The Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research (Belk Center) is advancing its work to support North Carolina’s rural community colleges through a new three-year initiative, made possible by support from Ascendium Education Group (Ascendium). Beginning in summer 2026, this work will focus on supporting North Carolina’s rural workforce and expanding economic mobility across the state by strengthening leadership capacity and strategic planning at rural community colleges. This effort ensures these institutions are better aligned with local labor market needs, directly impacting student economic mobility.

In North Carolina, 46 of our 58 community colleges are designated as rural or rural-serving, meaning that nearly 79% of the state’s community college system is anchored in these communities. However, more than 80% of strategic plans at these institutions are currently either outdated or set to expire within the next three years. This lack of timely, evidence-based planning creates a capacity gap, limiting the ability of colleges to respond to rapid technological shifts and evolving employer demands. Given the resource constraints and staffing limitations at many rural colleges, this capacity building is important to create a sustainable infrastructure of expertise from within our system.

To address this, grant funding will support two primary pillars of professional development designed to create a sustainable infrastructure of expertise across the state’s rural college network:

• Strategic Planning Institute: A year-long, blended training and coaching program tailored for rural college leaders. Over the next three years, the institute will train 45 leaders from 24 community colleges in best practices for workforce-aligned strategic planning, with an emphasis on taking strong state plans and translating them into locally unique, contextualized strategies.
• Fellows Program: An annual summer intensive for cohorts of senior leaders and Institutional Effectiveness/Research staff. Comprised of nine to 12 fellows over three years, these individuals will serve as mentors and facilitators, ensuring peer-to-peer expertise remains a permanent resource within the North Carolina Community College System.

“Rural community colleges are the economic engines of their communities, but to maximize their impact, leadership across the state must have the tools to navigate a rapidly changing labor market,” said A.J. Jaeger, executive director of the Belk Center. “Thanks to the generous support from Ascendium, we are launching an initiative to create clear pathways from education to high-demand employment. By prioritizing data-driven decision-making, we are ensuring that every rural student has the opportunity for upward economic mobility.”

“Ascendium believes all learners deserve opportunities to achieve upward mobility through education and workforce training,” said Kirstin Yeado, Senior Strategy Officer at Ascendium. “We are pleased to support the Belk Center’s efforts to build leadership and strategic planning capacity across North Carolina’s rural colleges so they can strengthen pathways to opportunity for learners across the state.”

This project aims to achieve measurable improvements for learners by strengthening the people and systems responsible for institutional decision-making, including:

• Improved Student Persistence: Increasing first-to-second year retention rates through streamlined advising, integrated student services and the removal of institutional barriers.
• Boosting Credential Completion: Achieving higher rates of degree, diploma and certificate attainment by aligning programs with labor market demand and providing targeting student support.
• Accelerated Time to Degree: Reducing the average time students need to complete their credentials through efficient course scheduling, guided pathways and coordinated transfer planning.
• Enhanced Labor Market Success: Improving graduate employment and earnings outcomes by strengthening employer partnerships, offering applied learning experiences and utilizing workforce-aligned curricula. 
• Fostering Upward Mobility: Driving long-term wage growth and economic advancement for community college graduates, particularly those from rural and low-income backgrounds. 

By reshaping institutional capacity, policies and culture, this initiative will lay the groundwork for sustained, measurable gains in student outcomes and long-term economic mobility for North Carolina’s rural college students.

About Ascendium Education Group

Ascendium Education Group® is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization driven by the belief that learning after high school gives people the power to build better futures. Our national philanthropy focuses on increasing opportunities for learners from low-income backgrounds to achieve upward mobility through post secondary education and workforce training. We partner with organizations whose objectives align with our core strategies to expand opportunity, support learner success, and connect and align systems. Our grantees include post secondary education and workforce training providers, intermediaries, researchers, and media organizations from across the U.S. To learn more, visit www.ascendiumphilanthropy.org.

About the Belk Center

As a trusted resource for North Carolina’s community college leaders, the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research delivers actionable research and tailored leadership programming to advance college and student success. We support leaders at every stage of their careers, equipping them with timely insights and practical tools focused on improving the experiences and outcomes of their students. Our efforts are North Carolina-focused and nationally informed.

The Belk Center was launched in 2019 as a research center within the College of Education at NC State, a land-grant university that shares our commitment to community colleges and the critical role these institutions play in creating and expanding opportunities for all North Carolinians.

Our work is made possible by the generous investments of philanthropic partners including the John M. Belk Endowment, Arnold Ventures, Ascendium Education Group, the Institute of Education Sciences and the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust.