[00:00:00] Speaker A: The Journey Hometown Journal.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: Our students come back and they take the same standard course of study as a student in a traditional K 12 high school. They have to take the same SOL exams, so they actually get a standard diploma as opposed to a GED or an adult high school diploma.
[00:00:17] Speaker C: Welcome to the Hometown Journal. I'm Mark Edwards. This week we're going to share with you the work of the Excel center in Roanoke. The center is helping adults complete their high school education and earn their diploma.
The director of the Accel center is Bruce Major. Bruce, welcome. Thank you for being with us. Before we get into the mission of the Excel center, tell us about your background in education and how it led you to becoming the director of the Accel Center.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Absolutely. So I started my educational career as a school psychologist, and from there I transitioned into school administration, first having worked in an inner cities charter school in North Carolina, then transitioned to international education, where I served as international principals in China as well as Dubai.
And then just nearing the latter stage of my career and deciding to transition back to the United States, I was looking more for a mission driven type of a situation. Public schools are great, charter schools are great. But I really want to do something that had a little more mission focus on. And I stumbled across the Excel center model with goodwill.
And it's just an opportunity that kind of struck right where I was in my career and what my philosophies are and my belief systems. And it's just a great opportunity to come back and serve adults after spending about 26, 27 years working with traditional K12 students.
[00:01:46] Speaker C: So what is the mission of the Excel Center?
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Absolutely. So at its heart, it's a high school completion program.
So. And our data shows that in the Greater Roanoke area, in the, in this region, there are 14,000 adults who have not obtained their high school diploma.
And so we really want to give those individuals an opportunity to come back and to complete their Virginia state diploma. Now, you're probably familiar with GED programs and adult education programs. That's not what the Excel center is. Our students come back and they take the same standard course of study as a student in a traditional K 12 high school. They.
They have to take the same SOL exams, so they actually get a standard diploma as opposed to a GED or an adult high school diploma. And the reason that's important is because the data suggests that adults with a standard Diploma, even over GED, can earn as much as $1,000 to $1,200 more a month and also have more career advancement opportunities by having a diploma than a GED. Not that GEDs are bad for some folks that works, but.
But it goes to the second part of the Excel center that while we are a high school completion program, we're much more workforce development program.
So the goal of the program is for students to get a high school diploma, but the ultimate goal is that our students will earn a sustainable wage for themselves and their families, thus breaking the cycle of generational poverty. So as a high school requirement for the Excel center, students have to meet all the graduation requirements for the for a state standard diploma, but they also have to earn a trade certification. So we partner with several trainers, training institutions, the chief among them being Virginia Western Community College.
We work with Carilion, Fast Track and other training providers where our students will earn a trade certification and become and get their license in that certification area so that they can then have, and then we have post graduation support that helps them to gain employment and sustain that employment over time.
So it's much more of a, the mission is much more of a workforce development, but at its foundation is the education and the high school completion program.
[00:04:09] Speaker C: You mentioned that about 14,000 adults in the Roanoke area have not earned their high school diploma. How does that compare on average with other cities across the country, cities that are the same size as Roanoke?
[00:04:23] Speaker B: I don't have specific data on that, but I think it's probably commensurate to other areas, especially states that have high stake testing like sols, you know, where that actually holds a lot of students back from graduating, you know. But more importantly, I think the reason that I anecdotally suggest that it's probably on par is just that the nature of high school, you know, over 87% of our students are female and the vast majority of those individuals dropped out of high school because of those barriers and barriers like, you know, they got pregnant and there was no childcare for them. And so that's a consistent fact no matter where you are in doing that. So the model itself, while we're the first high school in Virginia, we are part of a national network of 51 centers actually, including Puerto Rico. But those social determinants are everywhere, right? And so those conditions are there and just those numbers are high because folks just aren't being successful in traditional K12 settings.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: We'll have more with Bruce Major of the Excel center in Roanoke in just a minute. In the meantime, you can find out more about the center and the services that they
[email protected] we'll be back with more of the Hometown Journal.
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[00:06:14] Speaker A: Now back to more of the Journey Hometown Journal.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: Mark Edwards, back with you on the Hometown Journal. Today we are talking about the Excel center in Roanoke. It's the state's first adult high school that serves adults 18 and older through an accelerated diploma program.
Bruce Major is the director of the Excel center and he joins us today. Bruce, for somebody that wants to go back to high school, they want to get their degree doing that as an adult. What are some of the challenges that they face?
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Sure. So those are areas that we identify as barriers. And at the heart of our program is barrier removals. And as I mentioned before, childcare is chief among them. You know that childcare is extremely expensive.
And so just the opportunity that they can have. We have an on site childcare center that's a fully licensed early development center. It's just not like daycare. It's an early development center. And this gives students an opportunity to learn right alongside their children while they're in school.
So one of those major barriers is childcare. Transportation becomes another barrier. We provide transportation assistance to our students.
They get gas vouchers or bus passes, and that allows them the opportunity to come to school and not have to worry about transportation as a barrier for them. And then we have life coaches on staff, too. And our life coaches kind of act as kind of guidance counselors, social workers who work with students to kind of overcome because the kind of the mantra around here is while I'm in school, life keeps lifing. And so this is an opportunity to kind of help facilitate some of those and navigate some of those social services. And if it's food insecurity or housing insecurity, the life coach is there to help our students navigate that, the goal being not to do it for them, but to equip them with the skills that they can become self reliant and build those resilience, these skills and help them navigate systems that they can again take care of themselves and their Families. So those are a lot of the barriers that come. There's academic barriers that come to some of our students. Our program is 18 and older, so some of our participants are, you know, fresh out of school. They've been out of school maybe a year or two, and our oldest student is 65. So they've been out of school for decades, you know, so academics becomes a barrier too, and we assist that by tiering our instruction. So our tier one instruction is designed for students who may not be ready for high school courses. So we're building those foundational English skills, the math skills for them so that they can start those classes. And those have been really helpful for our students.
So the academic support is there for students.
[00:08:58] Speaker C: Also, is there a required time that they have to complete the program in. In order to get their diploma, or is it on a student by student basis?
[00:09:12] Speaker B: It's all student by student, you know, and that's kind of one of the genius of the model is that it's flexible scheduling and it's all individualized, you know, so some of our students take four classes a day. Some students take either the cohort or the afternoon cohort, and some students take only one class, you know, so it depends on their schedule and what their needs are will determine how long they're in the program, how long they engage instruction. But it's all based. That flexible schedule is all based on their schedule. Because for many of our students, they still have jobs and they still have obligations outside of school. So we build our program around their needs.
[00:09:52] Speaker C: What does it mean to you as an educator to see somebody come into the Excel center and eventually earn their diploma?
[00:10:02] Speaker B: You know, that's probably. That's the most rewarding component of this. Right. You know, at the heart of my educational philosophy is just equity and access. You know, these individuals didn't drop out of school because they lacked capacity or lacked aptitude or achievement. They just lacked the opportunity to gain that graduation because of other factors that were getting in the way. And this eliminates that barrier removal approach that eliminates those factors to some extent. Granted, there's still lots of barriers to what's happening here, but it eliminates most of them and it gives them that opportunity that kind of levels the playing field a little bit. So that's probably the most rewarding part, is being part of something that gives folks that second chance to come back again. It's not because they can't do it. It's just here's another opportunity for you to do it.
[00:10:55] Speaker C: Bruce, you mentioned that along with the education part is the trade certification that the students can earn. What are the different or some of the different trades that are available for them to pursue?
[00:11:10] Speaker B: Sure. So we have kind of a two prong approach to our certification program. So we have set areas that we that our students can explore. It covers healthcare, technology, finance, hospitality, construction, some of the traditional ones that we have there.
But we're not limited to those. If students come to us and they have an interest and an aptitude towards another trade area, that's kind of the role of the life coach and the college and career readiness counselor, that they're working with that individual to assess their interests, assess their skill sets and then we'll go out and seek opportunities for students. You know, like law enforcement isn't one of our trade areas. However, if a student has that area, then we may start them off with being a certified security guard or something. Whatever.
The state highway patrol has a program for 19 to 21 year olds or 20 year olds that our students are pursuing. So it varies based on the interest of the student. However, we do base our certifications based off of sustainable wages and kind of what the job labor market is out there for students. In the Roanoke area we have a major industry is healthcare. So of course a lot of our students are pursuing healthcare related certifications because those are where the jobs are in this area.
So that's kind of. We kind of look and see what the salaries are, the job opportunities are and then kind of marry that with our students interests and their skills and then that kind of directs the area that we pursue our certifications in.
[00:12:48] Speaker C: That is Bruce Major, the director of the Excel center in Roanoke. This is the state's first adult high school that serves adults 18 and older through an accelerated diploma program. You can find out more about the Excel center. Their website is excelcenterva.com excelcenterva.com we'll be back with more of the Hometown Journal in a minute.
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[00:14:01] Speaker C: Mark Edwards, back with you on the Hometown Journal. Today we are highlighting the Excel center in Roanoke. This is a program that serves adults 18 and older through an accelerated high school diploma degree program.
The school director is Bruce Major. And Bruce, you had mentioned at the beginning of the program you have a vast experience in education.
Part of that included being an educator overseas. How did that experience, education in different cultures help prepare you for the role
[00:14:36] Speaker B: that you're in now just working abroad? Probably the main thing that I picked up from my experience is just the need for explicit vocabulary instruction.
Sometimes as native speakers, we sometimes assume people have the language necessary for in an academic setting. But you know, people are people. The brain works the same way no matter where you are. And I think by that explicit vocabulary instruction for my students, it's not that they don't have the capacity to do the skill, they know the skill, but sometimes it's just the challenge is understanding what the question's asking. And so that need for explicit vocabulary instruction is something that I take that I applied directly in this role here at the Excel Center. Now that's probably a little more in the weeds than you're asking, but in a general sense, working abroad, I was just exposed to other curriculums and that just kind of strengthened my understanding of my belief system that it's important that you teach the individual, you don't teach the curriculum. And so that's something that we stress here at the Excel center also that we meet every student where he or she is and then work with them and assist them in mastering content based off of their skill sets and their interests and their abilities.
And that's something that has kind of strengthened from my experience abroad.
[00:16:01] Speaker C: Does the Excel center, does it operate on a year round or does it operate on more of maybe what we would consider a traditional education calendar?
[00:16:12] Speaker B: That's a really good question. And I neglected to kind of mention that in my description of Excel center is that we are an accelerator program. So whereas a traditional course you take an algebra one that may last all year, full semester, we operate what's tantamount to year round summer school.
So our students, we run five, eight weeks, five eight week sessions a year. And so each course is only eight weeks in length. And so it's condensed. So you can imagine an adult who's coming back after 20, 30 years being absent, having to learn algebra in a much condensed amount of time.
But fortunately Our students are doing exceptionally well. I mean, even our older students are passing their sols. I think we're on par with the state and district and sol results for our students. And it's kind of encouraging to see that even with this condensed accelerated model, our students are doing remarkably well.
[00:17:10] Speaker C: How do people find out about the Excel Center?
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Absolutely. So our website is www.excelcenterva.com or they can stop by. We're part of the Goodwill Industries of the Valleys initiative of our goodwill here. And we're part of a remarkable project. It's called Melrose Plaza. It's a neighborhood revitalization project. And the center is located in Melrose Plaza. And you can always stop by. We'd love to give you a tour, come visit the school, but yeah, you can engage us on our social medias as well as our website.
[00:17:47] Speaker C: This being the first of its kind of program in Virginia. I know sponsors are incredibly important.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Well, I think it's important to thank our sponsors. You know, this is a.
The Excel center literally came by through an act of state congress. You know, they had to change laws to allow a nonprofit to operate a public school.
And, you know, and that. So all of the wonderful services and things that we are providing to our students are all. All made possible by our senators and delegates at the state level. And we just appreciate all the support that they've given us.
[00:18:26] Speaker C: Are there volunteer opportunities available with the Excel Center?
[00:18:30] Speaker B: Absolutely. So we always want to have volunteers come in and work with our students. We do that both from an academic perspective as well as a social determinant perspective. You know, we have folks with financial backgrounds who want to work with our students on acquiring loans or mortgages or, you know, or if you're great at math or great at language arts and want to work with students who may be at that tier one level. And we welcome all types of volunteers to support our students.
[00:18:57] Speaker C: And that is a little bit more about the Excel center in Roanoke. If you would like to learn more about the program, you can visit their website. That's excelcenterva.com My thanks again to Bruce Major for being our guest today. And thank you for joining us on the Hometown Journal.
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