hazards. COVID is a known hazard,” he said. “We are duty-bound to provide that work environment for these people and this place for students to get an education. If we were to have a death on this campus because of it, we could be held liable for that. So, we have a duty to protect those who don’t

even want to be protected. ... Everyone was on edge. It’s not like somebody had a black cowboy hat on, and you knew exactly who you’re dealing with. It just created tension everywhere, and I dealt with that because of my role.”

Now that restrictions have been lifted, Needham is tackling different issues like student mental health. He first broached the idea of having a mental health first aid team. Needham coordinated visits to other colleges so RCC faculty and staff could see what those institutions were doing, and those visits and discussions provided a wealth of ideas from which the College could draw. Today, RCC’s CARES team is managed by Student Services, and Needham still serves on the team. RCC also still has the mental health first aid team that he manages and coordinates.

Needham also is involved in the EHSI (Environmental Health & Safety Institute) and NC ACCSSO (Association of Community College Safety and Security Officials), sharing and learning best practices with his fellow safety and security directors.

“We discuss best practices,” he said. “I send what I’ve done to the group, because I would much rather take your stuff and make it mine than try and invent something.

“Still, what works for us doesn’t necessarily mean it works for other community colleges. And any time you implement a system, there will always be ways to improve. Even in fire drills. Somebody is going to find a weak spot somewhere. Every single time we do something, I always find this didn’t work, that didn’t work. This worked really good. That didn’t work so good. So, we go in and fix whatever issues we can at that point that we’ve identified.”

Needham recently completed his master’s degree in Leadership from Liberty University. He also participated in the President’s Educational Leadership Academy (PELA), Advanced PELA, and Leadership Randolph.

“The reason why I have continued to grow here at RCC is because of the atmosphere,” he said. “The team down in facilities — it truly is a team. They have that kind of atmosphere. They are supported by their director. We are supported by the Vice President. It’s such a great place to work.”

Sig_ns

TOOMES, YOW REUNITE AT THE PERFECT TIME

By Megan Crotty

One unique feature of a community college is that no one takes a straight line to get there in the first place. Not the students, not the staff, not even the faculty. The beauty of community college is that often that strange route comes full circle.

In January 2022, Tiffany Yow was driving to work, talking to her mom, hoping she had made the right choice. Yow had just spent four-anda-half years as a hospice nurse, taking care of patients who were facing death head-on. Now, she was going to bring new lives into the world as a mother/baby nurse at Cone Health. But she still needed a nod from Mom.

“I was talking to her,” Yow said. “ ‘I hope you know I’m making this change, and I hope you approve of it.’ I asked for my mom to give me a sign.”

That same day, Randolph Community College Nursing Instructor Gina Toomes was at the hospital with her daughter, Lea, who was expecting her second child — one that she had waited 14 years for. Toomes needed a sign to know mom and baby were going to be OK. °°°

Nursing wasn’t always top-of-mind for Toomes or Yow, but both were inspired by their dads to change careers after they had already started families.

Toomes’ first job was in banking, working in a main office helping with consumer loans in the accounting department. Still, she spent a lot of time in medical facilities as her dad was diabetic, and her grandmother battling congestive heart failure. Toomes’ last banking job was as a purchaser, but her job moved to Miami, Florida.

“That was my ‘in’ for going back to school,” she said. “I had been wanting to be a nurse.”

Going back to school was not only daunting but also expensive. When her dad passed away, he left Toomes money to live on while she went to school. So, at 40-yearsold, she joined her daughter in the college student ranks.

Toomes went on to graduate from Forsyth Technical Community College and Winston-Salem State University with degrees in nursing before getting her master's in Nursing Education from Liberty University.

“He didn’t get to see me graduate,’ she said, “and I’m a daddy’s girl.”

Yow’s first career was in cosmetology. She had no desire to be a nurse like her mom.

“It was funny because I was in hair school, and I was afraid to do a haircut,” she said. “My mom was like, ‘Tiffany, you're not going to kill anyone. You might just mess up their hair.’ But then when I went to nursing school, it was totally different. ‘Oh! So, this is what you mean.’ ”

What sparked Yow’s interest in nursing was visiting her dad at the VA hospital.

“He has a really bad cardiac history,” she said. “I was at the VA hospital visiting him and I was just like, ‘I think I want to do this.’ ”

So, as a single mom with two kids in daycare, Yow enrolled at RCC. In order to afford college, Yow lived with her mom and had a full-time job. When she had to cut back on her hours to keep up with schoolwork, an instructor told her about nursing scholarships available through the RCC Foundation.

“If it weren’t for the Foundation and all of my financial aid, I wouldn’t have been able to afford it,” she said. °°°

Toomes worked in the ICU at Randolph Health for several years, but the 12-hour shifts started taking their toll, and she knew she didn’t want to go into administration.

“I didn’t want a pager on my hip 24/7,” she said. “I really did want to be a nurse practitioner, but I was so old to begin with. I felt like I needed something for retirement.”

In 2015, Toomes was hired at RCC as a lab instructor in the Nursing program where she met Yow, who appreciated Toomes’ toughness.

“She’s honest,” Yow said. “With the [simulations], you can play back and see your mistakes. That's how I would learn — replaying my mistakes. I really liked the criticism. So, I took to her in lab. Some people just can't handle it. That's how I learned. It does hurt, though.

“Hands-on and mean instructors. That’s my thing.”

Toomes talked about a student who had a patient in the simulation who had low potassium, and she gave the patient a diuretic. Toomes sent the patient into Ventricular tachycardia.

“She said, ‘I’ll never do that ever again,’ ” Toomes said. “And so, she always checks the potassium before she gives the medicine now. She doesn't forget that. That has stuck with her. I could have put the patient in cardiac arrest, but I didn't want to scare her that bad. It just gives you a lesson that you'll never forget because you still have that feeling. And you would never do it in the real world. It's a good experience.

“The fourth-leading cause of death in America is medication errors. And now they’re holding us accountable. Now they’re going to send us to jail.”

Toomes continued to work in the ICU and teach until the COVID pandemic hit. Then, the ICU nurses moved to the emergency department (ED).

“I knew I wasn’t going to have enough time to train on the ED system,” she said, noting she was only there two days a month.

Toomes said she does miss patient care but teaching during clinicals has become a fast favorite. “That’s where I love to teach because it’s nursing,” she said. “That is nursing.

“In the clinical, not everybody can get a pneumonia patient, but here in simulation, everybody can. If you’re teaching

about a particular aspect, everyone can get the same experience. In clinicals, you get what you would if you were a nurse. … I teach a lot of professional behavior, and I have a lot of life experience.”

Having Toomes as the foundation for her nursing career had a profound effect on Yow, who chose Toomes to do her pinning when she graduated.

“I can’t say anything bad about my experience at RCC,” Yow said. “It taught me everything I needed to know to be successful. You may be a hospice nurse, but you still use those clinical skills all the way across.”

After RCC, Yow worked as a Hospice nurse for four and a half years.

“Something drew me to it,” she said. “Everyone was, ‘You’re crazy to go straight from nursing school to hospice,’ but I went in full gear. I wore many hats, and I did things they told me I’d never do. I just got the most experience I could.”

A year and a half into her job at Hospice, Yow’s mom was diagnosed with head and neck cancer.

“I learned all the things I need to know to be able to take care of her,” Yow said. “I met her care team. I chose her care team. I worked hand in hand with [her doctors and nurses]. I really think I was just guided because that was what I was supposed to do.

“It was life-changing, and I still bleed Hospice. It’s one of those things that you never lose the love for.”

“It’s just as important to watch someone come into this world as it is watching someone go out of the world,” Toomes added.

Neither nurse could have predicted the COVID pandemic, which was life-changing for both and career-changing for Yow.

Both nurses said the experience was scary.

While Yow was dealing with patients, Toomes and her coworkers were trying to handle a shutdown RCC and teaching online.

“We had some virtual simulations that would work really well,” she said. “We really tried to work with the students. It only lasted a semester where they didn’t go to clinicals. The graduating class of [2021] was really hit hard.

“They learned all their fundamental skills, and then COVID hit. If we had a January class, we would have probably had to defer them, and they would have had to come back in the fall to get the clinical piece because they wouldn’t have learned any fundamentals. I don’t know how they did it at other schools that have two semesters going on at the same time. There are things you can’t simulate.”

And Toomes said she knows first-hand how tough it can be for students to go 100 percent online.

“I did my masters online, and it was really tough for me,” she said.

On top of that, the pandemic was a mystery for those in healthcare at first.

“Not really knowing what kind of treatment to do for them, and then people were dying left and right,” Toomes said. “A friend of mine lost her significant other. He went in just

for heart palpitations. He died in the emergency room. She couldn’t go in there. And she wasn’t next of kin. It was just awful listening to her talk about it.

“Then they started coming up with some vaccines, and some treatment and it just really made it a little less intimidating.”

Both nurses said they have had COVID and are still feeling the effects — and, of course, seeing the effects. And both said the profession saw many students jump ship when the vaccinations rolled out as many facilities were requiring vaccines.

For Yow, COVID was the second punch in the gut. Two years earlier, her mom passed away in 2018.

“People were dying alone,” she said. “They would want to FaceTime their loved ones, and I would just pull out my phone. It was horrible.

“They wouldn’t let anyone visit our COVID patients. And then they decided that they would allow a one-time visit, and they had to be in the full-on moon suit. The other patients who we had to keep safe from COVID could have as many visitors as they wanted, but they had to sit in lawn chairs and talk through the screen. It took away everything I loved about Hospice — helping with the memories. I hated the memory that it left.”

(Continued on page 26)

So, Yow decided to do what she had always wanted to do since she started nursing school — be a labor and delivery nurse. First, she wanted to learn more about infant care, so she was a mother-baby nurse for a year and a half before taking her current job at Cone Health.

“I was scared because I went from end of life, helping people pass, to doing CPR,” she said. “I had to completely change my whole mindset.”

And talk to Mom.

On her way to her new job for her first day of orientation, Yow asked her mother for that sign. When she arrived, she found out her preceptor was the charge nurse that day.

“She told me to just go with somebody who had already chosen her patient,” Yow said. “I was just tagging along. I introduced myself, ‘I’m Tiffany,’ and I heard, ‘Tiffany?’ I thought, ‘Oh, God. Here we go again. We’re not doing checkoffs, all right?’ ”

No, Yow wasn’t being given a test on her nursing skills. She was about to see a familiar, friendly face: Toomes.

“She looked at me, and she said, ‘You’re my sign. I asked for my mom to give me a sign,’ ” Toomes said. “I said, ‘Well, you’re my sign, too. I know [my grandson and daughter are] going to be OK.’ I started crying when she told me the story about talking to her mom. I was so thankful that I had her. I really needed her, and she, apparently, needed us to be the patient.”

Brand new to labor and delivery, Yow was still learning the ropes, but Toomes’ daughter, Lea, was a perfect patient, and so was the newest member of Toome’s family, Waylon. “It was like the seal on the envelope,” Yow said.

“Tiffany is amazing,” Toomes said. “Every single nursing job she’s been in, she excels. She acted like a seasoned nurse when she delivered Waylon. I’m so proud. I really needed her that day, too. She didn’t just need me.”

Randolph Community College’s Nursing program was recently ranked third in the state for 2023 by RegisteredNursing.org, an organization of RNs based in California whose mission is to “promote excellence in nursing by enabling future and current nurses with the education and employment resources they need to succeed.” It was the seventh nursing school and program rankings for the organization.

“This remarkable ranking indicates our faculty's commitment to student success,” Nursing Department Head Kim Kimrey said. “Our faculty strives to make a significant impact on the health and welfare of others by immersing our students in innovative and collaborative learning approaches, which we feel are integral in providing a quality education. I am beyond proud of our exceptionally hard-working students, faculty, and staff who have all contributed to this esteemed honor.”

According to the website: “Randolph Community College in Asheboro, North Carolina, is home to an accomplished nursing program. Nursing students learn to manage a community's diverse health care needs, including those of vulnerable or marginalized patients, with caring effectiveness.”

Western Carolina University had the top program, while Central Piedmont Community College ranked second.

For the rankings, RegisteredNursing.org obtained NCLEX-RN exam pass rates for all RN programs —

Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN), Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), Direct-Entry Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) — state by state, requesting the previous five years of information. The NCLEX-RN exam is used by all state boards of nursing across the United States to help assess a student’s competency and is required for licensure.

Once the data was obtained, the organization filtered out programs that have closed or would be closing at the time of data collecting, programs with no pass rate data available for the previous one or two years, depending on the state and number of years of data available; and programs with only one year of pass rates.

The organization then analyzed the pass rates going back to the most recent years of data available up to five years. Schools’ pass rates were averaged together and weighted by the recency of the exam.

Other contributing factors weighed into the rankings included, but were not limited to tuition cost, average program length, geo coverage, further educational pathways and partnerships, and number of cohorts annually.

You can view the complete list at https://www. registerednursing.org/state/north-carolina/, or check out the ranking methodology at https://www. registerednursing.org/rn-ranking-methodology/.

Sixty Years Of Learning

RCC CELEBRATES MILESTONE

By Megan Crotty

While looking back at years of successes and looking toward an even brighter future, the Randolph Community College community celebrated Founders’ Week Sept. 4-9 as the College turned 60 years old.

The on-campus celebration started Tuesday, Sept. 6, with Community and Campus Resources Day on the plaza of the Asheboro Campus. Community organizations joined RCC clubs and divisions at tables, handing out information before rain put a halt on the event at noon.

On Wednesday, Sept. 7, the RCC Library opened its archives exhibit, put together by Archival Services Librarian Laura Silva using artifacts gathered by English/Communications Instructor Clark Adams and now-retired Dean of Library Services Debbie Luck.

“The school's purpose when it opened 60 years was to offer training to help students advance in their chosen field or provide training for them to enter a new career," Clark said. "Sixty years later, our mission is very much the same. Debbie Luck and I began our work by collecting anything we could find that told the story of the college — from college catalogs to even ashtrays with the College’s name on it.

“Some of you may see them as just old dusty, musty papers with rusted staples and paper clips, with names of people you have never heard of who are long since deceased. However, I see so much more than that. It is story of successes, failures, challenges, accomplishments, pride, and service to our community. The archives are the story of our hundreds of dedicated employees, but also the story of our students, our graduates, and it tells the story of how Randolph County has grown, adapted, transformed, and survived over the past 60 years. The archives are not static, nor stagnant. Each day, a document, publication, or photograph that produced the day before may be deposited

in the college archives. Therefore, we are all part of the college archives.”

The College celebrated RCC Impact Day on Thursday, Sept. 8, with social media posts on the impact the College makes on the local community, focusing on Apprenticeship Randolph. The RCC Foundation Donor Gala, an annual appreciation dinner for the College’s top donors, was held that night at Holly Ridge Golf Links. On Friday, Sept. 9, RCC faculty and staff, Trustees, and local elected officials gathered in Azalea Park to celebrate with — what else — an armadillo cake.

“I want to thank the Foundation for putting this together,” Interim President Elbert Lassiter said to the attendees. “This really is a wonderful place to work because we make a difference. I appreciate you all being here.”

Lassiter then introduced a special guest, James Willett, who was in the first collision repair course at the thenRandolph Industrial Education Center (RIEC) in 1962 and was still taking classes at the College until he passed away unexpectedly Dec. 15, 2022.

RIEC opened its doors for classes on Sept. 4, 1962, with an enrollment of 115 full-time students who ranged in age from 16- 45 years, eight faculty members, and four staff members. The first class met in what is now room 115 of the Administration/Education Center.

James Willett (left) and Interim President Elbert Lassiter chat on a bench in Azalea Park. Willett was one of the College's first students in 1962.

The College capped Founders’ Week with a celebration Friday, Sept. 9, in Azalea Park on the Asheboro Campus that included an armadillo cake.

RCC faculty, staff, and Trustees gather with local elected officials in Azalea Park.

MORE than a JOB

Pizzola blossoms at The Preppy Possum

By Megan Crotty

Lindsey Pizzola unfurls a roll of paper towels on a flowerprinted green tablecloth. She tears several sheets as the roll nears the end of the table. Once she has a sizeable stack, she folds each towel into a thick rectangle. She arranges them one on top of the other. Lindsey works quickly, carefully, filling cardboard boxes with folded towels. Rolling, stacking, folding, filling.

“You don’t have to go so fast,” her boss and owner of The Preppy Possum, Nikki-Cherry Crowfoot, tells her, peering around a canvas.

But Lindsey keeps up the pace. She’s determined. She has a job to do.

Pizzola is enrolled in Randolph Community College’s Adult Basic Life Skills Education (ABLE) program, which helps adults with developmental disabilities. Students take academic-based classes that focus on helping them become as independent as possible. That extends into life outside of RCC as many of the College’s ABLE students also have jobs. For Pizzola, it’s folding paper towels and unwrapping canvases every Tuesday at The Preppy Possum, a paint-and-sip studio in Asheboro.

RCC Director of College and Career Readiness Jordan Williamson said finding these opportunities for the ABLE students is an important step in ending the stigma that individuals with disabilities can’t work or go to college. Pizzola is a huge part of that step. Not only does she have a job, but she also is well on her way to being more independent — something a lot of people thought she could never do.

“I wanted to shine a light on the partnership [among] RCC’s ABLE program, vocational rehab, and the community organizations and employers that are willing to hire our students — whether they volunteer or they find employment,” Williamson said. “In partnering with these agencies that specialize in serving these populations, we can give them the support that they need to help them transition. These partnerships are critical in our community.”

When Pizzola was a student at Southwestern Randolph High School, she not only took a class from Crowfoot, but also met Mary Eubanks, a Vocational Rehabilitation Services counselor for Randolph County, who saw Pizzola’s potential immediately.

“Every once in a while, you’ll find this kid that — there’s a spark,” Eubanks said. “There’s something about Lindsey. She is so motivated. It just showed in her eyes that she wanted to work.”

That drive to work led Pizzola to enroll in RCC’s ABLE program and to open The Preppy Possum door. Eubanks knows all too well that a person with special needs requires not only an education, but also a job.

“I always make sure to tell the students, ‘We’ll find a job that matches what you’re capable of doing,’ ” she said. “We go and talk to that employer. Everybody deserves a chance. I want to make sure they know they have a space because once you feel like there’s no purpose, you give up.” °°°

After Lindsey visited The Preppy Possum a few times in 2017, she started working every Tuesday.

“Those are things that take a lot of time that she can help us with,” Crowfoot said, “and pre-COVID we’d have big groups, and it was a huge help to have all of that done.

“Lindsey will tell me if she likes a painting. If I’m working on something, she’ll say, ‘Oh, I like that!’ and then sometimes she doesn’t say anything.’ ”

During the holidays, Pizzola was particularly fond of the Olaf and Cindy Lou Who paintings.

While Pizzola folded and unwrapped, she and Crowfoot would talk about life and love — or sneak in a movie like “Dumplin’.”

“We work better together; we have a connection,” Crowfoot said. “We’re the work team here.”

When the pandemic hit, it was not only tough on the business, but also on its employee. Pizzola stopped by more than once to see when she could start working again — and bring the Crowfoot’s baby daughter, Ruby, a present. After a year-and-ahalf, the door opened again, and Pizzola and Crowfoot were back into their routine, painting, folding, watching their shows, and talking about Pizzola’s boyfriend at school. (“Is he going to break your heart?” Crowfoot jibes.)

Hiring Pizzola was an easy decision for Crowfoot, whose first friend growing up had special needs and who volunteered with the special needs class at her high school.

“Lindsey is really interested in fashion and art,” Crowfoot said. “She wanted to work here.”

“Lindsay is the type of person who brings joy,” Eubanks said. “When Lindsey came through [The Preppy Possum] door, they fell in love."

During a 2018 ceremony for National Disability Employment Awareness Month at Asheboro’s Bicentennial Park, Mayor David Smith presented The Preppy Possum with the Jim and Audrey Harriman Employer of the Year Award for their work with Pizzola.

“There are tons of businesses that could use help — whether it’s a quick job like needing things paper-clipped or packaged, or needing more permanent help,” Crowfoot said. “It’s good to draw awareness because a lot of people don’t realize they can hire someone with special needs. It takes some patience, but a lot of people could.”

Having a job transformed Pizzola, who was extremely introverted when she first set foot on the RCC campus.

“She wouldn’t talk,” Lead Instructor for College and Career Readiness Emma Lambirth said. “Then, she got The Preppy Possum job. She even asked me about a job fair — that’s the most she’s ever said to me. She’s looking into group homes. She has so much more confidence and self-esteem.”

Currently, 20 ABLE students have jobs with more volunteering locally.

“A lot of these students and their parents don’t know where to go,” Lambirth said. “We’re trying to be a more involved shop to meet their needs and make sure they know their options. They’ve been told for so long that they can’t do this. Now they’re out there in the community and they’re doing their part.”

Pizzola has not only thrived at The Preppy Possum, but also in the classroom, taking digital literacy classes for a certificate that may start with turning on a computer, but keep going with creating a resumé and learning PowerPoint.

When asked what her favorite subject is, Pizzola didn’t hesitate.

“Math,” she said. “I can do it without using a calculator.”

“Lindsey’s an excellent student,” Instructor Donna Beverly added. “She’s very focused.”

On St. Patrick’s Day, Pizzola and classmate Sarah Rutledge were RCC’s ABLE Student Ambassadors as the College hosted a Transition Fair for local students with disabilities, Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), or considered for an Occupational Course of Study (OCS) or in Exceptional Children (EC) while enrolled in high school.

“She is more confident; she will initiate conversation,” Williamson said. “Right now, she is doing digital literacy, and she’s encouraging her classmates to do the things she’s doing. It only takes one student to do that and open it up to other students. Lindsey has become a leader.”

For more information about RCC’s ABLE program, visit https://www. randolph.edu/academics/collegeand-career-readiness-programs.aspx.

Adult Basic-Life Skills Instructor Donna Beverly (left) is proud of Lindsey Pizzola.

RCC DIgItal LIteracy program changIng lIves

By Megan Crotty

In an ever-increasing paperless world, knowing your way around a computer can not only help boost your job prospects, but also help you navigate shopping and paying bills. In Spring 2022, Randolph Community College’s College and Career Readiness (CCR) department launched a Digital Literacy program. Since its inception, its students have earned 201 certificates using the NorthStar program and 42 students have earned their nationally recognized NorthStar certification.

When Felicitas Lopez entered the classroom on the first day, she said, “I am so bad at computers, I don’t even turn [them] on.”

Lopez, who came to America for a better life for her daughter and her, has worked in factories for many years, but wanted to gain computer skills so she could advance her career. She also wanted to be able to pay bills and shop online. Now that Lopez has her certification, she can do all those things and more.

Maria Montes-Gaspan wanted to learn computer basics so she could apply for jobs online, do simple computer searches, and use email. By the end of the course, Montes-Gaspan was like a second instructor in the class, helping her classmates and even coming to class early to help the instructor start up the computers and log into programs.

Mirina Perez, who has experience in phlebotomy and nursing assisting, wanted to become proficient in computers so she could re-enter the medical field. Thanks to the class, Perez has not only created a professional resumé, but also applied for online jobs.

Perez’s son, Christopher, attends RCC’s Adult Basic-Life Skills program and was excited for the opportunity to learn more about computers. Through the class, he learned how to create presentations in PowerPoint and how to present

data in Microsoft Excel, helping him toward his goal of becoming a businessman.

The class not only had a profound effect on the students, but also their teacher.

“As we began this class in January with the very basics of computers, I could see how much my students appreciated the class,” CCR Digital Literacy Navigator Magan Barnes said. “Watching them become excited about what they were learning and going home and putting it to practice right away was very rewarding for me as their instructor. To hear them come back the next day and talk about what they were able to do — it’s the simple things we do every day that we don’t realize not everyone has the privilege of knowing how to do like check email, online banking, and online shopping. My students were so appreciative of the opportunity to learn these skills.

“The most amazing day was the last day of the final class when we applied for jobs online using the resumés we had constructed in class. As they left that day, [the students] all hugged me and thanked me for opening doors for them that they had never opened. This ranks at the top of my list of rewarding experiences as an educator in my 16-year career in education.”

Lead Instructor for CCR Emma Lambirth said the class will have a domino effect as the students take what they’ve learned out into the community.

“I am so incredibly proud of these students,” she said. “They have grown more confident through this class. The technology they learned will not only benefit them, but also the rest of their family. They can be the teachers of their families and spread their knowledge.”

ONE CHAPTER ENDS… ANOTHER BEGINS

Apprenticeship Randolph honors second class of graduates, signs 17 more

By Megan Crotty

Local administrators and community leaders, along with faculty and staff from Randolph Community College, the Randolph County School System, Asheboro City Schools, Uwharrie Charter Academy, Faith Christian School, and homeschool; family, and friends gathered on RCC’s Asheboro Campus Aug. 9 to both celebrate Apprenticeship Randolph’s second graduating class and witness 17 more apprentices signed to the program.

The evening started with a celebratory dinner for the 12 graduates in the Armadillo Café. Terence Franklin, Apprenticeship Randolph (AR) Vice Chairman and Maintenance Reliability Manager for Post Consumer Brands, opened the dinner. Guest speaker Jesse Osborne, a 2022 graduate and Electrical Test Technician for Hubbell Industrial Controls, noted that his most memorable RCC courses were in Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs).

“I sure am glad we worked with simulators before actually controlling anything physical with a PLC,” he said.

“All of us had many PLC programs that did not work as expected the first time we tried them out. Conveyors malfunctioned, bottles were broken, silos were overfilled, pumps overheated. We were all frustrated at one point or another when something did not work the way we expected it to, but we worked through it, with help when needed. Now that the apprenticeship program is over, we will no longer be taking classes with each other, but I pray that none of us ever stop learning.”

Curriculum & Instructional Management Consultant for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Division Misty Wolfe gave the keynote address.

“In CTE, our mission is to empower all students to be successful citizens, workers, and leaders in the global economy,” said Wolfe, who spent 20

years in the Randolph County School System before her current position and was a part of AR’s beginnings. “Apprenticeship Randolph was by far the most gratifying project I worked on during my time [in the RCSS].”

RCC Director of Apprenticeships and Pathways Stacey Miller gave the closing remarks.

“I knew from the moment I met each of you at Orientation Week that you would hold a special place in my heart,” Miller continued. “Many of you have gone through situations that have made me sad and mad, happy, and glad; lots of you have lost some very special family members whom I know you wish were here to celebrate with you tonight; many of you have bought new vehicles, got your own place to live, and at least one of you has gotten married. If that’s not maturity, I don’t know what is.”

The celebration then moved to the R. Alton Cox Learning Resources Center Auditorium for the graduation and signing ceremony. Franklin gave the welcome and introduced Wolfe, who gave the keynote address.

“When we first started talking with our founding Apprenticeship Randolph partners about their needs to fill their talent pipeline, they didn’t talk about specific skill sets, they didn’t talk about talents or grades or even IQ,” she said. “One word kept rising to the surface — grit. … Simply put: Successful people know how to course-correct, and they never quit. They’re gritty.”

Chris Gordon, EG Industries’ newest Tooling Technician Apprentice, gave the 2026 class speech.

“Before I heard about Apprenticeship Randolph, I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do after high school,” Gordon said. “I thought about joining the Air Force. I thought about just getting a stable job and going to college and hoping I could pay for it. But, junior year of high school, I got pulled into the library where teachers talked about Apprenticeship Randolph and how it could change

my life. … Thank you to the companies for taking a chance on all of us. We won’t let you down.”

Apprenticeship Regional Coordinator for ApprenticeshipNC

Tiffany Jacobs presided over the signing ceremony as the 17 pre-apprentices each came up onstage to sign their apprenticeship contracts with company partner representatives.

Osborne then gave the graduation address, thanking the instructors, family members, and friends who helped the graduates get to where they are.

RCC Vice President for Instructional Services Suzanne Rohrbaugh, N.C. Community College System (NCCCS) Vice President of Economic Development Dr. Bruce Mack, and Miller presided over the graduation ceremony, during which each graduate was introduced and received their Associate of Applied Science in Manufacturing Technology, a Certificate in Manufacturing Technology, a State Apprenticeship Certificate, and a National Journey Worker Credential. Rohrbaugh closed the ceremony, presenting the graduates as they turned their tassels.

Pictured are the 17 new apprentices who signed contracts at the August ceremony. Pictured in the back row, left to right, are Michael Burgfeld, Christian Glass, Alex Ascencio, Jordan Link, Devin Harrelson, Katie Newsom, Jonathan Taylor, Carter Glover, Jayden Phillips, Ethan Humble, George Sumner, and Dakota Hawks. Pictured in the front row, left to right, are Miguel Lujano Flores, Alan Delgado, Kuron Wheeler-Nave, Chris Gordon, and Will Poole.

The 2022 Apprenticeship Randolph graduates are (from left to right) Jorge Martinez, Zachary Tucker, Brayan GurreroGomez, Joshua DeFreece, Jessie Osborne, Tanner Loggains, Keshon Coleman, Justin Williams, Dakota Wolford, Austin Atkins, and Colby Edwards. Not pictured is Benjamin Cable.

MS. MILLER GOES TO WASHINGTON

By Megan Crotty

It’s not every day you get an invitation to the White House, but Randolph Community College Director of Apprenticeships and Pathways Stacey Miller received this in her inbox: “The White House cordially invites you to attend an event to highlight your role in the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to expand, diversify, strengthen, and modernize Registered Apprenticeship across the country through the Apprenticeship Ambassador Initiative.” Miller couldn’t say, “No,” especially since Apprenticeship Randolph was named an Apprenticeship Ambassador — one of 205 in the country. So, she hopped in her car Aug. 31 and headed for D.C. The next afternoon, Miller and her fellow Ambassadors headed for the White House where First Lady Dr. Jill Biden spoke.

“Community colleges have always been about jobs, about meeting students where they are, and really giving the students the skills that they need to build their careers and support their families,” Biden said. “And they are committed to helping students no matter their income or background. Community colleges have really been a leader when it comes to creating innovative learning opportunities like apprenticeships, and there is so much potential for them to do even more in this area. Registered Apprenticeships provide clear pathways to jobs that pay good wages, they allow students to earn while they learn, and they ensure businesses have skilled employees in industries that are struggling to find the right workers.

“Apprenticeships and community colleges are the most powerful engines of prosperity Apprenticeships can change lives. They strengthen our workforce and our economy.”

Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo then hosted a discussion with leaders of the Initiative — a national network of more than 200 employers and industry organizations, labor organizations, educators, workforce intermediaries, and communitybased organizations committed to strengthening and diversifying Registered Apprenticeships. The Apprenticeship Ambassadors have existing Registered Apprenticeship programs in over 40 in-demand industries and have committed to expand and diversify these programs over the next year by collectively:

· Developing 460 new Registered Apprenticeship programs across their 40 industries,

· Hiring over 10,000 new apprentices,

· Holding 5,000 outreach, promotional, and training events to help other business, labor, and educational leaders launch similar programs.

The economic benefits of the Initiative for both workers and employers are long-lasting. About 93 percent of

workers who complete Registered Apprenticeships gain employment and earn an annual average starting wage of $77,000. Registered Apprenticeships also help employers attract, train, and retain a skilled and diverse workforce and reap a $1,47 return for every dollar spent on Registered Apprenticeships. The Department of Labor is also taking additional steps to expand Registered Apprenticeship to serve at least 1 million apprentices annually within the next five years.

“This has been an amazing experience,” Miller said. “From networking with other Apprenticeship Ambassadors, to hearing First Lady Dr. Jill Biden speak on the importance of apprenticeships and community college education, I could not have asked for a better trip. This is definitely a highlight of my career. I’m so proud of the work of our Apprenticeship Randolph graduates, apprentices, companies, schools, community, and state partners. I look forward to growing apprenticeships throughout Randolph County and giving students an opportunity to be our future workforce leaders through mentored, on-the-job training and class work at RCC — all at no cost to the apprentice.”

AMBITIOUS APPRENTICE

Owens earns Dallas Herring Award

By Megan Crotty

Devin Owens’ beginnings are humble, but his ambitions are not.

After being in foster care for three years, Owens’ desire to overcome his rough start has driven him to not only become an apprentice in the Apprenticeship Randolph (AR) program, but also pursue two majors at Randolph Community College.

Owens learned about AR his sophomore year of high school thanks to his Randleman High School metals teacher, who not only told him about the program, but also allowed Owens to meet apprentices already participating in the program. AR allows current juniors and seniors living and learning in Randolph County to get paid on-the-job training and earn an Associate of Applied Science degree from Randolph Community College at no cost. Owens was intrigued.

“I didn’t have a plan for after high school,” he said. “I figured I had two more years to figure it out. I like the free college — that was even before I knew about financial aid. That, and the opportunity to make money and move out of my parents' house.”

Unfortunately, when Owens decided to enter the program, the Information Technology (IT) pathway — his biggest area of interest — had not been added. Still, he began the sixweek, pre-apprenticeship summer program that summer, taking RCC classes and receiving on-the-job training.

In August 2019, Owens signed with Energizer and became its newest apprentice, a cohort that boasted 22 apprentices. Not wanting to give up on IT, in the summer of 2021, he asked for permission and applied for FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) to secure funding for the additional hours for a double major. Owens looks to graduate with an associate degree in both departments this summer.

“It’s a hassle sometimes, juggling all three,” he said. “It’s a big-time commitment.”

The apprentice also had to juggle the COVID pandemic, but said his experience was mostly positive.

“It kept me employed, so it kept a paycheck coming and I was able to provide for my family,” Owens said. “Having classes online enabled me to get ahead in my classes and really make sure I was up to date on everything. And I didn’t have to commute.”

Owens does wish he had more time to devote to IT — and to his friends and his orange tabby cat, Felix, but he is committed to finishing all three, even staying on at Energizer after he graduates.

“I enjoy learning new things every day, especially gaining experience with tools” he said. “When I started, I didn’t even know how to use a wrench. I’m the head of some group projects [in AR], and that’s enabled me to gain some leadership skills.

“I’ve been with Energizer for the last four years, and I want to see how it plays out.”

All of Owens’ efforts didn’t go unnoticed as he was honored with the 2022 Dallas Herring Achievement Award, established by the North Carolina Community College System to honor the late Dr. Dallas Herring, whose philosophy of “taking people where they are and carrying them as far as they can go” is the guiding principle of the System. The award is given annually to a current or former community college student who best embodies Dr. Herring’s philosophy.

“He is able to do this through hard work, determination and long hours completing online assignments,” one of his instructors said in a recommendation. “Devin gets rave reviews from his mentor at Energizer who says his work ethic is second to none. He is a leader among his

apprentice peer group — always jumping in to help others in need.”

Apprenticeship Randolph began in June 2016 as a collaboration among Randolph Community College, the Randolph County School System, Asheboro City Schools, the Asheboro/Randolph Chamber of Commerce, and local manufacturers. The goal was to bridge both the interest and skill gaps in modern manufacturing and provide a vehicle for expanding the workforce pool for advanced manufacturing in the county. With tuition funded through Career and College Promise and the N.C. Youth Apprenticeship Tuition Waiver Program and books paid for by the school systems and the participating companies, Apprenticeship Randolph produces an educated, skilled, debt-free workforce.

The program, which is for high school juniors and seniors, begins with a six-week, pre-apprenticeship summer program that consists of RCC classes and 40 hours per week of on-the-job training. Once a business selects its apprentice after this trial period, the program is spread over four years with students receiving paid, on-the-job training while earning an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Manufacturing Technology or Information Technology through RCC and a Journeyworker Certificate from the N.C. Community College System and U.S. Department of Labor.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

The ever-present question follows students from kindergarten to high school — and often changes several times even after graduation.

Unless you're 2022 Randolph Community College graduate and Academic Excellence Award winner

Shawn Barr

“As a kid, I would spend hours upon hours drawing, usually indistinguishable nonsense, but attempting to create,” he said.

By the time Barr was in eighth grade, he had already mastered a free illustration program on his science teacher’s laptop and started making designs for friends, family, and anyone else who needed graphics. Through these experiences, he developed a profound interest in graphic arts.

While learning the Adobe suite in high school at Uwharrie Ridge Six-Twelve, Barr dual-enrolled at RCC his junior year, pursuing his Associate in Arts while finishing high school. He planned to graduate with an associate degree and then enter the workforce.

GRAPHICS GURU

BARR EARNS 2022 ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AWARD

By Megan Crotty

“It was quite beneficial as a younger student to learn alongside people who actually seemed to care about their education, rather than your typical high school student,” he said. “When I learned about the Advertising and Graphic Design [AGD] Program at RCC, I decided that spending an extra year after high school would benefit me more than a regular [Associate in Arts]. This step truly altered the direction of my career.”

While a student, Barr was also a Production Assistant for Core Supply Graphics, Visual Designer for Sunday Social, a Graphic Designer for Vintage Church, and a Graphic Designer for Stir Social. Always wanting to learn more, at the end of the Summer Semester in 2021, he asked his instructors if there were any new design programs the class would be learning in the fall. Barr spent his break learning Adobe XD — a website prototyping tool — to be a step ahead in the coming semester. He credits his RCC instructors and the AGD Program for fostering his love for art and design and helping him launch his career further than he ever thought possible.

“I never truly knew design until enrolling into the Advertising and Graphic Design Program at RCC,” he said. “Through the program, I have grown both as a person and as a designer. I have learned everything from the basic elements of design to the complexity of owning and operating a design agency. These classes were more than just a grade; they were teaching me the foundation of design philosophy.”

Barr’s hard work, talent, and drive did not go unnoticed — even by faculty outside of his major.

“I wish all of my students had the drive and effort that Shawn has,” Photographic Technology Instructor Dan Whittaker wrote. “As one of my youngest students and my only student who did not take the photography prerequisite before taking the videography class, he is attentive during class, excelling, and always putting in extra effort in his assignments. He currently has the best grade of any of my students, and his additional effort is allowing him to create school videos that are worthy of paid work. I am grateful to have him as a student, and his optimistic attitude and drive shine bright.”

In 2022, he was the College’s Academic Excellence Award winner, which is awarded to a currently enrolled student who has completed at least 12 semester hours in a curriculum degree program, nine hours in a diploma program, or six hours in a certificate program and who has a cumulative grade point average of no less than 3.25. Several faculty members and fellow students submitted recommendations on his behalf, including a classmate who credits Barr for making them more confident in their own work.

“While some project it to uplift themselves, others project confidence to help others rise from good to great,” a classmate wrote. “The latter is how I would define Shawn Barr. Under piles of work and stress, he remained adaptable, empathetic, and genuine. He was never willing to sacrifice his relationship with his team for a more comfortable position on a project. Shawn was always willing to share knowledge and translate constructive criticism with humility and respect. To be talented is one thing, but to be talented and have good character is what makes a leader — it's what makes Shawn.”

Barr admitted he did not know the award existed until he was the recipient.

“I felt truly humbled,” he said. “Not only did the award provide me a sense of validation for my work up to this point, but it also was a source of pride and motivation for my future endeavors.”

In 2022, Barr graduated from RCC. In March, he started classes at Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia — and kept promoting his craft at www.shawnbarr.design.

“I am forever grateful to all of my department heads, instructors, and fellow students for propelling me along this journey,” he said.

honoring

BRADLEY

RCC graduate turns tragedy into positive change for community

By Amber Luffman

I graduated from the Randolph Community College Advertising and Graphic Design Program in 2015 and was a Presidential Scholar. By 2018, I had encountered significant mental and emotional health struggles as a young adult. I was working part-time for a short while as an adjunct instructor for first-year graphic design students at the College. Around that time, my marriage to my new husband, Bradley, took a dangerous turn as he fell back into a previously held addiction to substances — and domestic violence ensued in our household.

My young daughter, Ava, and I experienced much heartache and trauma loving Bradley while he was addicted. Over the next few years, we picked up the broken pieces of their lives to the best of our ability between Bradley’s eight different check-ins to various drug treatment programs in North Carolina. Ava and I were never approached by (or informed of) an organization offering support or advocacy for family members, and experienced anger at this fact every time Bradley left home (and a trail of addiction-related destruction behind) again.

I was very fortunate to work on my own recovery plan with the help of my Higher Power over the last several years as well as the Al-Anon community, counselors, and therapists, and church family and friends. But it was a very difficult road to walk largely alone.

Bradley passed away from his 13th overdose on May 1, 2021, and I knew immediately something positive would come from the struggle our family faced. I fully intended to fight against the effects of addiction in Randolph County and its surrounding areas. In my grief, I was reminded of the gap family members of addicted loved ones fall into — never receiving the much-needed attention for the related trauma, financial devastation, mental health issues, or spiritual obstacles loving someone addicted brings family members.

During my time as a student at RCC, I completed the Student Leadership Academy in 2014 — a September to March program with nearly monthly sessions on various leadership topics — along with 10 other students. Using knowledge gained through this leadership program, I took the initiative to legally organize Established Family Recovery Ministries, a 501c3 that directly mentors and supports family members of a loved one battling an addiction to drugs or alcohol or grieving the tragic loss of one. My efforts paid off on Nov. 19, 2021, when my non-profit became legal — just six months after Bradley died. My advertising and graphic design skillset came in handy, as I now lead, brand, and advertise Established Family Recovery Ministries as Founder and President. I also currently work full-time in my field as a marketing professional in Winston Salem and single-parent Ava.

On September 10, 2022, my non-profit held its first community event, The EST. 5K Recovery Run & Community Event. Hosted by Creekside Park (also home of RCC’s secondary campus location) in Archdale, the event brought 70 walkers and runners, table setups for recovery resources for family members such as family crisis support or free grief counseling resources, as well as speakers including former RCC President, Dr. Robert Shackleford Jr. The event shared a common goal as RCC’s annual Substance Use Disorder and Mental Health Symposium does each April — educating attendees with facts and misconceptions surrounding substance abuse, tools and resources for helping others who are faced with it and bringing together a community hard hit by the opioid epidemic. According to data, Randolph County has one of the highest rates of opioid overdoses per 100,000 residents.

Almost two years after the death of my beloved husband, I still fight to bring awareness and positive change in the local community through public speaking engagements, social media influence, and continue efforts within Established Family Recovery Ministries. In 2023, the organization earned $13,000 to cover expenses for client services and the community event, as well as offered family member advocacy in the form of financial assistance, counseling or therapy referrals, free meals, cleaning services, service projects, home-visits, mentorship, and more to the local community.

To learn more about client services, volunteer opportunities, or partnering with this essential organization, visit ESTfamilyrecovery.org.

2022-2023 PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLARS

By Megan Crotty

Five exceptional Randolph County high school students were chosen in a competitive process as Presidential Scholars at Randolph Community College for the 2022-2023 school year. Josie Goodson of Eastern Randolph High School, Luis Nava Medina and Kylie Zimpfer of Southwestern Randolph High School, Emily Roach of Randleman High School, and Alijah Barker of Uwharrie Charter Academy will receive a two-year RCC scholarship through the Presidential Scholars program funded by the Randolph Community College Foundation.

High school students from public, private, and homeschools throughout Randolph County were invited to apply for the scholarships. Students were interviewed by former Randolph Community College President Dr. Robert Shackleford Jr., who made the final choice of five recipients. Students’ academic records and extracurricular/community activities weighed into the selection of recipients, as did the interviews.

RCC Presidential Scholars receive a $2,500 scholarship for their first year of study ($1,250 for fall and $1,250 for spring) that is renewable for their second year of study.

Josie Goodson of Ramseur plans on entering RCC’s Nursing Program. A varsity cheerleader, Goodson is a member of Student Leadership Information For Tomorrow and Future Farmers of America (FFA). She also is a lifeguard at the Asheboro Recreation Center and volunteers for the Ramseur Food Pantry and Randolph Hospice.

Luis Nava Medina of Asheboro plans to study Criminal Justice at RCC. He did not arrive in the United States until March 2019 and has made the most of his new home, working a part-time job and helping out his English as a Second Language classmates.

Kylie Zimpfer of Asheboro is a member of FFA, SkillsUSA, Beta Club, the National Teacher Honor Society, and the varsity soccer team. She has made the honor roll each year of high school meanwhile working for America’s Roadhouse Express and, currently, Everything UTV. She also boasts a welding certificate.

Emily Roach of Sophia plans to study Business at RCC. When she isn’t studying, Roach is a referee for the Carolina Regional Volleyball Club and a lifeguard at Wet ’n Wild Emerald Pointe.

Alijah Barker of Asheboro has been on the honor roll throughout high school while playing basketball and running cross country. He also works at Chick-fil-A, and volunteers for the Upward Basketball League, Gen X Athletics basketball training camp, and Jim’s Kids.

IT’S ELECTRIC!

RCC GRADUATE FINDS SPARK AT TESLA

By Megan Crotty

Steve Zafra always loved cars, the faster the better.

Still, it wasn’t until he met a Tesla that he really fell in love.

“I just love being in cars that go really fast,” he said.

An Asheboro High School graduate, Zafra started at RCC during his junior year thanks to the Career and College Promise program, which allows high school students to take college courses free of charge.

“High school isn’t for everybody — I just wanted to get out of high school,” he said. “If I had just stuck to high school, I would have had the chance to graduate my junior year with enough credits. But [Director of Educational Partnerships and Initiatives Dr.] Isaí Robledo suggested I take the opportunity to take free college classes. At the end of the day, it was zero cost to me, and I got to be out of school.”

Zafra started in the Collision Repair and Refinishing Technology program, earning his certificate, and then moved on to the Automotive Systems Technology program his senior year, making both the Academic Merit and Academic Award lists.

“I definitely enjoyed my time,” he said. “I learned a lot, especially with Petty’s Garage coming from time to time with the 1,000-horsepower F150s. I had really awesome instructors, but I really clicked with [Automotive Systems Technology Department Head] Don Ashley. It was an amazing opportunity to learn from him.”

Zafra especially loved Ashley’s alternative fuels class.

“We talked about hydrogen vehicles, electric vehicles, and every other kind, including compressed natural gas,” he said. “That sparked my interest in electric vehicles.”

While Zafra was finishing his degree at RCC in 2018, Ashley pulled him into his office to tell him about an opportunity at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte — the Tesla START Program, a 12-week

automotive technician training program designed to provide students with the skills necessary for job placement as service technicians at Tesla Service Centers across North America.

“Next thing I know, in approximately two or three weeks I was interviewing and going to school there,” he said.

After finishing his degree at RCC and training at CPCC, Zafra was hired by Tesla immediately. He gave the company his three top choices for placement, ending up in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he did mobile service. After a year and a half, he was transferred to a service center in Virginia Beach, Va., before ending up in his current city, Devon, Penn., doing mobile service as well as being a service center technician.

“I’ve been involved in battery packs, electrical diagnosis, chasing down wiring harnesses, all the way to basic door handle replacements, repairs — I believe I’ve gone through the ringer on about every single job we can do on the four models we currently have out on the road,” he said.

In the land known for NASCAR’s roaring engines, Zafra admits he prefers to tear up the tires in a quiet Tesla.

“I love just how different they are,” he said. “I’ve always been a little bit of a speed demon. I just love the instant acceleration of Teslas. I worked for Nissan, and the Leaf was nowhere near as quick. Teslas are just ridiculously fast for what they are. They’re extremely quiet, but they’re gone before you know it.”

Zafra was excited to learn about Toyota choosing the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite for the location of its automotive battery manufacturing plant.

"Toyota has definitely been in the game since the Prius; that vehicle was ahead of its time,” he said.

Still, Zafra is going to stick with his first love.

“I definitely believe in Tesla,” he said. “I believe in the movement toward sustainable energy — I absolutely believe in that. I’m not sure if I’m going to retire with Tesla, but I’m definitely going to stick with automotive in general and electric vehicles in general.”

That spark will never go away.

AND RCC PARTNER TO PREP FOR TOYOTA

By Lorie McCroskey

The Duke Energy Foundation has been a longtime partner of the Randolph Community College Foundation and, once again, has stepped up to be the driving force behind an exciting new opportunity at the College and in the community. The Duke Energy Foundation is the founding partner of the Toyota Megasite Support Fund.

“Duke Energy is committed to creating access to education and workforce development for people in the communities where we live and work,” said Hank Henning, Local Government and Community Relations Manager for Duke Energy in Randolph, Alamance, Guilford, and Rockingham Counties. “Skilled workers allow our communities to thrive. Equipping individuals with critical skills and knowledge is an important part of meeting the state’s evolving workforce needs.”

The College will use the fund to provide customized training, and instructional support to Toyota and other industry partners, who will be coming to Randolph County.

“This funding will give us the flexibility to provide resources to this exciting growth area, while continuing to support student success and our current industry partners.” RCC Interim President Elbert Lassiter said.

The funds could be used for equipment, instructional support and materials, and student needs.

“The Duke Energy Foundation is such a great supporter of our community and the College,” Lassiter said. “We are pleased that they have joined with us in this partnership.”

HONORING OWEN

Forever6 Scholarship keeps first grader’s memory alive by giving RCC students opportunities

By Lorie McCroskey

Owen Carter Greene was like any other six-year-old. He enjoyed being outdoors with his daddy and taking shopping trips with Mama. He admired his two big brothers and wanted to be just like them, and he loved ice cream with all kinds of different toppings.

But in January of 2019, the Uwharrie Charter Academy first grader passed away unexpectedly.

His dad, Jeremy, an adjunct instructor at Randolph Community College, and his wife, Amber, knew almost immediately how they wanted to honor their son’s legacy. The parents started the Owen Carter Greene Forever6 Endowed Scholarship. Even though Owen was years away from even starting to think about college, Jeremy and Amber knew helping a student attend college would be the perfect way to remember their son.

“We have done many things to honor the memory of our son Owen, but we felt that starting a scholarship in his honor would be the best way to help others the most,” Amber said. “By doing so, he is helping with the achievement of their dreams. In

his life, Owen was a giver, and this is a way of giving a part of himself to each person that benefits from his scholarship.”

Jeremy Greene has encouraged his coworkers and contacts in business from all over the United States to give to the endowed scholarship that bears his son’s name. Amber believes that has helped their family in so many ways.

“It is very important to us to keep his memory alive, and we are forever grateful to those who have supported his scholarship and most importantly our family,” she said. “Losing Owen has been life shattering to us. It left us empty but knowing that people are remembering him is balm to our soul.”

Amber and Jeremy opened the scholarship to all RCC academic majors because they said they had no idea what Owen may have wanted to study when he got older.

The Owen Carter Greene Forever6 Endowed Scholarship will be a legacy of love for a little boy whom his mom said, “loved beyond all means and truly had sunshine in his soul.”

The Randolph Community College Arboretum may not look like a classroom just yet, but thanks to a generous gift by the Brayton Family Foundation in August of 2022, it will be a learning lab sooner than expected. The grant already helped purchase a building for Agribusiness Technology Department Head Derrick Cockman to store equipment and materials that will be used for instruction. Cockman believes that this gift is transformational for his program.

PLANTING DEEP ROOTS

Brayton Family Foundation allows RCC Arboretum to grow

By Lorie McCroskey

“Every donation makes a difference when you give to the RCC Foundation, it helps us do projects like this,” he said.

The Brayton Family Foundation also earmarked a portion of their donation to go to the Robert Shackleford Emergency Fund. That fund is designed to help students who are facing unforeseen financial emergencies stay in school, the emergency food pantry, and emergency gas card program. Since the beginning of the academic year, many students have sought help from the emergency assistance program fund. Students have received grocery cards, gas cards, and funding to help with emergency needs.

After receiving emergency assistance, one student reached out to the foundation to say, “Despite all the obstacles, I wouldn’t have made it this far without the Foundation, Thank you so much!”

ARMADILLO ARCHIVES

On Sept. 4, 1962, Randolph Industrial Education Center (now RCC) opened its doors for classes with an enrollment of 115 full-time students (who ranged in age from 16-45), eight faculty members, and four staff members. The first class met in what is now room 115 of the Administration/Education Center.

For more on RCC’s history, check out https://libguides.randolph.edu/archives/college_timeline.

Pictured, standing from left to right are Robert E. Carey (Director of the Randolph Industrial Education Center) and Merton H. Branson (Associate Director). Seated from left to right are Guy B. Teachey (Superintendent of Asheboro City Schools); Dr. Frank Edmondson (Chairman of Asheboro City School Board); T. Henry Redding (Chairman of the Randolph Industrial Education Center Advisory Board); John L. Roberson (Electrical Technology Instructor); Malcolm H. Ritchie (Mathematics Instructor); Shelby V. Morgan, Jr. (Chemistry/Physics Instructor); Jack E. Steele, Jr. (Electronics Technology Instructor); Clarence M. Frazier (Machine Shop Instructor); Bryant N. Barden (Welding Instructor), and Lowell M. Whatley (Auto Mechanics Instructor).