Understanding Education on all levels: Leadership Wilmington 2024

I knew going into this assignment this was going to bring up so many memories of my time as a technology technician with the school system. Our first task of the day was to split into teams and visit some of the local schools here in New Hanover County. Teams were deployed to Forest Hills, Castle Hayne, Trask, Glow, Holly Shelter, Winter Park, and Hoggard High School. My team was tasked with Forest Hills, and we learned many things about the new principal and his goals for the school. He informed us the schools were graded at an “F-“ and he was working hard to get that assessment improved. Meeting his staff and students was the highlight for our team, as everyone seemed to love being there. 

Later, all of our classmates met back at Wilmington Chamber of Commerce to share and tell of their morning’s experience. There were so many different but similar stories about the schools they visited. We transitioned to learning about Fundraising from Logan Thompson, Executive Director of the CFCC Foundation and Leadership Wilmington Alum Class of 2021. She was very informative about how to ask, when to ask, and providing details really makes a difference. This really pumped us up even more to fundraise and exceed our goal of $95,000! 

After a great lunch and conversation among classmates, we were ready to dive into the afternoon’s continuation of the levels of education. Our first speaker was Jane Morrow, Executive Director of Smart Start. Her program is focused to help our early childhood community provide positive, stimulating, and quality early learning experiences for young children. With all of Jane’s knowledge and experience, she was able to share some very interesting facts about early childhood. 

Now it was time for the WOW committee report outs, and we were thrown a twist this time where Laura asked for a facilitator, a timekeeper, an emotions moderator, and a note taker. Several of us raised our hands without even knowing what the job entailed. I just think the excitement of volunteering got us already to do anything. I volunteered to be the emotions moderator because it sounded very intriguing. I have to say being able to tell my classmates that their emotions were getting a little high and to calm down was one of my highlights of the day! 

Next on the list of speakers was Dr. Charles Foust, Superintendent of New Hanover County Schools. Dr. Foust gave us some history of his past accomplishments in other counties and states, and what he has done so far in New Hanover County schools. There were many wins locally over the recent year: 90% of schools met or exceeded growth, 5 schools no longer are low-performing, 14 schools increased a letter grade, Hoggard High School is rated in the top 100 high schools in NC, and Holly Shelter being #1 Title 1 school of growth. These were some fantastic numbers, and we all were very impressed and asked many questions! Dr. Foust graciously answered all our questions, and even stayed after the Q&A session to answer even more. 

Our next speaker was Erin Easton, Director of Workforce Development at Cape Fear Community College, to give us the run-down of what Cape Fear Community College is doing. Erin also brought some goodies and asked some history questions about CFCC. Erin was also tasked to give us a tour of CFCC (downtown location), but before she did, she introduced our last speaker. Dr. Rob Burrus, Dean, Cameron School of Business at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Dr. Burrus, who is originally from Kinston, brought his passion and love for the city of Wilmington and the University. 

At last, we were able to stretch our legs and go for a walk to tour some of the classes at CFCC. Our first stop was the barbershop, where they house 13 students who take the course for 15 months, that includes class time as well as cutting hours. We heard from one of the current students, a military veteran and previously a police officer who has now wanting to be a barber. It was very cool to see him very excited to one day own his own barbershop. We continued the tour and was able to visit a Yamaha Motors Bay. The two students we talked with stated that was their first day in this class. They previously took the first course offered in this career path and they were excited to continue learning about motors. Our last stop was Wooden Boat Building with Walter, and we all were in awe that they draw out each part and use a 2D machine to print it out. He said he loves for students to learn the old school way of building boats. He said he has many young men who want to learn this craft to find a career. Conversely, he also has older people who just want to learn so they can build a boat in their garage. 

This was absolutely another great day with such amazing classmates and speakers on education. “The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”