Leading the way: Love for nature spurred HCC’s Black forestry grads to barrier-breaking lives

Ron Davis Sr. was just 17 years old when he arrived in the tiny town of Clyde, completely alone. 

It was 1967, and Davis, a Black man from Knoxville, was there to start the new forestry program at Haywood Technical Institute, now known as Haywood Community College. He worked out a boarding agreement with the only Black person who lived within walking distance of the school, then located in the building that today contains Central Haywood High School, and nervously reported for his first day of class. 

HCC students guaranteed admission to Lees-McRae

Haywood Community College (HCC) and Lees-McRae College (LMC) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a Guaranteed Admission Program for all HCC students who meet certain academic requirements to transfer and complete a Bachelor’s degree at LMC. In addition, HCC students who qualify will receive New Horizon Transfer scholarships in amounts up to 60% off annual tuition.

Colleges, universities announce plans for fall 2020

In less than three weeks, classes will resume at Western North Carolina’s institutions of higher learning, and while instruction won’t rely entirely on digital learning as occurred this spring, the fall semester will be far from business as usual. 

Bigger graduations in store for Haywood Community College student

Maggie Mehaffey’s taken a bit of a different academic path than many of her peers — a path that gives her a unique perspective on the Coronavirus Pandemic. 

Front-line workers in Haywood get tested for coronavirus

Several hundred workers lined up by car at Haywood Community College April 28 to receive drive-through testing designed to gauge the level of asymptomatic, undetected COVID-19 cases in Haywood County, and if all goes well the results will soon help county decisionmakers evaluate the feasibility of reopening parts of Haywood County’s economy. 

WCU, community colleges adjust plans ahead of COVID-19

Students at Western North Carolina’s institutions of higher learning will see impacts to their spring semester experiences as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Legacy for education: Waynesville couple donates land for natural resource education

Haywood County has seen its share of change over the past century, and nobody knows that better than Joe Morrow. 

Morrow, 86, grew up on 107 acres of steep mountain land that today is located just down the road and across from the Haywood County Fairgrounds. It’s been in the family since his grandparents were farming, but he and his wife Sue have now placed 53 acres in a conservation easement that allowed it to become Haywood Community College’s newest teaching forest. 

New president named at Haywood Community College

After more than six months spent searching, the Haywood Community College Board of Trustees announced on Sept. 19 that it had identified a successor to retiring President Dr. Barbara Parker. Parker will leave the school in December after six years, but not before spending her remaining days working with the school’s next president, Dr. Shelley White. 

Undocumented students still eligible for free tuition at HCC

Haywood Community College’s “tuition-free guarantee” seems to be off to a solid start but the school also wants residents to know that undocumented students who meet all other requirements can also take advantage of the innovative program. 

Lumberjack ‘family’ to get a home: Construction underway on new HCC timbersports building

After more than 20 years of wood chopping and log sawing and award winning, the Haywood Community College Lumberjacks — the school’s timbersports team — will soon gain a permanent home. 

“The current practice facility is back where the old mill used to be, and it’s probably just as old as that was, late ‘60s,” said Matt Heimburg, dean of arts, sciences and natural resources at HCC. “It has a tin roof and a few logs somehow holding it up. So it’s long overdue for them to get a new practice space, for sure.”

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