The Community College Undergraduate Research Experience (CCURE) is an initiative at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW) that is intended to open pathways to undergraduate research for community college students prior to transferring to a 4-year institution. CCURE is a university-community college partnership created in 2019 to develop strong future leaders for North Carolina’s community colleges.

The program originally began in Spring 2021 with partners from Cape Fear Community College, Craven Community College, and Lenoir Community College. CCURE provides community college students with an introductory-level applied research experience that is taught by a community college instructor and supported by a UNCW faculty mentor. In Spring 2022, CCURE expanded to include 9 Community Colleges and graduated over 40 students from the program.

Southeastern Community College is excited to participate in CCURE taught by SCC instructor, Cheston Saunders. The course will be taught on the SCC campus.

UNCW will be at SCC on October 24th from 10am-11am in T-Building, Room 109 to give a presentation on the CCURE project and assist students with the application.

“Participating students will enroll in HON 191: Introduction to Research & Discovery through UNCW,” said Saunders. “In this course we will review the process for scholarly research and collaborate on a scientific research project. There are no additional fees for this program as UNCW will cover the tuition and application costs.”

Goals

1. The primary goal for CCURE is to provide students with exposure to an undergraduate research experience prior to transferring to a 4-year institution in order to build confidence and experience in engaging in undergraduate research (or other high impact practices) after transferring.
2. In addition to helping community college transfer students succeed, CCURE is framed around a partnership model that encourages direct engagement between Community College and UNCW instructors. Thus, a secondary goal is to provide opportunities for mutually beneficial collaboration to develop among stakeholders.

Requirements Set by UNCW

• 2.5 GPA, completed at least 24 credit hours at SCC
• Intent to transfer
• NC Resident status
• Available to participate and complete all related activities as outlined above

Benefits

• Application fees waived
• Free course (credit costs paid by UNCW)
• Earn 1 credit hour of honors credit
• Gain access to UNCW resources (library, advising, etc.)

Are you interested?

Interested students can reach out to Cheston Saunders at cheston.saunders@sccnc.edu.