The November/December recipient of MCCC’s Enriching Lives Performance Award is Vuncia Council, Learning Bank coordinator.
The five qualities recognized by the award are: investment, community, accessibility, responsiveness, and enrichment.
In a letter sent to all MCCC e-mail users, Director of Human Resources Molly McCutchan listed the various ways that Council meets the criteria.
In terms of investment, McCutchan wrote that Council goes above and beyond every day to get people interested and excited about higher education, even by reaching out door-to-door in some cases.
The Learning Bank is a center in Monroe that provides adult education and GED preparation, in addition to seminars, tutoring, career counseling, and direct access to employers.
With her work helping underprepared or undereducated students, McCutchan said Council has done a phenomenal job working positively with the community.
In addition to coordinating Learning Bank activities, Council also assists with counseling and committees. Through this accessibility, she meets with faculty and staff regularly to develop more connections between MCCC and the Learning Bank.
The grant that funds the Learning Bank recently expired, leaving its future uncertain. A grant was received, but resulted in a $100,000 difference in its budget.
Council showed responsiveness not only by aggressively seeking out and securing the funding, but by the measures she has instilled since, McCutchan wrote.
“Vuncia did not blink at finding ways to ensure continued service (in fact, expanded services) with less funds, including cutting her own salary by 25 percent,” she said.
Lastly, Council exhibits enrichment with her continued dedication to the Learning Bank.
“If you have met Vuncia, you understand how her presence, her excitement, her poise and confidence, and most important, her commitment to increasing access to higher education for even the most challenged student, enriches lives… enriches the College,” McCutchan wrote.
