Alamance Community College saw full-time enrollment in curriculum (i.e. degree- and certificate-conferring) programs jump 15 percent between the spring semester of 2025 and the spring of 2026 that ACC officials called the “highest of any spring semester on record” during the trustees’ latest monthly meeting.
The largest enrollment gain – 15 percent, or an additional 248 students – between the spring of 2025 and spring of 2026 was among students in seeking an Associate’s degree or a professional certificate, based on the latest data presented to ACC’s trustees Monday night (see accompanying chart).
That’s partly due to an expansion of the number of course sections, as well as other contributing factors that ACC president Dr. Ken Ingle outlined for The Alamance News prior to the trustees’ meeting.
In addition to the county’s population growth feeding into enrollment at ACC, Ingle told the newspaper, “We have done a lot of work on supporting students and adult learners.”
Ingle attributed the lopsided enrollment growth in curriculum programs, versus slight declines in continuing education enrollment, to what he sees as an increase in the number of “adult learners” who are furthering their education at ACC.
“For us, that’s a good trend,” Ingle said in the interview. “I would love to see every single high school student in Alamance County taking a dual enrollment course; frankly, I want to see everybody in Alamance County to come, wither it be up-skilling, or finding new interests. . . Creating economic mobility and sustainable futures – that’s the whole [reason for what we do here].”
The percentage of high school students enrolled in the Career and College Program (CCP) has decreased, but the unduplicated headcounts for high school students has increased, indicating that the community college had more adults to enroll this spring than did a year ago, ACC senior vice president for Student Learning & Workforce Development Justin Snyder told the newspaper Monday night.
ACC is also seeing a return on its enhanced, comprehensive academic advising procedures that enable faculty members to track students and provide tailored guidance in hopes of keeping them enrolled at the community college, Ingle said in the interview.
ACC officials appear optimistic that the bump in full-time enrollment this spring could eventually translate to larger increases than the figures presented to the trustees, since enrollment in curriculum programs is calculated differently than that for continuing education.
Final enrollment for continuing education “is, as much as anything, a timing issue,” Ingle told the trustees. ACC is able to count students in most continuing education courses toward the college’s total enrollment once courses have ended, he said.
On the other hand, curriculum students are counted in ACC’s full-time-equivalent (FTE) enrollment, which includes students taking at least 12 credit hours per term, as soon as they register, providing that they remain registered “past the 10 percent point,” Ingle said, referring to the final date on which students can withdraw without an academic or a financial penalty.
Snyder pointed to the Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) program as an example of the difference in how enrollment in continuing education programs is calculated, versus that for curriculum programs. “It [BLET] ends later, so it gets reported later,” meaning that BLET enrollment will be reflected in the enrollment figures for the summer term, he told the trustees.
Snyder also attributed the enrollment gains at ACC to the statewide “Boost program,” a “career-to-college” program and “fast-track” courses, running between eight and 14 weeks that ACC launched last year, along with other efforts aimed at attracting and retaining students.
Launched in early 2025 by the N.C. Community Colleges System, the N.C. Boost program enables state residents who have a high school diploma (or equivalency) and meet certain financial eligibility criteria to enroll at any 58 of the state’s community colleges – and potentially complete their programs free of charge – in order to fill job openings in high-demand fields such as biotechnology and healthcare, according to ACC.
“Things are up and continuing to grow,” Snyder told the trustees Monday night. “We’re seeing growth across all areas we serve – an increase in retention. When you look at the spring numbers, it’s the highest spring on record we’ve had. It speaks to our retention and the great work our market department is doing, student services. It’s lives being changed [and] students getting new skills.”
Snyder elaborated on one recent success in the Alamance Juvenile Opportunity Bridge (AJOBs) program that ACC launched in partnership with the Alamance County court system and Alamance-Burlington school system in 2023.
AJOBs aims to stem the flow of K-12 students into the “school-to-prison pipeline,” which refers to the tendency of some juveniles from socioeconomically-disadvantaged households to become involved with the criminal justice system at an early age, drop out of school, and repeat the cycle throughout their lives without completing their education and becoming productive citizens.
Statistics show that juvenile offenders are 40 percent more likely to end up in the adult court system over time, Alamance County district court judge Larry Brown, Jr. said at a January 2023 press conference announcing the creation of AJOBs.
The AJOBs program is limited to up to 30 eligible juvenile offenders, primarily those between 14 and 17, who are identified as at-risk or are on probation for misdemeanor offenses and requires them to take up to 20 hours’ of workforce development classes at ACC, in exchange for pleading guilty to their charges. The program provides hands-on training needed for a certificate in cosmetology, nursing, and culinary arts, as well as for electrical and mechanical jobs and other skilled trades.
Snyder pointed to one juvenile offender, a recent high school dropout whom he identified as “CeCe” and said had completed the requirements to earn her high school General Equivalency Diploma (GED), who’s currently working toward earning her certification as a phlebotomy technician.
“She also encouraged her mom to enroll [at ACC],” Snyder added. “When we look at those numbers, I think it’s really important we focus on the people behind those numbers.”
