AHOSKIE – Roanoke-Chowan Community College (R-CCC) recently celebrated the Board of Trustees by hosting a luncheon in their honor.

The College is celebrating 50 years of providing quality education and services to the local community. Understanding that the Board of Trustees plays an integral role in the success of the College and their leadership and support sets the tone for the College’s success, the R-CCC administration chose to recognize the trustees’ leadership and celebrate them by hosting a luncheon in their honor.

The event began with R-CCC President Dr. Jimmy T. Tate welcoming trustees, faculty, staff and students in attendance. Interim Dean of Academic Affairs Deborah Dickinson was followed by Dean of Continuing Education Anthony Thomas and Dean of Student Services Wendy Vann who brought greetings. R-CCC students Evelyn Fender and  Ronnie Williams gave testimonials about how the College has changed their lives.

Leadership bears some culpability for the state of the College and those who work and serve the College have a moral responsibility to invest in its future. When asked about serving on the Board of Trustees at R-CCC, board members shared how they felt it was a great honor and responsibility.

Board Chair Andre Lassiter stated, “If you look up the word trustee, it means that you are entrusted with this institution. You really make decisions that affect the lives of people. You don’t always realize it and I say don’t make hasty decisions because it does affect and change the future of young people. I was one of them. I’ve said it many of times that the antidote to poverty is education. We have the privilege to shape this institution to provide a great education for young people, middle-aged people and older people in the middle of a career change. To be a part of that is honorable.”

When asked about what it is like to serve on the board, Trustee Byron Simonds stated, “It’s a great honor and I take it very seriously to try to improve the community. I think that a lot of people in the community don’t realize what is involved to be on the board. It takes a lot of work, time and effort to be on the board and it’s quite an honor to be asked to serve on the it.”

Trustee Mary Harrell-Sessoms shared, “I’m just glad to be a board member, particularly at this time– just to see the employees and the president making improvements, not to say that anything was bad, but to say that I am able to see them make improvements to make this a world-class college is an honor.”

The board members were asked to share one of their most positive and memorable moments they experienced while being on the board.

Harrell-Sessoms stated, “I think the hiring of the new president is my most memorable moment.”

Simonds concurred and added, “We had a lot of qualified candidates and I think that we hired the best one.”

Lassiter echoed those comments and said, “I think we as trustees realize the value of this College to this community and I am one of 12 who gets to set the course for Roanoke-Chowan. The decisions we’re making today, we may not necessarily see the fruits of it now, but we will later. We are impacting possibly first graders with our decisions today and I count that as another honor.”

When asked about what they would like to see in the future for Roanoke-Chowan Community College, Simonds stated, “I would really like to see community support and community involvement come back to the College. When I moved here, this school had tremendous community support, from the poorest people in the county to the richest people in the county, from the least educated people in the county to the most educated people in the county. This school had tremendous support all across the board and I would like to see that come back to this College. I think that our new president is doing a good job to try to build that because he is going out and meeting with individuals and various groups that have been left out from communicating with this school…getting their ideas and input. I think doing that is going to go a long way in building community trust and community support. I want people in this community to come and take advantage of everything this school has to offer. Every time there is an open house, every time there is something going on…you see it in the paper, come see what’s going on because there really are some good things going on here.”

R-CCC’s Board of Trustees consists of 12 members. The Hertford County Board of Education and Hertford County Board of Commissioners appoint four members each. Additionally, the Governor of North Carolina appoints four seated members. The College president and Student Government Association president also serve on the board. For more information about the board, visit www.roanokechowan.edu/about-r-ccc/board-of-trustees.