Though Quintin Bullock has been President of the Community College Of Allegheny County for eight months, he hadn’t been able to visit the African-American Chamber of Commerce until last week.
But, as chamber President and CEO Doris Carson Williams noted while welcoming him to the Oct. 17 PowerBreakfast meeting, in those eight months, Bullock did something no one else in his position has—he welcomed President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to the college because they wanted to promote it as a model of educational and workforce development opportunity.
Bullock said his mission is to position the college as the region’s first choice for both those opportunities. He said the college is working to improve college readiness and align student expectations, improve collaborations with K-12s and refocus its mission to meet the new needs of the 21st century.
“My job,” he said. “Is to position CCAC as a vital economic player southwestern Pennsylvania; to develop and expand our academic and workforce development programs into new high demand areas, provide exceptional learning opportunities and services to a diverse student body, and make CCAC and outstanding institution for achieving student excellence.”
Bullock told the audience that from a price perspective, CCAC can offer county residents seeking secondary education or technical training a huge savings.
“For the first two years, students would save $19,000 compared to a public university and $54,000 compared to a private university,” he said. “We also have articulated agreements with several universities that allow all a student’s credits to transfer if they complete their associates degree.
Bullock also highlighted initiatives to improve college readiness for current high school students and to increase access to technical and certificate programs for poor and minority residents.
The first is CCAC’s dual enrollment “college in high school” that allows high school students to simultaneously earn high school and college credits by taking designated courses, cutting the time they spend in both, and the money they spend in the latter.
The second is the college’s East-West program, which arranges transportation to its West Hills Center for Professional Development for residents in Homewood, Rankin and North Braddock interested in its career certificate programs in the HVAC, robotics, healthcare, shale industry, Mechatronics and automotive industries.
The facility also contains a “mock house” where students get hands-on experience learning residential plumbing and electrical wiring procedures. And he added the college is continuing its ongoing conversations with local business and industry to ascertain their needs and develop targeted certificate and credit courses to meet them
Bullock said that though there are no major capital projects on the drawing board, CCAC will be renovating and expanding its fine arts facilities and is continuing to seek to increase its minority contracting, which he said is currently about 20 percent.
“It’s an exciting time for CCAC and I’m pleased to be a part of it,” he said.
(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)
Follow @NewPghCourier on Twitter https://twitter.com/NewPghCourier
Like us at https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Pittsburgh-Courier/143866755628836?ref=hl
Download our mobile app at https://www.appshopper.com/news/new-pittsburgh-courier
About Post Author
