Students can take alternate paths to an ECU degree

Pirate Promise

The pathway to becoming a Pirate begins locally for students enrolled in Pirate Promise.

Pirate Promise is a program that allows transfer students in their first year of community college to prepare for a future at ECU while taking classes in their respective communities.

ECU engineering student Hugo Sanchez-Delgado, right, speaks during the North Carolina Engineering Pathways fall meeting in the Science and Technology Building. Sanchez-Delgado is part of the PIRATES engineering scholars program that includes three community colleges. (Photo by Ken Buday)

“I like to explain it as a promise from ECU to the student that we will walk alongside you in the transfer process,” said Holly Buck, interim associate director for transfer recruitment. “We’re going to make sure you’re taking classes that are going to be putting you on the right track to start whenever you arrive at ECU.”

Students enrolled in the program are provided advising assistance and support before applying to ECU, as well as guaranteed admission and a waived application fee. Additional benefits include a dedicated transfer coach, ECU 1Card, and access to ECU resources such as career services, the writing center, financial aid, libraries, campus recreation and campus events, including athletics.

The program has grown from a handful of community college partners when it started in 2018 to 46 of the state’s 58 community colleges today.

Pat Jackson, university transfer and foreign language department chair at Pitt Community College, credits ECU as an innovator of the transfer program.

“Although other schools now have similar programs, ECU was a pioneer,” she said. “They have shown other schools the importance and success of transfer students and degree completion.”

ECU student Chris Costin, 32, of Hampstead, heard about Pirate Promise from a guest speaker at Coastal Carolina Community College in Jacksonville.

“My teacher had one of the local HVAC business owners come to our class and talk about jobs. He went to ECU for the same degree I’m aiming for,” said Costin, who is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in industrial technology. “The idea of a program with guaranteed acceptance was highly appealing because it was very easy to go through, and the in-person options were where I wanted to focus my future.”

Costin encouraged prospective students to take advantage of the resources and staff that are available as part of the Pirate Promise program. The fall application period for Pirate Promise opens Sept.1 and closes on Nov. 1.

Let’s Connect

A new tool to introduce middle, high school and community college students — and their parents and families — to ECU is Let’s Connect, a pilot program developed as a part of ECU staff member and alumnus Rich Klindworth’s doctoral dissertation.

In December, Jaylon Martin, right, became the first graduate of a unique partnership between ECU and Wake Technical Community College. The program allows students to take their ECU class at the Wake Tech campus. (Photo by Ken Buday)

Through Let’s Connect, ECU students, faculty, staff and alumni partner with local community colleges to create and hold a one-stop event highlighting degree programs, financial aid, scholarships and the application process.

The program takes ECU representatives out of Greenville and into communities, where prospective students and their families can participate in a bilingual (English and Spanish) college-knowledge presentation to learn about different pathways to earn degrees — especially through established transfer programs between institutions.

Participants have one-on-one opportunities to talk with ECU representatives from numerous programs to answer questions. Events are purposely held at night to allow working parents to attend.

“They really appreciate that we go to them, and that the information is provided in a language they are comfortable with,” Klindworth said. “We want them to know how much we want them to be here at ECU.”

More than 500 people attended five Let’s Connect events last fall and spring. Nine are planned this academic year from September to March, stretching across eastern and central North Carolina. A sister event, Conectémonos en ECU, will be on campus in October.

Another unique aspect of the Let’s Connect events is the involvement of local community college alumni. Landon Kennedy, 22, a Beulaville native, James Sprunt Community College alumnus and current ECU education student, was an emcee for the Duplin County event at James Sprunt last fall.

“I wanted to get involved with Let’s Connect because I saw it as a great opportunity to explain how students could take a similar path as I did,” Kennedy said. “I did not know about Partnership Teach in high school. If I had, I would have begun taking the required courses then. That is why I wanted to reach out to these high schoolers to give them guidance about a phenomenal program.”

Partnership Teach

Helping future teachers achieve their dreams without leaving their hometowns is at the heart of Partnership Teach. The online degree program allows students to begin taking courses at a North Carolina community college before transferring to ECU to complete their teaching degree.

The 2023 fall cohort in the College of Nursing’s RIBN program attended orientation on ECU’s campus. (Contributed photo)

Kennedy has enjoyed being in a small cohort with his Partnership Teach classmates. He also appreciates that his advisor responds quickly to questions, he said.

“I have been blessed with an advisor who cares tremendously even though I am a distance education student. Every professor I have had at ECU has been great with communication and making the experience more than just an online course,” he said. “I have had some amazing professors, and they are always willing to answer questions and work with me.”

Kennedy is a full-time teacher assistant at Beulaville Elementary School, where he serves as head football and basketball coach and is an assistant coach on the baseball team. He has been a bus driver as well. Along with coaching at Beulaville, he is an assistant football coach at East Duplin High School, where he graduated high school in 2020.

“I have done this while being a student at ECU. It has been challenging, but the experiences I have had working in a school have helped me tremendously with my degree,” said Kennedy, who will graduate from ECU in 2025.

Founded in 2002, Partnership Teach has partnered with 23 two-year and community colleges and 43 school districts to ensure that educators are ready to enter their own classrooms after graduation. Its virtual hub ensures that students from all 100 counties can participate in Partnership Teach.

Students can major in elementary education, middle grades education and special education. The same way that on-campus students participate in a practicum within one of ECU’s partnering school districts, Partnership Teach students are also placed in public school classrooms in or near their home community for a full-time, supervised internship.

Recent Partnership Teach graduate Tyanha Cannon has credited the program and her advisor, Karli Ruscoe, for the support she received as she pursued her degree while working full time as a teacher assistant in Pitt County.

“The advisors are amazing,” said Cannon, a special education graduate. “With Partnership Teach, you are enrolled in your classes automatically. … Your advisor is a huge resource. Use your advisor, use your instructor, ask them questions.”

Amy Mitchell, a 2023 elementary education graduate of the program, also credited the support for her success in the program.

“The instructors play a huge part because they seem to understand that we have a family and we are working full time,” she said.

Engineering Pathway

Hugo Sanchez-Delgado wants more. Working at Collins Aerospace in Wilson, the 28-year-old from Snow Hill looked to further his education at Lenoir Community College in Kinston. That’s when he discovered ECU’s PIRATES engineering scholars program.

The program — Providing Inclusive Residential And Transfer Experience Support in Engineering — started in the fall of 2020 through a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation. It provides scholarships and other support for students in economically distressed counties who want engineering degrees from ECU, including students at partnering community colleges in Lenoir, Wayne and Pitt counties.

“The program has meant everything to me,” Sanchez-Delgado said. “I have met several peers and heard their stories and goals. I’ve met with great instructors at ECU who have helped fuel my appreciation for engineering and education. The program is the main reason that I returned to school, and without its help, it would have made attending school difficult.”

Students in the program can start their educational journeys at their local community colleges, allowing them to live at home and maintain employment. Sanchez-Delgado will graduate in 2026 and wants to continue working at Collins Aerospace, where he plans to move into an electrical engineering position.

“I am extremely grateful for the PIRATES engineering scholars program,” he said. “… ECU has provided me with a great opportunity, and I am planning on making the most of the opportunity provided in my educational career and professional career.”

The program graduated its first students in December.

Tech Partnership

A unique partnership with Wake Technical Community College gives students there an opportunity to obtain an ECU Bachelor of Science in industrial technology (BSIT) degree without leaving the Raleigh campus. Taught by ECU faculty or adjunct faculty, the in-person courses take place in the evenings, allowing working students to get their BSIT degree with concentrations in architectural design or mechanical design.

The goal is to provide opportunities for employment and career growth to Raleigh-area residents who have qualifying Associate of Applied Science degrees. The partnership started in 2022 and had its first graduate, Jaylon Martin, in the fall of 2023.

“It’s a quick drive for me most days,” Martin said of Wake Tech. “I didn’t want to come all the way to Greenville. I didn’t want to move (to Greenville). I was looking at a few other colleges, but it was hard to get them to apply my degree from Wake Tech, but it worked out perfectly at ECU.”

Nursing’s RIBN

ECU’s College of Nursing offers a game-changing program that allows students to graduate with a four-year Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN) degree while completing most of their classwork at local community colleges through a distance education format.

The Regionally Increasing Baccalaureate Nurses (RIBN) program dually admits about 30 nursing students each year to both an associate degree in nursing track at their local community college and to ECU’s College of Nursing.

The 17 community colleges who partner with ECU are spread across eastern North Carolina, from the College of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City to Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington.

Students benefit from earning their registered nurse (RN) licensure after three years in the program, which allows them to support themselves with a well-paying job as they complete their final year of study.

“RIBN is an incredible benefit to students admitted to the program because it is more cost effective, students are able to begin working to gain real-world experience before graduating with their BSN and they get to do so without being uprooted from their families and communities,” said Dr. Kelly Cleaton, coordinator of the eastern North Carolina RIBN and aRIBN programs.

ECU also offers an accelerated RIBN (aRIBN) option, structured like RIBN, that allows for the completion of the BSN degree in three years, and for the student to begin working part time as an RN in two years. About 80-90 students are admitted each year.

“Students who undertake the aRIBN track must be very committed to their schoolwork, and we are very selective in who is admitted to the program, but some of the best nurses you’ll find in clinical settings have graduated from the aRIBN program because they are focused and dedicated to achieving goals, which translates to better patient care,” Cleaton said.

Recent Partnership Teach graduate Tyanha Cannon pursued her degree while working full time as a teacher assistant in Pitt County. (Photo by Steven Mantilla)

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