Forsyth Tech Community College will partner with the Community Law and Business Clinic at Wake Forest University to provide free legal services for non-criminal cases to Forsyth Tech students.

The program will be run through the Forsyth Tech Cares office, which was launched as a part of the college’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and student’s needs outside the classroom.

“The Forsyth Tech Cares office allows us to assist students with holistic services when ‘life happens’ obstacles threaten to keep them from graduating,” said Stacy Waters Bailey, executive director of student success services.

“Having access to legal services is one more way we can help our students persist in their education with one less worry to complete their program.”

Fifteen law students from the Community Law and Business Clinic will provide the pro-bono legal services on a virtual meeting platform beginning this week.

Steve Virgil, professor with Wake Forest’s School of Law, said the program is a “win-win” for Wake Forest and Forsyth Tech.

“Our law students gain experience applying their legal and client skill development on a variety of legal issues. And Forsyth Tech students have access to legal services that may be the help they need immediately,” Virgil said.

The legal issues will focus on consumer issues, landlord-tenant issues, family law, expungements, business start-up paperwork, immigration issues and government benefits issues.

Forsyth Tech Cares was underway before COVID-19 and was ramped up as quickly as possible, as COVID-19 revealed many socio-economic inequities,” said Masonne Sawyer, vice president for student success services.

“Through a generous grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Foundation, Forsyth Tech Cares is now an office at Forsyth Tech with three full-time Cares Navigators to help serve students.”

With access to legal services, Forsyth Tech students may have one less worry in staying on their path to completing their education

Forsyth Tech will partner with the Community Law and Business Clinic at Wake Forest University to provide legal services at no cost to Forsyth Tech students.
The program will run through the office of Forsyth Tech Cares, which was launched as part of the college’s response to COVID-19 and students’ needs outside the classroom during this time of crisis.

“The Forsyth Tech Cares office allows us to assist students with holistic services when ‘life happens’ obstacles threaten to keep them from graduating,” said Stacy Waters Bailey, executive director of student success services. “Having access to legal services is one more way we can help our students persist in their education with one less worry to complete their program.”

Fifteen law students in the Community Law and Business Clinic will work with all students, beginning this week, on a virtual meeting platform.

“This is a win-win for the Wake Forest University Law School’s Community Law and Business Clinic and Forsyth Tech,” said Steve Virgil, professor, Wake Forest University School of Law. “Our law students gain experience applying their legal and client skill development on a variety of legal issues. And, Forsyth Tech students have access to legal services that may be the help they need immediately.”

Primarily, the legal issues will focus on consumer issues (collections, credit reporting, predatory lending issues, etc.), landlord-tenant issues, family law (non-contested divorces/custody paperwork), expungements, business start-up paperwork, immigration issues, and government benefits issues. Essentially, Forsyth Tech students will now have access to free legal services for non-criminal cases.

“Forsyth Tech Cares was underway before COVID-19 and was ramped up as quickly as possible, as COVID-19 revealed many socio-economic inequities,” said Masonne Sawyer, vice president for student success services. “Through a generous grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Foundation, Forsyth Tech Cares is now an office at Forsyth Tech with three full-time Cares Navigators to help serve students.”

The goal of Forsyth Tech Cares is to coordinate and expand the college’s comprehensive wrap-around, holistic student support services. In November 2020, the college hired three full-time Care Navigators, who act as the primary point of contact for students in need, to provide triage to discern their needs and then connect them to the supports to meet those needs. As of January 31, the college has processed 3,963 requests for student assistance.

For more information on Forsyth Tech Cares, contact Stacy Waters Bailey at swatersbailey@forsythtech.edu.

The EC-Council Academic division is proud to formally highlight academic institutions and instructors across the world that excel each year with lasting impacts on their students’ cybersecurity education and local communities.

Academic Award Categories: (Credit & Non-Credit)
2020 Academic Partner of the Year (1 award recipient)
2020 Academic Circle of Excellence (5 award recipients)
2020 Academic Innovator of the Year (1 award recipient)
2020 Academic Best Newcomer (1 award recipient)
2020 Academic Instructor Circle of Excellence (3 award recipients)
2020 Academic Instructor of the (1 award recipient)EC-Council’s Academic division and awards committee honors academic partners each year that excel in course offerings, technologies, and cybersecurity instruction for students and faculty. EC-Council’s Executive Committee reviews each nominee’s impact, assessing their faculty, student experiences, efforts outside of the classroom, individual faculty involvement, and more prior to voting on an award recipient.
These are very prestigious awards as EC-Council has over 2,000 academic partnerships across the world from High Schools, Technical Institutes, Colleges, and Universities. Award recipients are honored based on the following criteria:

– Continuous program development.
– Incorporating new technologies and innovative methods of education.
– Commitment to educate and make a difference in the cybersecurity workforce.
– Student feedback on EC-Council courses and faculty.
– Evaluation reports post class.
– Secondary, Post-Secondary, and Alumni Engagement.
– Specialized initiative engagements.
… and more

The Annual Academic Awards traditionally precedes both Hacker Halted, EC-Council’s largest annual cybersecurity conference, and the Global CISO Forum, EC-Council’s premier executive-level event. However, last year’s Hacker Halted and Global CISO Forum events were held virtually.

Wesley Alvarez, Director of Academics, said, “We are incredibly proud to present the following recipients with their awards to honor their achievements in 2020. Last year was a very challenging year for academic communities and students alike across the world. These award recipients were able to persevere and ensure quality cybersecurity education programs and standards were accessible for existing students as well as professionals seeking a career change. We are pleased to highlight their efforts and wish them each success in the new year!”

A consortium of Triad community colleges led by Forsyth Technical has received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.

That grant is aimed at supporting community colleges in advancing career pathways in manufacturing to meet employers’ demand for more skilled workers.

Forsyth Tech will lead the “Aligning the Workforce Education System for Manufacturing” project, a consortium of eight community colleges across the Triad.

The other community colleges are:

• Alamance Community College
• Davidson-Davie Community College
• Guilford Technical Community College
• Montgomery Community College
• Randolph Community College
• Rockingham Community College
• Surry Community College

“This is an extraordinary opportunity for Forsyth Tech and our partner community colleges to build a clearer education workforce development system, ultimately making North Carolina more prosperous,” said Janet Spriggs, Forsyth Tech president.

“The ultimate outcome will ensure coordination between workers’ skills and employers’ expectations, resulting in an increased number of adults with well-paying jobs in advanced manufacturing.”

The foundational activity of these eight institutions will create a Business & Industry Leadership Team (BILT), which will give regional employers a co-leadership role for technical programs in machining and mechatronics.

Sixteen partnerships from 13 states representing 17 community colleges and 19 universities will participate in the Equity Transfer Initiative (ETI), which aims to increase transfer rates for African-American, Hispanic, adult and first-generation learners.

The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) will lead the initiative in partnership with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). The ECMC Foundation and Ascendium Education Group are funding the two-year ETI, through which selected partnering two-year and four-year institutions will receive up to $27,500 to advance transfer pathways and align them to increase transfer and completion for underrepresented student populations.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of $40 million through the Strengthening Community College Training Grants program to build the capacity of community colleges to meet labor market demand for a skilled workforce.

As the nation recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, community colleges are critical partners for the public workforce system to train the American workforce and build a pipeline of workers in critical industries such as health care, logistics and cybersecurity. The Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants aim to address the skill development needs of employers and to support workers in gaining skills and transitioning quickly from unemployment to employment. The grants also build the capacity of community colleges to address challenges associated with the pandemic, such as expanding online and technology-enabled learning.

“The Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants will play an important role in helping workers to reskill as quickly as possible with industry-recognized credentials and accelerated pathways to degrees,” said Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training John Pallasch. “These grants are among the range of actions the Department is taking to aid American workers and employers as our nation combats the coronavirus pandemic.”

Watch Triad Today with Forsyth Tech guests Paula Dibley and Logan Philon discuss College Lift.

Foxit Software, a leading provider of innovative PDF products and services, helping knowledge workers to increase their productivity and do more with documents, today announced that Forsyth Technical Community College is leveraging Foxit’s PhantomPDF as its PDF Software solution in order to move away from traditional paper workflows and accelerate the schools digital transformation across numerous departments. Forsyth Tech has been offering vocation instruction and training in skilled trades since 1960. Today, the school has expanded to nine campus locations and offer college transfer, two-year degree programs, short-term training, corporate training, continuing education, personal enrichment classes, and much more.

Forsyth Tech, an institution that focuses on its student success in learning and equity, instituted goals to shift to a more digital and remote-friendly campus and was searching for a solution that could accelerate campus-wide digital transformation and create innovative ways to convert workflows from paper-based to digital. The search lead to Foxit’s desktop editor, PhantomPDF, which provided the right PDF features to move away from traditional paper workflows. With PhantomPDF, Forsyth Tech could use PDF documents to enable communication and collaboration through a common, standardized, portable and secure electronic file format. This made documents viewable on all devices, making it possible for anyone on and off campus to have access to the resources they needed.