Strategies in Practice
Actions and Impacts
This section highlights a set of evidence-based strategies drawn from the four community colleges that are actively working to “disrupt the divide” for Black learners and other learners facing barriers to advancement in high-wage, high-growth fields.
Each example documents a concrete strategy, the specific actions colleges took to implement it, early results for learners and programs, and implications for the broader field. Organized across the learner journey—postsecondary transition, collegiate experience, and career progression—and anchored by a cross-cutting implementation model, these cases are intended to be adaptable templates that other institutions can apply and scale in their own contexts.
Postsecondary Transition: Getting More Learners Onto Strong Pathways
Engaging in Relationship-Based Recruitment With K-12 and Community Partners
Strategy
Build long-term, relationship-driven recruitment pipelines with high schools and community-based organizations (CBOs) so learners from underserved communities see high-wage, high-growth programs as reachable options.
Actions Taken
At Stanly Community College (SCC), staff members identified youth-serving organizations that reach Black and underserved youth and prioritized those that had already developed strong neighborhood trust. SCC developed a new partnership with a CBO and spelled out the roles each of them would fill. A college liaison coordinated recurring visits where CBO staff members brought elementary through high school students to SCC labs for hands-on cybersecurity and IT activities. SCC also used its relationship with the local school system to have faculty members appear as guest speakers for high school classes, host field trips to its engineering and IT training facilities for high school and middle school students, and launch two new dual-enrollment pathways at local high schools.
At Delaware County Community College (DCCC), leaders in the Legal Studies and Paralegal Program shifted from universal marketing to targeted, relationship-based outreach. The program lead identified specific high schools and counselors; reached out to them directly to share concrete outcome data for the Paralegal Studies certificate of proficiency and the Legal Studies and Paralegal associate’s degree program, such as degree recipients’ above-average job placement rate (about 93%); and invited classes to on- and off-campus experiences, such as courthouse visits and Law Day events. Faculty members hosted information sessions on the legal studies pathways’ return on investment, and the college amplified photos and student stories from those events through social media and institutional channels to normalize the idea of community college as a place to pursue a legal career.
Early Impact and Implications for the Field
SCC faculty and staff members now spend sustained, higher-quality time with learners from underrepresented groups and communities. For example, they now schedule predictable, quarterly opportunities to showcase programs and careers instead of holding isolated events. DCCC has seen an increase in inquiries from high schools about pathways in law, and growing interest in dual enrollment. Together, these examples show that CBO/college partnerships—with formal agreements, named liaisons, and recurring visits—plus program-led storytelling can transform abstract college options into visible, attainable next steps. Most colleges can adopt this approach by inventorying existing relationships, formalizing a small set of high-leverage partners, and scheduling recurring, program-anchored experiences on campus and in the community.
Launching High-Value Dual-Enrollment Pathways
Strategy
Shorten and strengthen the on-ramp from high school into high-opportunity programs by creating dual-enrollment pathways that clearly ladder into multiple associate’s degrees and incorporate early WBL.
Actions Taken
Stanly Community College codesigned dual-enrollment pathways in IT and engineering technology with a local K-12 career and technical education director and two high school principals, aligning course sequences to six SCC associate’s degree programs rather than stand-alone electives. SCC secured a grant to equip high school labs with college-level hardware and software, coordinated with the district to use existing busing, and scheduled SCC faculty members to teach on high school campuses using main-campus syllabi and assessments (including the Michelin Technical Scholars test) to maintain rigor. SCC’s associate vice president of career connections led partnership conversations with local employers to identify pre-apprenticeship and internship opportunities, while faculty members embedded employer engagement from the outset through field trips and guest speakers. The team used end-of-semester surveys of students, counselors, and faculty members to refine advising, tutoring, and logistics.
Early Impact and Implications for the Field
In the fall of 2025, SCC enrolled more than 20 dual-enrollment students across the two high schools (meeting its target for the first semester of the new program). Engineering students performed even better than their main-campus peers on the Michelin Technical Scholars test. Additionally, three students qualified for future paid internships, and one student secured a pre-apprenticeship. These outcomes demonstrate that high-value dual enrollment is about coherent pathways plus employer connections. Colleges can emulate SCC by co-planning pathways with districts, investing in aligned labs and faculty members, and embedding WBL expectations, so high school students earn meaningful credits and accumulate early industry exposure in career pathways. Grants can supplement college resources to pilot such new approaches.
Providing Career-Connected Program Onboarding
Strategy
Use program-specific onboarding to help students choose better-fit pathways and understand how courses and credentials connect to work, wages, and the ability to transfer to a bachelor’s degree program—especially in fields like IT, where options can be varied and confusing.
Actions Taken
At Durham Technical Community College, IT leaders pulled internal institutional enrollment and completion data, advising notes, and student feedback, and then worked with JFF to convene a cross-functional “data party” with academic leadership, advisors, and student services. The team confirmed that many IT students were not in the appropriate certificate or degree program based on their career interests and that online learners rarely used available supports. In response, the team designed a structured IT orientation that would do the following:
- Explain the IT field and key subdisciplines in plain language
- Walk students through specialization and credential choices
- Map each Durham Tech certificate and degree to local job roles, wages, and transfer options
- Introduce WBL and core supports (coaching, tutoring, and technical help)
The team piloted the orientation in person and refined it using student and staff feedback. They plan to build an online version, so distance learners receive the same clear, front-loaded information and action steps.
Early Impact and Implications for the Field
The redesigned orientation has helped more Durham Tech IT students select appropriate programs, connect to WBL earlier, and reduce excess credits and confusion. It illustrates a low-cost, high-leverage move: Treat misalignment of programs and underuse of supports as information-access problems, and then solve them through data-informed, program-specific orientations with parallel online modules. Colleges can replicate this sequence—using data to explore program alignment and stop-out rates, providing program-level orientation, and providing a parallel online orientation—to create stronger early momentum in IT and other complex pathways. Durham Tech is now exploring a similar formula of program-specific orientations with other meta-majors within its guided pathways structure.
Collegiate Experience: Helping Learners Persist and Progress
Redesigning High-Demand Programs Around Working Learners and Belonging
Strategy
Forsyth Technical Community College has treated program design as a lever to ensure that all students have access to its programs, by redesigning high-demand nursing and mechatronics pathways so working adults—including Black learners and women—can realistically enroll in, persist in, and complete those programs. The college has paired flexible, accelerated formats with intentional structures for connection and support, so students are not only able to fit programs into their lives but also feel that they belong and are valued in those spaces.
Actions Taken
In nursing, Forsyth Tech conducted a thorough curriculum review to determine the best accelerated model for its pathway from Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) to Registered Nurse (RN). That led to the program being redesigned from three semesters to two—while maintaining licensure and accreditation standards—with multiple delivery options: hybrid sections on the main and regional campuses, plus fully online tracks in addition to its fully on-campus option. To ensure that students had the support to persist in and complete their programs under this accelerated format, students were referred to college support services to proactively address issues that could hinder their academic progress, such as child care, mental health and basic needs, and transportation challenges.
In mechatronics, the college took advantage of its data party, which combined insights from quantitative institutional data and JFF-led focus groups, to understand why learners facing barriers to economic advancement, such as Black learners and women, were less likely to enroll and persist. Students named isolation, rigid schedules, and a lack of role models and supports as key barriers. In response, Forsyth Tech leaders set an explicit goal to increase recruitment and retention for those groups and began exploring the implementation of flexible evening and weekend sections, a short-term continuing-education mechatronics on-ramp, and a peer/alumni mentorship model to build social capital. They administered surveys to current and prospective students to quantify barriers (such as transportation, child care, technology, and scheduling) and worked with local CBOs to plan embedded supports, such as transportation assistance, housing help, and laptop access—especially for learners in nontraditional time slots.
Early Impact and Implications for the Field
Forsyth Tech graduated its first cohort from the accelerated LPN-to-RN model in May 2026. Under the new model, faculty members saw greater persistence among working LPNs who had struggled under the longer, less flexible model. In mechatronics, evening/weekend options and the planned continuing education on-ramp are already generating interest among working adults who previously could not fit the program into their lives, and the focus-group/survey process has elevated access and belonging as shared departmental priorities. Together, these examples show how colleges can set students up for success by redesigning time, place, and support structures around people’s lives while intentionally expanding belonging and connection. Forsyth Tech offers a replicable template for other institutions: Use data and student voice to identify who is being left out; create shorter and more flexible programs without sacrificing rigor; and pair those structural shifts with mentorship and holistic supports so more learners can see, stay in, and thrive within high-wage, high-growth programs.
Implementing Proactive, Tech-Enabled Coaching and Advising
Strategy
Turn coaching and advising from optional, student-initiated services into standard, proactive components of the student experience—especially for online and working learners.
Actions Taken
In the IT program at Durham Tech, the department staff and success coach analyzed student coaching appointments and course data and saw that online students seldom used coaching or tutoring services. They cocreated an outreach plan and had the IT success coach record a short YouTube video explaining their role and how to book a meeting with them. The program embedded the video in learning management system (LMS) announcements, emails, and social media posts, and set a clear expectation in its IT orientation that every student would schedule a post-orientation appointment (virtual or in person) with the success coach. Those meetings were used to confirm program choice, build a term-by-term plan, flag likely risk points, and connect students directly to tutoring, technical support, and WBL staff members.
In the Paralegal Technology program at Durham Tech, the program director and success coach built a three-part model: Schedule group advising sessions at key times in the term, target one-on-one appointments for students with risk indicators, and schedule classroom visits at which the coach could introduce themself and demonstrate how to access help. Using degree and enrollment lists, they added automated text messaging to send reminders and nudges to students who were off sequence or close to stopping out.
Early Impact and Implications for the Field
Durham Tech saw a measurable rise in IT success-coach appointments—especially among online students—and an increase in reported awareness and use of academic supports. The Paralegal Technology program recorded a roughly 10% improvement over the completion rate from the previous year. The lesson for the field is that short-form videos on social media, LMS integration, and simple texting tools, paired with explicit expectations (“everyone meets the coach”), can transform advising from a safety net into standard practice. Group advising can also be an effective model where resources are limited. This approach is replicable across programs without adding new positions: What changes is the outreach model and the expectation that staff members will go to students rather than waiting for students to come to them.
Tracking Visible Milestones and Consistent Progress
Strategy
Make stackable milestones and progress checks highly visible, and use them as levers for encouragement, career navigation, consistency, persistence, and completion.
Actions Taken
At Stanly Community College, IT program leaders cataloged internal certificates and external credentials students earned, such as Cisco Certified Support Technician and Internet and Computing Core Certification (IC3), and decided which ones to publicly recognize and celebrate. Previously, students did not receive certificates until they completed a degree program. This new strategy sought to recognize certificate completion as an important step toward improving certificate and/or degree completion rates. With Title III support, SCC will soon be implementing a module of its data analytics platform that will automatically identify students who have earned or nearly earned those internal certificates or external credentials. Those lists will be given to advisors and program leads so they can recognize students’ accomplishments and progress and coach them on next steps for further education or employment. Faculty members were also equipped with resources to talk with students more about the value of certifications. SCC began embedding IC3 Level 1 certification materials into IT program courses, such as Introduction to Computers, and to some dual-enrollment sections early on so that more students could experience an early win.
In the Paralegal Technology program at Durham Tech, the program director manually checked degree audits, advising records, and rosters; identified students whose records were missing from or incorrect in the registrar’s database; and made corrections to those records. She then used clean lists to coordinate targeted outreach with the success coach, to reach students who had stopped out close to program completion. She also began planning the Minority Student Alumni Spotlight campaign, which would invite graduates from underrepresented groups back to Durham Tech to serve as visible role models. The goal was to tie progress tracking to a sense of belonging and possibility.
Early Impact and Implications for the Field
SCC saw some improvement in students’ credential completion but also discovered that online learners often did not grasp the value of credentials, underscoring that data on student progress and digital badges students earned must be paired with career advising. Durham Tech’s Paralegal Technology program met enrollment and completion goals and built a more intentional structure for catching issues early and supporting students facing barriers to completion. These efforts show that relatively modest data tools, combined with focused career advising, can turn credentials and degree audits into milestones and career coaching touch points that drive momentum toward program completion.
Career Progression: Turning Learning Into Mobility and Future-Ready Skills
Expanding Experiential Learning and Employer-Backed Career Navigation
Strategy
Embed real workplaces into programs so that experiential learning and employer contact become part of the core curriculum and use those relationships to drive placement.
Actions Taken
The Legal Studies and Paralegal Program at Delaware County Community College integrated experiential learning into required coursework by coordinating with local judges (including a DCCC trustee), bar associations, district attorneys, public defenders, court staff members, and law offices. Students participated in courthouse tours, mock trials, Law Day presentations, alumni networking events, and legal clinics, taking on defined responsibilities such as client intake and document drafting under supervision. Faculty members systematically debriefed these experiences in class, and students were coached by faculty and staff members on writing their resumes and cover letters and interviewing for jobs, as employers were increasingly contacting the college for interns and graduates.
At Stanly Community College, IT and engineering teams linked their dual-enrollment pathways to field trips to local employers, Michelin Technical Scholar testing, and pre-apprenticeship placements. When paid-internship capacity was limited, the teams explored options to expand work-based exposure and to include structured service learning through partners like Habitat for Humanity and Goodwill. They also adopted software to track employer and advisory-board engagement over time.
Early Impact and Implications for the Field
Roughly 93% of graduates from DCCC’s Legal Studies and Paralegal associate’s degree program found employment. Graduates also noted that students who had been reluctant to speak publicly had stepped into public-facing roles and regarded legal professionals as role models they could relate to. SCC built early industry exposure and a foundation for future paid placements, despite a tight WBL market. These experiences suggest that colleges’ sustained, relationship-based engagement with employers and CBOs—through recurring student visits, legal clinics, and networking opportunities—dramatically strengthens students’ social capital and labor market outcomes and can be built from a small initial set of partners.
Building AI-Ready Programs and Professions
Strategy
Integrate AI literacy across technical and professional programs so that graduates enter AI-mediated workplaces with practical skills grounded in responsible AI use.
Actions Taken
Stanly Community College conducted an “AI literacy scan” of peer institutions and industry, joined the statewide AI.iNC initiative, and gathered input from employers and advisory boards on AI-mediated work. A core SCC team drafted a cross-program framework for AI use in IT and engineering curricula and ethics discussions, and SCC required all instructors to use a three-level framework (AI prohibited, limited, and encouraged) to create an AI syllabus statement tailored to each course. The Center for Teaching and Learning launched recurring AI Fridays for faculty members to experiment with tools and share examples, and IT faculty members piloted AI-enabled assignments and AI bots in introductory courses, such as Introduction to Computers and Introduction to Cyber Crime. Two SCC leaders served on a state AI committee developing new AI courses, positioning SCC as an early adopter.
At Durham Tech, the Paralegal program director plans to create a course titled AI and the Law: Legal, Ethical, and Practical Applications by drawing on labor market data; standards from NALA, a professional association for paralegals; and JFF tools, resources, and coaching related to AI and the future of work. The course, which will first be piloted as a continuing education offering, will cover AI’s legal and ethical implications, concrete AI use cases in legal practice, and hands-on tool use. Using funds awarded through the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, she plans to attend conferences on technology in law to inform the course content. If the course is successful, it may later be modified and enhanced for inclusion in the degree program.
Early Impact and Implications for the Field
At SCC, AI moved from niche experimentation to a strategic institutional focus, with growing faculty buy-in and early normalization of AI literacy for students as a core competency. At Durham Tech, the new course will position paralegal graduates to navigate AI-mediated legal workflows responsibly, strengthening their employability and wage potential. These cases show that pairing system-level AI frameworks (policies and faculty professional development) with intentional program-level courses prepares students to be “AI-ready” rather than left behind.