VGCC Student graduates from Leadership Program

Vance-Granville Community College student Theresa Chiplis of Norlina recently graduated from the North Carolina Community College Student Leadership Development Program (SLDP). Graduates were honored at a ceremony in Raleigh on March 14. Serving as keynote speaker for the event was Hilda Pinnix-Ragland of Cary, who is the vice president of corporate public affairs for Duke Energy, as well as a member and former chair of the State Board of Community Colleges.

 

Chiplis is a student in the Global Logistics Technology, Accounting, and Business Administration programs at VGCC and is set to graduate with the latter two degrees in May. She serves as the lead student ambassador , president of the VGCC Student Government Association , and president of VGCC’s chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society. She is also the former president of VGCC’s chapter of the Phi Beta Lambda business student organization.

 

Chiplis and her fellow students in the leadership program completed a six-day training session in the summer of 2013, followed by two-day mini-sessions in the fall and in the spring. Since 1999, the SLDP has been conducted by the N.C. Community College System to enhance the leadership quality of student participants and to better prepare them for professional and civic responsibilities.

 

As part of the program, Chiplis conducted a leadership seminar for her fellow VGCC ambassadors, based on techniques she learned at the summer session. She and two other SLDP participants presented their group project, an anti-bullying workshop, at the fall conference of the North Carolina Comprehensive Community College Student Government Association (N4CSGA) . 

 

Above: From left, State Board of Community Colleges member Hilda Pinnix-Ragland and VGCC student Theresa Chiplis.