NCCU staffer on VGCC campus to coordinate new Criminal Justice bachelor’s degree


Keana Williams, seen here on VGCC’s main campus. (VGCC photo)

Keana Williams, seen here on VGCC’s main campus. (VGCC photo)

An advisor is now in place on the main campus of Vance-Granville Community College to facilitate the new “Eagle Voyage” partnership that offers area residents an opportunity to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice through North Carolina Central University.

Keana Williams, a Raleigh resident, recently became the first member of the NCCU staff to be permanently housed on the VGCC campus. As the university’s transfer academic advisor and Eagle Voyage academic & career coach, Williams will help community college students enroll in and then successfully complete the program to obtain a four-year degree.

Williams has ten years of experience in higher education as an advisor and faculty member. Earlier in her career, she worked in the field of early childhood education. Williams started her own higher education at a community college in California before going on to earn a bachelor’s in child development in California State University, Sacramento, and a master’s in educational psychology at Union Institute & University.

“I work as a liaison between VGCC and NCCU,” Williams explained regarding her new role. “I connect the two colleges in regards to the Eagle Voyage program. I function as an advisor for VGCC students who have completed their associate’s degrees and want to attend NCCU through the Eagle Voyage program. Criminal Justice students are my primary student population.” Williams provides interested VGCC students with information on Eagle Voyage, completes transfer evaluations, and assists them with the NCCU application and financial aid processes. She continues to advise those students through their completion of the program.

Eagle Voyage represents the first bachelor’s degree program available at VGCC facilities, and the first time that NCCU has located an advisor on any community college campus. Officials from the two institutions of higher learning signed an agreement in December 2015 to launch the program, with VGCC providing classroom space and technology support and NCCU providing a two-year course of study leading to a bachelor’s degree for students holding an associate’s degree. With credits transferring from the associate’s degree, students are scheduled to complete the accelerated program over the course of nine, eight-week mini-sessions and one summer at VGCC.

The first cohort of six students has already enrolled and begun their studies, and Williams is now recruiting the second cohort, with a goal of at least ten students, to start in August.

Eagle Voyage courses are taught in a hybrid format consisting of Tuesday evening classes on campus at VGCC, with additional work completed online via Blackboard, a Learning Management System. The bachelor’s degree program is certified nationally by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and by the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission. It is also an affordable option for students, who pay tuition at the NCCU Distance Education rate.

For more information, visit NCCU online at www.nccu.edu/criminaljustice or contact Keana Williams at kwill331@nccu.edu or (252) 738-3455 or (919) 452-9406.