Story by Jacob Hancock
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Jay Siebold never saw himself going to a four-year college. No one on his mom’s side of the family went to college; they were all farmers. The highest level of education anyone in his family had achieved was his dad earning an associate’s degree. Siebold thought he’d make his own way in the world by developing a skill or learning a trade.
“I went through high school like, ‘Screw this, screw school, I just want to work from the ground up and build something of my own,’” Siebold said.
After his junior year of high school in Newport, North Carolina, he only needed one more credit to graduate. Rather than going back to high school, he decided to finish his degree through homeschooling, and dual enrolled at Carteret Community College. It was there he learned about the Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program.
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In 2006, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was looking to bring in more low-income transfer students from community colleges. That year, UNC was one of nine schools selected to receive a $1 million grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to start its own program. C-STEP is the only program of its kind that guarantees community college students admission upon completion of the program at a partner community college.
The program typically targets students attending community college straight out of high school, but adults with years of real-world experience are prevalent.
“They definitely make our campus more diverse, which is what we want,” said Rebecca Egbert, senior assistant director of admissions and C-STEP program director.
C-STEP makes UNC accessible to students who never thought they could afford it, never thought they’d want to go or never even considered it as a possibility. These are their stories.
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Siebold is currently a broadcast journalism major and works as a recording technician at the Department of Music. He’s also heavily involved with Carolina Connection, a weekly radio show run by students at the School of Media and Journalism.
Siebold said that his C-STEP experience was crucial to his success. While he was enrolled in community college, he worked part-time and matured. When he arrived in Chapel Hill he felt prepared to handle the academic demands.
Siebold’s idea of college has changed. Before, he thought he’d just be taking a bunch of tests. But at UNC-CH, he’s been able to do a lot of hands-on learning, and he’s happy that he has an actual product that he can show people rather than just good test grades.
“I’m really grateful to be able to work on something that I can use on a resume, or to even just show off to friends, put it out there and see what people think,” Siebold said. “I have come to college to work, not to go to school.”
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Shannon Smith was in her kitchen in Fayetteville a year ago when she caught a whiff of something rotten. She opened up the refrigerator and found the culprit: rotting vegetables. It brought her to tears.
Smith, who became a single mother at 22, can recall a time over a decade ago when she was trying to stretch the $20 in her bank account another two weeks to feed both herself and her daughter, Isabel. She was bouncing between part-time jobs and community college, just trying to make ends meet. Now at 36, she’s able to provide an excess of food for her and her child.
In 2011, when Smith was laid off from her job with a law firm, she decided to re-enroll at Fayetteville Technical Community College and finish her associate’s degree. That’s when she learned about C-STEP.
For Smith, attending a school like UNC-CH had never even been presented as a possibility. She has always been a hard worker – she had to be in order to take care of her daughter. College was never on her radar. But Loutricia Nelson, the C-STEP supervisor at FTCC, saw Smith’s drive and recommended she enroll in the program.
Smith earned her associate’s degree at FTCC and enrolled at UNC-CH in fall of 2012. After her junior year, she received the C.V. Starr Scholarship, which allowed her to spend two weeks in Switzerland studying the education system. Smith, who had never been outside the U.S. before, called the experience transformative.
“Any time you have a dream, and you see it come to fruition, it just gives you so much confidence,” Smith said. “I see the world as a much different place than the small town I grew up in.”
Now, Smith works with the university as the associate director of development for Centers and Institutes, where she helps oversee the growth of more than 260 research and services centers and institutes. She works in Chapel Hill five days a week, and on weekends she goes home to Fayetteville to see Isabel, who currently attends Cross Creek Early College High School and lives with Smith’s mother during the week.
“There are very few, if any weeks that I am not moved to tears by the abundance in our life,” Smith said. “The freedom and empowerment I feel as a mother to be able to provide for my daughter is incredible.”
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By the time she had graduated high school, Allie Miszewski had already published two books, one of which sold internationally. Miszewski was an accomplished student and clearly had a passion for her field – something universities covet in prospective students. But for her, she always felt like attending a school like UNC-CH was never in the cards.
“I toured UNC when I was in high school, and I really liked it, but one of the bad parts was they showed me the price tag for how much it costs to come to UNC before we took the tour, so that turned me off,” Miszewski said.
Miszewski is the oldest of four children. She didn’t feel she could put that sort of financial burden on her parents as they were taking care of three other children — one of them autistic and another dyslexic.
She decided to enroll at Wake Technical Community College, where she could get a degree without racking up student loan debt, and she could potentially find a way to a bigger school. At orientation she learned about C-STEP, and for the first time realized that maybe Carolina could be within reach.
Miszewski knew right away she wanted to enroll in the School of Media and Journalism and hone her writing skills by learning from the many experienced professors.
“I feel so blessed that I’ve been able to come here despite my circumstances, and it definitely drives me to work harder,” Miszewski said. “I’m just happy to be here.”
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About 84 percent of C-STEP students graduate from UNC. That’s a much higher rate than the general transfer population made up of students from both community colleges and four-year institutions.
“These students are smart, and they’re hard-working,” Egbert said. “With C-STEP, we’re able to bring in a larger group of students who are able to contribute to the community.”
C-STEP students have consistently proven to be successful at UNC-CH, more so than the average student transferring from a community college to a four-year institution. While 81 percent of entering community college students indicate they want to earn a bachelor’s degree or higher, only 33 percent actually end up transferring to a four-year institution within six years. And of those 33 percent that do make it to a four-year institution, only 42 percent complete a bachelor’s degree within six years – half the graduation rate of C-STEP students.
C-STEP is a selective program and only takes the best candidates from community colleges, so it’s natural for graduation rates to be higher. Egbert said it’s a good indicator that the program is working. But the wide disparity between C-STEP bachelor’s degree success rates and the national average for community college students shows that other colleges across the country are not doing enough for these students, and are leaving a large resource of intelligent and capable students untapped.
“These students are really hard-working, great students that are capable, and they really are providing a diverse perspective and worldview to the classroom,” Smith said. “It’s not just an education for them, but their classmates can learn from them too.”
