During their September 28th meeting, the Danville Area Community College Board of Trustees gave a $250 per student boost to their Middle College program, which will take effect next summer. (The new total per student will be $1,750.) As DACC president Dr. Stephen Nacco reminds us, the Middle College program is when a high school district within the DACC region recommends a potential drop-out student to the DACC program to give them something different. Nacco says sometimes an alternate approach is all they need.
AUDIO: We found that so many of these students are just very bright. It might be an environmental program. They just needed a change of scenery. They get personal attention, and that’s what matters. Tough task masters; it’s almost like being in the Army. You have to account for every minute you’re here, what you’re doing, show your homework, show that you’re progressing.
Meanwhile, a $100,000 IGEN, that’s Introduction to Graduate Education grant, is on its way for the HVAC program.
AUDIO: Jonathan Daugherty; our instructor of Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Systems; has really the biggest class I’ve seen since I have been here. And what they’re doing is, in geo-thermal sort of use of air conditioning; it’s environmentally friendly. So we’re going to have the equipment to be able to teach that.
(1st Picture) Cast of DACC’s upcoming To Kill a Mockingbird presentation. (2nd Picture) Show director Angie Mansfield addresses DACC Board of Trustees with Provost Dr. Carl Bridges.
Then, in later October, it’s the DACC presentation of To Kill a Mockingbird. Director Angie Mansfield says when Dr. Nacco said at the end of a meeting that he wanted to bring live theater back on campus, the Adult Education teacher and recruitment and retention coordinator said, “I’m in.”
AUDIO: I heard him say at his governance forum that he wanted to bring theater back. And I said, “Oh, that’s me. Let me do it, please!”
Dr. Nacco recalled hearing from Angie almost immediately.
AUDIO: And I want to say ten minutes after that meeting ended, she sent me an e-mail and said “I want to do this.”
The presentation combines DACC students, DACC faculty, and children and adults from the local community. Shows are October 20th and 21st at 7 PM, and Sunday the 22nd at 2 PM, at the DACC Bremer Center. You can get tickets on the DACC website or on the new Jaguars Players Facebook page.
