2-Day Event | NC GPS Institute 2: Charting the Pathways: Empowering Students through Flexible Entry Design

Dates:01/29/2025 - 01/30/2025
Time:January 29, 2025 | 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST January 30, 2025 | 8:30 am - 2:45 pm EST
Cape Fear Community College | Union Station Conference Center | 502 N Front Street | Wilmington, NC 28401 | 910.362.7488

NC Guided Pathways Systems will convene its second institute January 29-30, 2025, at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, NC. This institute will focus on creating flexible, inclusive pathways that empower students to navigate their ongoing educational and career journeys.

Keynote Speakers:

Dr. Linda Garcia, Executive Director at the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) at the University of Texas – Austin. She will share information from the recent Community College Survey on Student Engagement (CCSSE) and the Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE), that highlight students’ early college experiences. 

Dr. Garcia never imagined she would one day lead CCCSE. In fact, she never dreamed of earning a doctoral degree. As children, Linda and her siblings constantly heard from their parents—a father who grew up as a migrant worker and a mother who immigrated to the United States from Mexico—that enrolling in college after high school graduation was the only choice to pursue. Even though she aspired to rise to the ranks of her favorite journalist, Diane Sawyer, little did she know that people and situations along her journey would become “turning points” that prepared her to become a community college leader.

You can read her complete Bio by clicking here.

Dr. Hana Lahr, Assistant Director of Research and Director of Applied Learning at Community College Research Center (CCRC). She will share ACIP (Ask-Connect-Inspire-Plan), a practical framework for onboarding students onto the right pathway. In addition, we will highlight college exemplars of onboarding and early college support using a “Ted-talk” presentation model, a panel of student development officers, and, perhaps most importantly, team time sessions to provide each college team time to plan next steps back on their campuses.

Dr. Lahr leads research on whole-college reforms at community colleges across the country. She has conducted research on the change management process, advising reforms, onboarding students into programs, and the costs of guided pathways reforms.

You can read her complete Bio by clicking here.

Resources for this conference can be found below:

Travel Memo 

DRAFT Agenda

Recommended Lodging List

Hosted by:  The NC Student Success Center | Questions regarding this 2-day event, please contact Gracie G. Davis, Program Coordinator. 

200 West Jones Street Raleigh, North Carolina 27603

(919) 807-7100