David Shockley, President, Surry Community College

Invest: spoke with David Shockley, president of Surry Community College, about gains in student success, workforce partnerships, and the institution’s role in rural economic development. The college has reduced student failures, drops, and withdrawals while expanding academic support and paid career pathways. “We set out to solve a need and help our community, and we wound up creating a national model along the way,” Shockley said.

What have been the college’s significant milestones over the past year?

Over the past five years, we have focused on several initiatives, and this year we are seeing the results. One of the most exciting is student success and retention. We wanted to ensure that students coming through our doors were successful and had a clear, meaningful purpose for being at Surry Community College. Students who come to college with a purpose are successful. Those who arrive without an idea of what they want can get lost, change majors, and incur additional costs.

Over the last five years, we reduced student failures, drops, and withdrawals by as much as 48%. Students went from logging about 2,500 hours annually in our Academic Support Center to 17,000 hours, and 40% of our students now use the center. Our fall-to-spring and fall-to-fall retention rates have increased to between 70% and 80%. That has helped our fiscal stability; enrollment and full-time equivalent figures have grown 6% over the past two years.

That is especially important in a rural community where the population is not growing, and the birth rate is lower than the death rate. We must maximize our efforts. Our English and math results also moved from the bottom quartile to No. 1, or the top quartile in the North Carolina Community College System.

Another milestone is Surry-Yadkin Works, which brings together our four public school partners, county commissioners, and more than 215 businesses and industries in Surry and Yadkin counties. We created meaningful career pathways by leveraging Career and College Promise into paid pre-apprenticeships. This is not job shadowing. We ask businesses which positions are available and where their greatest needs are, and then place students in paid pre-apprenticeships.

We thought we were creating something for our community, but it has become a national model followed by larger cities and school systems. We received national grants from Strada Education Foundation and Jobs for the Future. We were one of 10 community colleges selected and the only one in North Carolina chosen for both. Over five years, Surry-Yadkin Works has produced more than 1,000 pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship placements involving about 850 individual students and 215 companies.

We set out to solve a need and help our community, and we wound up creating a national model along the way. Most importantly, we are helping our community flourish when it is difficult for rural communities to do so.

How is Surry Community College supporting first-generation, adult, and rural learners, and what barriers remain?

We have a growing Latino community, and we are now seeing more students who entered our public school systems in kindergarten. Our most successful student demographic is our female Latino population. They are flourishing, and some have received scholarships from Ivy League institutions.

We focus on every student who walks through our doors, regardless of demographics, culture, or background. Our early colleges and Career and College Promise programs have made a difference by bringing opportunities to underrepresented communities and showing students that they can obtain a tuition-free education.

About 44% to 45% of our students are now enrolled through Career and College Promise. That is amazing, but it also presents a long-term concern because our youth population is shrinking. As public school enrollment declines over the next five to 10 years, our enrollment could also decline, creating economic pressure for the college. I am always looking at least three years ahead because we are funded on a two-year cycle, but as a stakeholder in workforce development and education, I must look five to 10 years ahead.

Surry-Yadkin Works creates pathways for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds by using the Career and College Promise tuition waiver and connecting students with apprenticeships. Those apprenticeships can provide access to federal funding, allowing students to continue their education after high school while working and getting paid.

Healthcare is a good example. We created a pathway that allows students to complete the prerequisites they need during their junior and senior years while tuition is waived. They also work as certified nursing assistants in healthcare facilities, earning money and gaining career experience. This past year, 60% of our incoming registered nursing class was connected to Surry-Yadkin Works. These students had already worked in hospitals and completed their prerequisites.

Rather than beginning prerequisites at ages 18, 19, or 20, they can enter the nursing program directly after high school. Through apprenticeship resources, their tuition can be covered. They can become registered nurses at age 20, earning $70,000 to $75,000 annually while having four years of experience as certified nursing assistants.

We are also improving our advisory efforts to ensure students take classes that count toward their goals. It is a tragedy when students complete community college courses that transfer to a university but do not count toward graduation. Our counselors meet with healthcare providers and college faculty to identify exactly which courses students should take. We are streamlining the process and ensuring all students understand the opportunities available to them.

How does data inform the college’s student-success strategy?

We have about 15 terabytes of data on our student body, and we have changed the culture of the college around that information. In cabinet meetings, we discuss student success, where we are falling short, and what we can do better.

Online education is one area we continue to examine. We want students in online courses to be as successful as those in seated courses, which is usually not the case. Six or seven years ago, we had to acknowledge that our online success rates were not where they needed to be. Today, our course delivery is split about evenly between online and seated classes, and we have narrowed the performance gap. However, we know some students are still not successful in online environments, so the work continues.

Five years ago, we set out to become the best community college in North Carolina, and we are dangerously close. Pound for pound, based on the total body of work we perform with the resources available, I would say Surry Community College is among the strongest community colleges in the state.

What role does the college play in supporting rural economic development?

My team works extremely hard, and we ask them to do more with the same resources. Income increases have been difficult, but our faculty compensation ranks in the top 10 among North Carolina community colleges. We manage our resources as efficiently as possible and make sure we receive the greatest value from every dollar.

In rural North Carolina, you need to do things better because you do not have the same level of resources. The challenge is not only attracting new businesses but also helping existing businesses remain and expand. We redesigned how we approach the state’s new and expanding industry programs. When companies invest in existing facilities, they may qualify for training resources through the community college system, and we help them access those opportunities.

We do not have many major business announcements, yet Surry Community College has ranked among the state’s top-performing colleges for new and expanding industry projects. Over the last 10 years, we have been in the top 10, and for several years we ranked in the top five alongside much larger institutions.

We consistently identify ways to leverage available resources for our stakeholders so the community can thrive and maintain its quality of life. Community colleges are critical to rural and urban communities alike. We try to be the best we can for the communities we serve, and the past year has been nothing short of amazing.