Wayne County Community College District awarded for excellence in student success
The CAPSS initiative at Wayne County Community College District has been recognized for its achievements in improving student success by improving graduation rates and enhancing the skills learned by students, making them more employable and ready for transfer to four-year colleges.
The American Association of Community Colleges has named Wayne County Community College District (also known as Wayne Community College or WCC) the 2020 recipient of the Award of Excellence in the category of Student Success. Specifically, the award recognizes the CAPSS initiative at WCC, a program designed by faculty, staff, and administrators to reimagine student support services to improve student success based on a number of metrics.
CAPSS (Clearing a Path to Student Success) was designed collaboratively by WCC staff, faculty, and administrators to create "guided pathways" for students to succeed in degree completion and improve employability skills. According to WCC President Thomas A. Walker, Jr. in an article posted by the Mount Olive Tribune, "This award recognizes commitment to student success through a completion plan, continuously improving completion and transfer rates, innovative programs, and promising practices. It celebrates a process that works. Students are getting what they come to Wayne Community College for." The CAPPS initiative, in essence, provides students with a step by step guide for degree completion from the application process, to selecting a major, to keeping track of credits and degree requirements to ensure degree completion.
CAPSS was previously considered for recognition from the American Association of Community Colleges and was named a finalist in 2019. This year, after being able to provide more data on the efficacy of the initiative, WCC beat out the other two finalists for the award (Florida State College at Jacksonville and Minnesota Community and Technical College). President Walker credited the faculty and staff contributions to making the CAPSS initiative a success, "WCC faculty and staff have thrown their hearts into excellence. They have embraced and embedded a culture of quality in our college. Following their example, our students are striving to make excellence their maxim, too." The result of their efforts is measurable. Over the past eight years, degree completion rates at WCC have increased by nearly 80 percent.