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Dr. David Loope, President of Beaufort County Community College, was the guest speaker at the Nov. 22 meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Washington.  Dr. Loope (pictured below) was introduced by Paige Davis.

Dr Loope said there were three main goals of the BCCC.  1. Break the Cycle of Poverty in Beaufort County.   2. Grow the Middle Class. and 3. Keep our Beaufort County citizens working in Beaufort County.

This can be accomplished in his view through the workforce education being done at our Community College.

BCCC has an annual budget of 18 million dollars with about 14.3 million coming from the state and 3.8 million from the county.  BCCC has over 300 instructors (some full but most part-time) and since COVID, those students taking nine or more credits and maintaining a GPA of 2.0 will have their tuition and fees paid from federal money.  When that money runs out the county has promised another million for the next four years to fund that effort.  This has resulted a tremendous boost in enrollment.

The college teaches a wide variety of subjects with their signature programs being Boat Building, Nursing, EMS Fire and Law Enforcement, Agri Business, Welding and Advanced Manufacturing. The college is continually expanding and is now building new classrooms on the main campus and the Aurora satellite site.

The Kiwanis Club of Washington meets each Tuesday for lunch at King Chicken on Carolina Avenue, Washington. The club welcomes prospective members who have an interest in service to the community.