Full-Time Employee of the Month: Wesley Womack

When the Department Chair retired last year, Wesley really stepped up from a management and leadership perspective. He worked with other instructors and students, as well as the Dean, to keep the program running smoothly. He took over advising of all students and did an especially good job helping them move forward in the program.

During the pandemic, Wesley explored how we could make adjustments to our PLC software so students could do those labs remotely, spending numerous hours to speak with vendors and find technological work-arounds to best serve our students.

Wesley always reaches out for ways to go above and beyond to help his students. This summer I saw him, mask on, in the extreme heat, still positive and cheerful, helping students both within his program and beyond.

Earlier this semester, Wesley worked really hard with the Grants Department to submit a request for funding from the National Science Foundation on a tight deadline. We had to submit in less than two weeks, which is a process that usually takes 6-9 months. Even though it was a daunting task, Wesley would not pass up the opportunity to get extra funding for his program, to ultimately best support students and area employers.

Wesley is always dedicated to ensuring that his students have what they need to succeed. He is a kind and steady instructor. Wesley is also a Veteran of the U.S. Army, making it even more special that we were able to recognize him during the month of November.

Years of Service Awards

We are happy to share with you the Years of Service Awards for 2020. This year awards were presented a bit differently, but the sincere admiration and appreciation is the same for our 5-, 10-, 15-, and 25-year award recipients. Congratulations!

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Holiday Message to the CCCC Family

Dear Dr. Chapman,

As we near the completion of this term and the end of 2020, I felt compelled to send this message of sincere thanks to you and to the CCCC family for all you have done this year to ensure that CCCC and its students had a highly successful year.

We will all look back on 2020 as a particularly difficult year as we dealt with the pandemic. You and the administration, faculty, staff and students all worked extremely hard during exceedingly stressful times and still maintained the high standard of excellence that people in our service area certainly recognize, and which is also observed across our state and nationally as well. We know these times demanded even more personal sacrifices than have been required of the CCCC family in most other years, but that is the CCCC family - caring people willing to personally sacrifice to make someone else’s life better. We are extremely grateful for everything you and the CCCC family accomplished this year!

Christmas and the surrounding holiday season each year brings reflection and hope for a new year that is better than its predecessor. We all hope that 2021 is a much better year for everyone than what we experienced in 2020. However, as a positive note for this year, we believe we all found some inner strength and increased resilience that we might not have otherwise realized had it not been for the challenges we successfully faced this year. At CCCC, we are definitely “Cougar Strong!” For that, we can certainly be thankful!

On behalf of the Trustees of Central Carolina Community College, we are proud of all of you! Thank you again and we wish you and all the CCCC family a safe and joyous holiday season and a successful 2021!

Sincerely,

Julian Philpott
Chair, CCCC Board of Trustees

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2020 Holiday Pictures with Santa in Lee County

CCCC sponsored a special holiday season drive-thru event on Dec. 3. The "Cougar Express" drive-thru event was geared toward small children and included cookies and candy canes, elves, and a snowwoman - and, Santa Claus. View the 2020 Holiday Pictures with Santa.

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Angel Tree

Cougars,

I wanted to say a big THANK YOU for all of the support for the 2020 Angel Tree! We were able to adopt our initial 55 Angels within the first two days and then adopted our entire waitlist within two hours. With your support, we were able to give 65 Angels a wonderful holiday season. I am completely humbled and grateful for how our CCCC family looks out for each other.

Happy holidays,
Samantha Carroll

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Thanksgiving Basket Drive-Thru

The Foundation and the TRIO Student Support Services partnered to create Thanksgiving Family Gift Baskets. From Nov. 20 until Nov. 23, students drove up outside of the Wilkinson building and received Thanksgiving baskets containing the side dishes, including mashed potatoes, cornbread mixes, cans of vegetables, etc., as well as a $25 Food Lion gift card to purchase a turkey or ham of their choice. The Foundation and TRIO SSS distributed 38 Thanksgiving baskets this year.

Dr. Emily Hare, Meghan Brown, and Jessica Rogers spearheaded the operation to ensure families who signed up would have a Thanksgiving feast to be remembered by those who care for them, even while the students are not on campus.

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A 2020 Harnett Main Campus Cosmetic Arts Christmas

Due to COVID-19, the cosmetology salon has not been open during the entire Fall 2020 term. The salon gives students an opportunity to learn hands-on skills by working on live clients within our community. To spice things up and to teach our students color, style, and other skills, without using just mannequins, our instructors and students got creative and completed many different projects throughout the fall term, to include a dazzling Christmas display for our program building lobby.

All of our advanced nail and cosmetology students took part in the creation, utilizing their cosmetic arts skills, teamwork, and a ton of holiday spirit! Students created Christmas nails, Christmas hairstyles, and a giant gingerbread house.

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Foundation is Here to Help

by Abby Walker, Assistant Director, Foundation

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FITW Results

by Brian Merritt, Vice President & Chief Academic Officer

Below is a press release announcing results from the recently-concluded First in the World (FITW) study. Many of you were directly involved in this project, and we appreciate your efforts to help CCCC both lead and participate in FITW. We realize the "strings" attached to the randomized controlled trial created some internal challenges the past few years; however, the results will inform the literature about student retention and engagement for years to come.

The RCT included over 14,000 students at 10 North Carolina community colleges, and the result was simple -- Success Coaching is an effective strategy for community colleges to help their students stay in school and earn credentials.

View the full brief.

As you know, CCCC's new strategic plan is focused on Equitable Pathways -- and these FITW results clearly demonstrate how we can best provide all students with the needed support, at scale, for them to be successful and achieve their dreams.

Although there is variability among students and between institutions, here is a summary of the results:

• Longer-term engagement between students and success coaches (especially face-to-face meetings) brings better results, as it takes time to develop quality relationships with students.
  • Students assigned a coach are 4% more likely to stay enrolled for two academic years (fall to second spring semester).

• Black students and male students are especially likely to benefit from success coaching when compared to all students.
  • Male students assigned a success coach experienced an 8% increase in fall-to-fall retention and an 8% increase in credential completion.
  • Black students assigned to a coach are 8% more likely to remain enrolled for a year (fall-fall retention) and 18% more likely to stay enrolled for two academic years (fall to second spring semester).

• Students benefit more from success coaching when their coaches don’t change, as building trusting, personal relationships with coaches takes time.
  • Students who had the same coach for the duration of the study experienced a 12% increase in credential completion.

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TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) News

by Corey Niles, Academic Coach

TRiO SSS Mentor Program Closes the Gap in Communication

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Tributes to Dr. Merritt

Dr. Brian S. Merritt has served in various positions at Central Carolina Community College. He's been Distance Education Counselor; Director of Grants, Sponsored Programs, & Alumni Relations; Dean of Student Learning, and most recently as Vice President of Student Learning and Chief Academic Officer. To say that he has left his mark at CCCC would be an understatement. CCCC faculty and staff offer their tributes to Dr. Merritt, who is leaving CCCC to become President of McDowell Technical Community College.

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Christmas at Biltmore

Enjoy Christmas at Biltmore with America's largest home completely decorated for the season. Explore all Biltmore offers, including shopping, dining, and relaxing at Antler Hill Village & Winery. Children nine and younger may accompany you for free.

Take advantage of this wonderful savings opportunity for CCCC employees and save $10 when you purchase your tickets at biltmore.com/corporateperk, and use our promo code: cccc (all small letters).

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Foundation: Why I Give

CCCC Foundation

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QEP Corner: My Academic Pathway

by Amy Gustavson, Assistant Director of Institutional Effectiveness & QEP

Thank you for making MAP a success!

MAP: My Academic Pathway is possible thanks to the hard work of our CCCC family!

The roles listed below help our students to identify their goals, progress on their path, and succeed in a timely manner. If you serve in one of these roles, please know that you are GREATLY appreciated for the work you do EVERYDAY to help our students. The success of our students wouldn’t be possible without our:

• ACA Instructors
• Admissions Specialists
• Advisors
• Career Center Coordinator
• Developmental Faculty Advisors

I also want to sincerely thank everyone who serves on one of our MAP Teams: ACA, Admissions, Advising, Assessment, Leadership, Marketing, or Success Council. You all work tirelessly to improve MAP based on data and qualitative feedback. Thank you!

Learn more about My Academic Pathway by visiting our website!

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Notes from Institutional Effectiveness & Research

by Amy Gustavson, Assistant Director of Institutional Effectiveness & QEP

Follow Spring 2021 Enrollment

Visit the Spring 2021 Enrollment dashboard on the CCCC Dashboards website to get daily enrollment updates! Dashboards are refreshed daily mid-morning.

Coming Soon: Qualtrics!

IER is excited to announce that we’ve acquired Qualtrics, a new web-based survey tool! It will streamline the data collection process and greatly improve the experience for respondents. Dr. Linda Scuiletti said, “We will revolutionize the college with Qualtrics!” Look for new surveys soon.

Outcomes & Assessment Checklist - December:

Here’s a friendly reminder of outcomes and assessment topics to review in December.

Institutional Effectiveness & Research is your home for accreditation, strategic planning, outcomes & assessment, and institutional research!

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Red Clay Review

Read and download the complete 2019 issue of Red Clay Review.

Nancy Walker Benjamin worked as a writer/editor in New York and taught French and Russian in Charlottesville, Va. She has published three collections of poetry and lives in Chapel Hill with her husband, a retired pediatrician.

Messiah in Paris, 2017 by Nancy Walker Benjamin

Bitter cold it was that night,
a sleety wind swirling
around the ancient church
when doors opened at last
to huddled ticketholders.
Little warmth inside either,
we stomped feet and perched
on chairs in our bulky coats,
gloved hands struggling
to grasp and open programs.

A baton lifted, lilting strains
familiar as a mother’s voice
calmed the shuffling
and dispelled the cold
as glorious sounds filled the air.
Nothing but the music mattered,
soaring, spiraling, insisting.
We nodded, swayed, anticipated
singing to ourselves
deep inside.

Then suddenly a voice,
"Behold! A virgin shall conceive"
pierced our reveries.
We craned our necks, startled
as shepherds in the fields
by celestial music,
this from a counter-tenor
whose coloratura shivered
up and down our spines
until breathing stopped.

From that moment we were his,
awaiting his next aria
looking up from libretti
to read an expressive face
encircled by gray curls
in a cherubic halo.
His visage so sorrowful,
his voice breaking to a whisper
when he sang “He was despisèd,”
we wept with him.

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Welcome New Employees!

New employees as of Nov. 30

Ryan Breeden, Academic Coach - TRIO Student Support. Services

Juanita Carter, Nursing Instructor

Justin Pedley, Animal Facilities Manager

Nicholas Sullivan, Academic Coordinator, TRIO Upward Bound

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Thank You

Dear Faculty and Colleagues,

Simply put - thank you. As you saw in the announcement earlier from Dr. Chapman, I am transitioning "up the mountain" effective January 1.

Central Carolina will always be home, and I will never forget all I learned, both personally and professionally, since joining the CCCC family in 2007. Serving here has been such a blessing because of each and every one of you.

I will be around until the end of the Fall semester and hope to connect with as many of you as possible to say "see you later." But, since I will still be serving the Great 58, I trust our paths will continue to cross in the future.

As always, thank you for everything you do, and will continue to do, for our students.

Take good care.
Brian Merritt

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Birth Announcement

Chatham's College and Career Readiness Assessment and Retention Specialist, Brittney Goldston, had her baby boy on Friday, Nov. 20. Jamison Lathan Goldston weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and is 21 inches long. Everyone is doing great!

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Christmas Cards for Seniors

by Mari-Inetta Pavlic, Small Business Center Coordinator - Harnett County/TSEC Director

My daughter's Girl Scout Troop wrote and decorated Christmas cards for the seniors. Gwen Collins, Senior Activities Director at Dunn Center, delivered the cards.

Gwen mentioned Rilyn, a 10-year-old 5th grader in our community. She started her outreach projects in July of this year and has since completed 70 individual packets for the seniors that included socks, gloves, Bibles, and cards.

Check out Rilyn's website at www.rilynsreach.com for how she got started and other projects she has done this year. Dunn Daily Record posted an article about Rilyn last month. I truly believe our community supports our worthy causes.

Merry Christmas!
Mari-Inetta Pavlic

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Welcome Ariadne Sousa

The Job Corps Scholars Program is happy to introduce our newest team member, Ariadne Sousa.

Ari is a mother of four and grandmother of two. Her background has been focused on advising, whether academic, career, instructional, or individual/family counseling. She is passionate about helping individuals reach their maximum potential, both on a personal and professional level.

The Job Corps Scholars Program works with students age 16 to 24, seeking to earn in-demand, industry recognized credentials in 12 months or less. Ari has an extensive background in helping students navigate their educational journeys. We are so excited she has joined the JCS Team and the CCCC Family!

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Shout Out

Huge congratulations to your colleague, Thadd McElreath, on being named a FINALIST for the N.C. Community College System 2021 Excellence in Teaching Award! Thadd was selected to interview as a semifinalist with a virtual committee from Raleigh a few weeks ago. Now, he is moving onto the finals to interview with members of the State Board of Community Colleges.

Congratulations, Thadd!

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2020 Pay Dates

MONTH	DUE DATE	PAY DATE
December	Dec. 3, 2020**	Dec. 23, 2020

** Payroll is due EARLIER due to early pay date in December

2021 Pay Dates

MONTH	DUE DATE	PAY DATE
January	Jan 8, 2021	January 29, 2021
February	Feb. 10, 2021	Feb. 26, 2021
March	March 10, 2021	March 31, 2021
April	April 9, 2021	April 30, 2021
May	May 10, 2021	May 28, 2021
June	June 3, 2021 *	June 30, 2021
July	July 8, 2021	July 30, 2021
August	Aug. 10, 2021	Aug. 31, 2021
September	Sept. 10, 2021	Sept. 30, 2021
October	Oct. 8, 2021	Oct. 29, 2021
November	Nov. 10, 2021	Nov. 30, 2021
December	Dec. 2, 2021**	Dec. 21, 2021

* Payroll is due EARLIER due to fiscal year end
** Payroll is due EARLIER due to early pay date in December

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Employee Assistance Program

by Human Resources

During these times, the EAP can provide resources to assist you and your family. EAP stands for Employee Assistance Program. It is a benefit provided by CCCC and covers you and anyone in your household. Read this attachment for more information on how to access this amazing program.

Please contact Trinity Faucett with any questions.

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Birthdays

Birthday list provided by Human Resources

12/18	Karen Weaver
12/19	Wenonah Craig
12/19	Liza Guzman-Ramirez
12/19	Dianne Johnson
12/19	Nicholas Sullivan
12/20	Michael Parrish
12/21	Trevor Dobbins
12/22	Crystal Sanders
12/23	Maryann Aucompaugh
12/23	Anne O'Shaughnessy
12/24	Heather Willett
12/27	Henry Wilson
12/28	Katie Hall
12/29	Benjamin Buchanan
12/29	Derek Chester
12/29	Mike Spivey
12/29	Adam Wade
1/3	Brenda Barefoot
1/3	Michael Peluso
1/5	Kelly Dorman
1/5	Johnny Frye
1/5	Mariann Woodward
1/6	Michael Parnell
1/7	Virginia Bryant
1/7	Jason Rouse
1/10	Jessica Brown
1/10	Ashlee Dockery
1/10	Nichelle Lariviere
1/10	David Watson
1/11	James Anderson
1/12	Stephanie Whitaker
1/14	Tracy Autry
1/14	James Lassiter
1/15	Richard Heptig
1/15	Andrew McMahan
1/15	Margaret Roberton
1/16	Kelly Dehring
1/16	Pamela Riddle
1/17	Patricia Wicker
1/17	Grace Wolf
1/18	Amy Kennedy
1/20	Sharon Konowitz
1/22	Mary Burke
1/22	James Fry III
1/24	Richard Love
1/24	Abby Walker
1/24	Hampton Williams
1/24	Jason Ziebart
1/26	Mary Schmid-Carter
1/27	Walter Creswell
1/27	Benjamin Falero
1/27	Tina Godbey
1/27	Mark Hall
1/27	Joshua Johnson
1/27	Laura Musselwhite

If you would prefer not to be listed or if your name does not appear as you'd like, please email marketing@cccc.edu and let us know!

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News From The CCCC Family

We sadly inform everyone of the passing of Ben Falero's sister, Emily Falero, on Dec. 2. The funeral service was held at the De Riso Funeral Home in New York. Our thoughts and prayer are with Ben and his family through this time.

With sadness we announce that Jairo McMican's mother peacefully departed at the age of 62 on Nov. 30. See full obituary details. In lieu of flowers, the family would like those interested to honor Jairo's mother by sharing a photo or message of you actively doing something for a relative, colleague, friend, pet, or immediate family member to show how you personally feel about them.

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Cougar Kudos

We love recognizing our peers in our college family! In addition to our Annual Awards and Employee of the Month program, don't forget about Cougar Kudos.

Cougar Kudos is a quick and anonymous way to send a note of appreciation or a pat on the back directly to a colleague. You can find the link on the CAE homepage. A little note of appreciation goes a long way!

*Your name and email address will be kept confidential and not sent with your message.

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Join the Activity on Social Media!

Do you write a blog, have a Twitter account, or Facebook page for your department or classroom? Share your link! Send to Marketing.

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Cougar Pets News

Cougar Pets are proceeding with adoptions for all of our animals who are already spayed/neutered. If the animal hasn't been spayed and neutered, then we notify the applicant that we will hold them until PPE resources become more readily available, and we can get the animal into surgery or we can suggest alternative pets that may have similar qualities for what they are looking for.

We are not able to host any meet-and-greets right now, so we are doing adoption trials in home with pets that we think might be compatible. If they aren't a good fit for the household, then we can pick them up.

Meet Josephine

My name is Josephine. I am a 1-year-old female that is as lovable as can be. I am very playful and enjoy running around with my kitty friends. I love laying in cardboard boxes, or any box I can find! Exploring is another one of my favorite activities. I cannot wait to find my furever home. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I can go home with one of my siblings (Fergus and Sooki)!

Josephine is currently available for adoption!

Meet Statler

My name is Statler. I am a 4-year-old neutered male that would love to be your new best friend! I enjoy the company of people, but I am picky about my canine friends. I love to run, play, and cuddle.

Statler is currently available for adoption!

All adoptable dogs and cats are spayed/neutered, microchipped, and up-to-date on all vaccines. They have had regular dental cleanings, blood work, and physical exams. We pride ourselves on the care that our cats and dogs receive during their stay. Contact us at www.cougarpets.org for more information on our colony dogs and available cats.

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Contribute to Cougar Bytes

Send along your Cougar Bytes contributions!

Our monthly Cougar Bytes newsletter continues to be focused on staff and faculty. We welcome your stories, successes, events, photos, or shout-outs in every issue. Please submit your contributions to marketing@cccc.edu or contact Cris Oliver with any questions or suggestions.

The deadline for contributions is Jan. 20 for the January issue. Upcoming issue dates:

Jan 22
Feb 26
March 26
April 23
May 28

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