Paul D. Camp Community College
Office of the President
August 14, 2026
Dear College Community,
As we begin another academic year at Camp Community College, I want to take a moment to reflect on how far we have come together, and to look honestly and thoughtfully at where we are headed.
The past year has been one of significant progress for our college. That progress did not happen by accident. It is the result of the dedication, creativity, and persistence of our faculty and staff. Every student we serve, every credential we award, every employer we partner with, and every community member who sees Paul D. Camp as an institution of opportunity reflects your work.
We have much to celebrate.
Over the past year, we continued to strengthen our position as a workforce leader in our region. Our investments in nursing, allied health, emergency medical services, skilled trades, and maritime education are creating opportunities for students while responding directly to the needs of employers.
The expansion of our Franklin Nursing & Allied Health Center has already begun to make a difference, contributing to increased enrollment in healthcare programs and expanding our capacity to provide EMS education. This past year, we celebrated the inaugural EMS Paramedic cohort, with 15 students completing the program. Our Nurse Aide program also successfully completed its site visit and received continued approval from the Virginia Board of Nursing.
At the Camp Smithfield Center, the Isle Maritime Trades Academy completed a successful inaugural year, serving 18 lab school students and providing an important early pathway into maritime careers. Our new and expanded workforce facilities, including the Workforce Trades and Innovation Center in Suffolk, are strengthening our capacity to prepare students for high-demand careers.
Our partnerships have also continued to grow. From our work with Newport News Shipbuilding and local school divisions to our partnerships with Old Dominion University and other community and industry organizations, we are demonstrating what a small college can accomplish when it is deeply connected to the communities it serves.
We have also made important progress in expanding access and removing financial barriers.
As of May, we had distributed more than $2.7 million in financial aid to our students. We also launched the Camp Scholars scholarship program for Franklin High School graduates, creating another pathway for local students to pursue higher education.
Our dual enrollment efforts are expanding opportunity earlier in the educational pipeline. We successfully implemented the “No Cost” UCGS initiative, helping make college coursework more accessible to high school students. In addition, 117 high school students earned a college credential, demonstrating the powerful impact of creating clear, affordable pathways from high school to college.
We have also strengthened the student experience. In Fall 2025, we launched the Student Success Center at our Franklin campus, bringing together tutoring and emotional support services to help students overcome barriers and succeed. This fall, those services will expand to the Suffolk campus. We also relocated our Admissions, Financial Aid, and Registrar’s offices to create a more coordinated and welcoming onboarding experience for students.
These investments reflect an important principle: student success begins before a student ever enters a classroom.
We must make it easier for students to enter college, understand their options, access the resources they need, and stay on a path toward completion.
Our academic pathways are also becoming stronger.
We have made great strides in strengthening transfer pathways aligned with four-year institutions, creating more seamless opportunities for students who begin their education at Camp and aspire to earn a bachelor's degree.
This work is particularly important as we consider what the Aspen Student Success data tell us about our next chapter.
Access alone is not enough. Our responsibility is to help students enter, persist, complete a meaningful credential, transfer when appropriate, and ultimately achieve economic mobility.
That understanding is shaping our future.
At the same time, we must be candid about our challenges.
Our enrollment, retention, and completion rates remain a significant concern. While we have made progress in several areas, we must continue to find new ways to reach students, particularly working-age adults, students who have stopped out, and students in our communities who have not yet seen themselves as college students.
We also know that our transfer outcomes present an opportunity for improvement. Our workforce programs have made important gains, but the data tell us that we need to place renewed emphasis on transfer pathways and bachelor's degree attainment.
For us, this is not an either/or proposition.
We must be both a workforce college and a transfer college.
Our students should be able to come to Paul D. Camp to earn a credential that leads directly to a good job, or to begin a pathway toward a bachelor's degree and, in either case, receive the advising, academic support, and intentional guidance necessary to reach their goal.
We also have work to do in strengthening the student experience. Our students tell us that scheduling, affordability, location, and transferability are important reasons they choose Camp. They also tell us that getting into the courses they need can sometimes be a barrier.
We must continue to make it easier for students to navigate the college.
That means strengthening advising and student support, improving communication, expanding course availability, increasing awareness and use of tools such as Navigate, and ensuring that students understand not only what courses they need, but why those courses matter to their goals.
We also face operational challenges. Recruiting and retaining high-demand faculty and staff remains difficult, and we continue to address facility and infrastructure needs across our campuses and centers.
These challenges are real. But I believe they also represent opportunities.
Our opportunities are significant.
The concept of Community College 3.0 gives us an important framework for thinking differently about our future. The community college of the future cannot simply wait for students to walk through our doors. We must meet students where they are, build pathways with schools and employers, remove barriers, and create experiences that connect education directly to opportunity.
For Paul D. Camp, that means continuing to build a college that is anchored in community and anchored in industry.
It means expanding dual enrollment and improving the percentage of dual enrollment students who transition to the college.
It means creating more flexible options, including evening and weekend healthcare opportunities, for working adults.
It means growing our skilled trades and maritime programs.
It means exploring emerging opportunities such as energy and other programs aligned with the changing economy.
And it means continuing to strengthen transfer pathways with our university partners so that students who begin at Camp can see a clear and attainable path to a bachelor's degree.
Our goal should not simply be to increase enrollment.
Our goal is to increase opportunity and improve outcomes.
That distinction matters.
We want more students to enroll, but we also want more students to complete. We want more students to complete, but we also want those credentials to lead to meaningful employment, increased earnings, transfer, and bachelor's degree attainment.
In other words, we are moving from asking “How many students do we serve?” to asking “How well do the students we serve do?”
That is a more challenging question, but it is also the right one.
As we enter this new academic year, I am asking each of us to think about our role in that work. Student success is not the responsibility of one office, one division, or one group of employees. It belongs to all of us.
Faculty influence whether students learn, persist, and believe they can succeed.
Advisors and student support professionals help students navigate barriers and make informed decisions.
Staff members create the systems and experiences that allow students to engage with the college.
Leaders establish priorities, secure resources, build partnerships, and remove obstacles.
And together, we create the culture that tells our students: You belong here. We believe in you. And we are committed to helping you reach your goals.
I am proud of what this college has accomplished. We have expanded healthcare and workforce education. We have launched new student support services. We have increased financial aid and scholarship opportunities. We have strengthened dual enrollment. We have opened new pathways into maritime careers. We have strengthened transfer opportunities. And we have continued to invest in the communities we serve.
Now, our next chapter must be about turning those investments into even greater student success.
The road ahead will not always be easy. We will face financial pressures, enrollment challenges, workforce shortages, changing student expectations, and an economy that continues to evolve.
But we have something that cannot be measured on a spreadsheet: a remarkable team of people who care deeply about this college and the students we serve.
Thank you for your commitment to Paul D. Camp Community College. Thank you for the countless ways you support our students and one another. And thank you for believing in what this college can become.
Our best work is still ahead of us.
Together, we will continue building a college that is responsive to its communities, connected to its employers, accessible to its students, and relentless in its commitment to student success.
I look forward to making that future a reality with you.
With appreciation,
Dr. Corey L. McCray
President
Paul D. Camp Community College