Central Baptist College receives $25,000 donation

CONWAY — Conway Development Corp. President and CEO Brad Lacy said the number of people in Faulkner County who have some college credit but not a degree is “staggering,” and he is counting on Central Baptist College to reduce that number.

The CDC has made a $25,000 donation to promote degree completion through the college’s Professional Adult College Education program, known as PACE, which allows working adults to get their degrees.

“We have an avenue right here in Conway, through the PACE program at Central Baptist College, to meet this critical need,” Lacy said to attendees at the Conway Business Expo breakfast in October.

Lacy said that statewide, 450,000-plus people have some college hours but no bachelor’s degree. In Faulkner County, he said more than 17,000 adults, 8,000 of whom live in Conway, have earned some college credit but still don’t have a degree.

“We’re going to look at, and always have looked at, strategic opportunities to impact our ability to compete, and it’s interesting to see how many people completed some college but have never gotten a degree,” Lacy said.

“There’s a direct correlation between educational attainment and prosperity,” he said. The PACE program at CBC in Conway is an innovative way to complete a degree, he said, “and we just thought that was worthy of investment.”

Amy Reed, director for nontraditional enrollment at CBC, said the program has 320 students in it right now.

“We’re tickled; we would always like to have more,” she said. The PACE program has been around since 2001, she said, and people are still finding out about it.

Classes meet from 6-10 p.m. once a week, either Monday, Tuesday or Thursday.

“If you start out with nothing, then it takes you a little over the four years going 15 hours a semester,” Reed said. “Most of our students who come in already have hours toward a degree. It really just depends on where they are on hours” as to how long it will take. “One thing that’s different about us is that you don’t have to have any [hours],” she said.

Reed said she has found that most of the PACE students didn’t get their degree simply because of “life.”

“I know that sounds crazy, but a lot of them fell in love, got married, started a family, and [going back to college] just never would work into their schedule. A lot of

people are actually surprised that we have something like this that is so catered to them that they can actually finish,” she said.

The donation from the Conway Development Corp. will be used for recruitment, primarily through social media, Reed said.

“We’re looking at a list we’re going to be able to obtain from the [Conway Area] Chamber of Commerce of people in a specific group, whether it be age, male, female, where they are in their career, and that list is going to be extremely helpful to us,” she said.

The $25,000 will be given to CBC over a period of five years, Lacy said.

He said giving donations to education is nothing new for the Conway Development Corp.

“In the early part of the 2000s, we [gave] $200,000 to the UCA Department of Computer Science,” Lacy said. “We have invested in education in the past, and then, obviously, the chamber has always invested in education through Toad Suck Daze and, most recently, pre-K initiatives.”

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasasonline.com.

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