C-STEP program’s first students. Next
year, he hopes to serve as a peer mentor
for those who come after him. (His side
of the room is the neat, orderly one.)
PHOTOS BY DAN SEARS ’ 74
admission to those in the program who earn
an associate’s degree from Durham Tech,
Alamance Community College or Wake
Tech with a GPA of at least 3.0.
The seven participants in the new program are the leading edge of an effort to
extend the benefits of a highly selective
four-year university to low- and moderate-income students who have been under-rep-resented on campus — a situation UNC
System President Erskine Bowles ’ 67 is
keen on fixing. Still, currently they make up
a tiny slice of the transfer pie — in all, 894
students transferred to Carolina in fall 2006.
They come late to Chapel Hill for all
sorts of reasons.
Like Russell, some weren’t laser-focused
on college as they finished high school;
they had other interests. A few didn’t contemplate college out of high school. Some
couldn’t afford it. Others applied to college
but didn’t think Carolina was the right
At Durham
Tech:
‘I completely
rediscovered
my love of
learning things.’
At Carolina:
‘It’s really
a zero-to- 60
process. It takes
it to the next
level.’
Robert Douglass
Russell III
