N.C. seniors benefit from expanded Carolina Advising Corps outreach E-mail
August 2008

advising corps
DeWhitney Upchurch participates in a Carolina
Advising Corps training session at UNC.
She works with students at Carver and Atkins
high schools in Winston-Salem.
Greater help in navigating college admissions and financial aid is on the way to more than 7,000 seniors in 38 North Carolina high schools, thanks to a substantial expansion of the year-old Carolina College Advising Corps. The corps, based in Carolina’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions, has increased from four advisers to 19 advisers this year.

“Their efforts will greatly enhance our ability to help our students find their way to college,” said John Modest, principal at West Charlotte High School.

Funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the Annie Penn Community Trust, and the Golden LEAF Foundation, the Carolina Corps is one of 13 partner programs in the National College Advising Corps, also headquartered at the University. The corps aims to increase the number of low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students entering and completing higher education. According to the College Board, high-achieving students from low-income families have about the same chance of enrolling in college as low-achieving students from high-income families.

“The work of the Carolina Advising Corps and the other constituent programs is integral to the success of the National Corps, and we look forward to continuing to work with them to empower even more students across the nation to attend college,” said Nicole Hurd, founder and executive director of the National College Advising Corps.

To prepare for their roles, the 19 advisers participated in a six-week summer training led by Wendy Jebens and Jennie Cox Bell, program coordinators from UNC’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Advisers also toured campuses and met with administrators from more than 20 two- and four-year colleges and universities around the state. The 19 Carolina advisers joined 132 advisers from 12 other institutions in the National College Advising Corps in early August for a training workshop at UNC.

Each of the advisers are serving two high schools, working closely with guidance counselors and other school personnel to create programs that meet the needs of the students in each school.  Advisers will help students research and apply to a broad range of two- and four-year schools, not just UNC.

The Carolina College Advising Corps is part of the University’s response to the Access to Higher Education recommendations of the UNC Tomorrow Commission report. To capitalize on the success of this program, Carolina has proposed the creation of a college access and advising course and curriculum. The goal is to create a curriculum that will help University students, pre-service educators, school counselors and student-service personnel provide exemplary advising to those who seek access to college, with a particular focus on advising low-income and underserved students, especially African-American, Hispanic and American Indian students.