“Thankful Things” is Forsyth Tech’s school supply collection to assist students through the Forsyth Tech Cares office. You can donate school supplies and help Forsyth Tech students who do not have the supplies they need for classes. Continue reading
Category Archives: FT News
Forsyth Technical Community College Recognizes cybersecurity Awareness Week, Nov. 9 – 14 with Virtual Events
While cybersecurity awareness activities continue year-round at Forsyth Tech, the college observed National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October sponsored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure and Security Agency, and this week the college will commemorate Cybersecurity Awareness Week sponsored by the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education to help provide education on the growing impact of cybersecurity in our world.
“We are extremely proud of our cybersecurity programs preparing students for valuable cybersecurity careers,” Janet Spriggs, president of Forsyth Tech said. “Forsyth Tech was designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity Regional Resource Defense Education in 2016, and we have received recertification through academic year 2024 for the Information Technology System Security degree.”
Through the Center of Academic Excellence national community, Forsyth Tech is participating and making available to all students, a series virtual events, webinars, Twitter chats, workshops, contests and challenges. Topics range from professional development for K-12 educators, developing the cybersecurity workforce for the future, how to get into non-technical cybersecurity careers and a careers family night. To access the list of events, go to Cybersecurity Awareness Week on the Forsyth Tech website.
As a Cybersecurity Regional Resource Center (CRRC), Forsyth Tech is one of only six Centers for Academic Excellence (CAE) named jointly by the National Security Agency (NSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). With this designation and the commitment to cybersecurity awareness and education, Forsyth Tech and the Davis iTech Center continue to provide Gencyber camps for K-12 students throughout the year.
Forsyth Tech also opened the Security Operations Center student lab in September 2019 to help students understand the impact of global cybersecurity attacks and will provide students an experiential learning opportunity in the security operations center (SOC) environment. Students can use software identical to that in business and government to enhance learning on mitigating attacks from adversaries and detect malicious security threats. Student will begin working with industry partners as they monitoring network activity on a live network.
The college also participates in the Federal CyberCorps Scholarship Program, which provides grants to students continuing their study in the field of cybersecurity, computer sciences, computer programming, or information systems security.
For more information about cybersecurity programs and the Scholarship for Service program at Forsyth Tech, please contact Deanne Wesley, Associate Dean, Davis iTEC Center, at 336.734.7305 or dwesley@forsythtech.edu.
About Forsyth Technical Community College
Forsyth Technical Community College provides students with guided educational pathways into a competitive workforce for the community and global economy. The college offers associate degrees, diplomas, and certificates in more than 200 programs of study, including programs that promote personal and professional development through non-credit courses and seminars, as well as customized training for business and industry. Forsyth Tech serves more than 35,000 students with approximately 1,500 full and part-time faculty and staff. For additional information, visit forsythtech.edu and follow on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
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Cybersecurity Awareness Week
In commemoration of Cybersecurity Awareness Week, Forsyth Tech is offering several events November 9-14.
As a designated Center of Academic Excellence in cybersecurity, Forsyth Tech is participating and making available to all students, a series virtual events, webinars, Twitter chats, workshops, contests and challenges. Topics range from professional development for K-12 Educators, developing the cybersecurity workforce for the future, how to get into non-technical cybersecurity careers and a careers family night.
To access the list of events, go to the National Institute of Standards and Technology webpage.
Forsyth Tech names transportation building for former president Gary Green
Forsyth Tech has honored its longest-serving president by naming a campus building for him.
Visual artist went from showing dogs competitively to painting and teaching
Growing up in the farming area of Baltimore County, Md., Ginnie Conaway was always around critters from dogs to chickens to cows.
She went on to show dogs competitively and started drawing them, as well as the dogs of competitors.
“I showed Dobermanns and Whippets for decades,” Conaway said.
In 2003, after spending her adult life in Wilmington, Del., and getting a divorce, Conaway decided to live elsewhere.
“I bought an RV and I started traveling around the country to figure out where I wanted to live,” Conaway said.
Her traveling companion was her last show dog — Travis, a Dobermann.
After a stint in West Virginia, she turned her attention to a city in a neighboring state.
“Winston-Salem, which was close relatively, had the reputation for being ‘The City of the Arts,’” she said.
Conaway, 71, has lived in Winston-Salem since 2005. It’s where she met her current husband, Bill Forrest.
Also, in 2005, she was hired by Sawtooth School for Visual Art to teach watercolor. She teaches drawing and painting primarily to seniors in the personal enrichment program at Forsyth Technical Community College. She is also an art instructor for Senior Services Inc. and Brookridge, a Baptist retirement homes community, both in Winston-Salem.
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North Carolina’s young voters are making their voices heard in the 2020 Election
GREENSBORO, N.C. — One group that traditionally doesn’t show up for elections is turning out for the 2020 presidential race.
Young voters are making themselves heard in early voting, and young volunteers are helping to drive the turnout.
NBC News reports more than six million voters ages 18-29 have already cast a ballot this year. That’s three times more than four years ago, in 2016.
Bill O’Neil talked to college students who have never voted before, but they are volunteering their time to get out the vote through the New Voter Project.
The non-partisan effort includes reaching out to young voters in a number of different ways, working the phones and reminding people to vote and how to make a plan to vote.
NC State University student Brigid Lindley says, “I just feel like it’s something that’s really important. We did not think about did not have that big of a turnout in 2016. We’ve really just been looking at trying to get as many kids out to vote as possible just because we feel like that’s so important this year.”
“There are people that quite literally don’t have the option whether they aren’t able to vote if they’re not old enough, or they aren’t a citizen, for whatever reason,” says Ellie McCutchen, who’s a student at both Early College of Forsyth and Forsyth Technical Community College. “I feel like the people that can be involved need to do their best to be involved because we have to speak for the people who can’t.”
When asked if these students have been surprised by anything in their efforts to get people involved, Lindley says, “It’s just been really incredible having a response from groups of people who you’d generally not expect to answer a phone call. We get people asking questions. I’ve had people that will text me a couple of days after I call them if they have any questions.”
McCutchen says she’s been worried about bothering people with calls. “This is necessary work I’m doing it with a purpose. It’s been really worthwhile when you have a good conversation about voting with someone who’s a complete stranger.”
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Expanding community college transfer to include workforce degrees
This is the fourth article in a series on the transfer experiences of North Carolina’s students between community colleges and four-year institutions. Click here to read the rest of the series.
Forsyth Technical Community College expanded Bailey Artz’s expectations for what he was going to get out of a college education. And that changed his life, he said.
Artz will finish his Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree in diesel and heavy equipment this spring. He is going right back to Forsyth Tech this fall for a program where he’ll earn his associate degree in horticulture then transfer to North Carolina A&T State University to get a bachelor’s in agricultural education, which is designed to take two years at each school.
Artz is going to get a job using his diesel degree, he says, and work his way through his associate and bachelor degrees to supplement his Pell Grant and additional loans. The first degree Artz will earn will help him pay for the next two — a positive feedback loop when it comes to the value of education.
By the time he graduates, Artz will have been in school for six years, assuming all goes according to plan. Artz, a high-achieving student with support at school and at home, has a good chance of making it through.
Focus on Forsyth Table of Experts
A group of community leaders gathered at Front Street Capital’s new headquarters located in Bailey South to discuss Covid-19 and the profound impact, not just on business but on higher education, nonprofits, the workforce and certainly on individual households.
Community Hero: Allan Younger, Director of the Small Business Center, serving Forsyth and Stokes counties
Allan is responsible for strengthening operations and services, enhancing support to small businesses, and providing community advocacy. His desire is to positively impact the confidence of small business owners regarding their ability to succeed. Allan not only does a great job as the center director, but he uses his own social media resources to assist people in doing business together. He is always connecting people both in person and virtually to help them grow. He goes out of his way to include a diverse perspective in his work. He is truly a champion of small businesses and helping people feel empowered to take a chance.
‘I know what it’s like to be homeless’ — Forsyth Tech student body president shares his journey
Nearly eight years ago, Curtis Walker arrived in North Carolina with nothing but the clothes on his back and hope for brighter future. Moving from New York, he was ready to turn a new page and build a better life.
“I had a bus ticket, and I had the clothes on my back,” Walker said.
He got hired at Pizza Hut first, then moved to Advanced Auto, then onto Tyson Foods, and then Ashley Foods. Eventually, he found himself at Corning, where a talk with a mentor led him to consider a choice that transformed his life — going back to school.
Now, almost eight years after that bus ride from New York, Walker is the Student Government Association (SGA) president at Forsyth Technical Community College, part of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, and ready to graduate with an associate degree in supply chain management.
The right fit
When deciding on schools, Walker knew he wanted to study supply chain management. He found Forsyth Tech and discovered their supply chain program. With a dream in mind and course catalog in hand, he packed up his bags and moved from Wilkesboro to the Triad.
At the time he started his classes, he had no idea where the opportunities at the college would take him — specifically the leadership development he would undergo. Walker credits many of the opportunities he’s had to the relationships he’s built with students, faculty, and staff.
During his first year at the school, he met president Janet Spriggs in an elevator. The conversation they had that day bloomed into a relationship, one that Walker is still learning from today.
Watching how Spriggs interacts with people and responds to the environment around her is a learning experience for Walker, he said. “Even though I’m not dealing with it, I’m learning from it,” he shared.
