Mission and History

Mission

The NC State College Advising Corps aims to increase the number of underresourced high school students from rural North Carolina who apply, enter, and complete postsecondary pathways. We do this by developing recently graduated service-minded leaders, and placing them as full-time college advisers in select high-need rural public schools across North Carolina. AmeriCorps college advisers assist students in searching, preparing for, and applying to postsecondary options of best fit. College advisers collaborate with school and community partners to bolster the college-going culture in their service communities.

History

In 2014, the College Advising Corps launched a partnership with the John M. Belk Endowment to expand to partner institutions in North Carolina. With over 685,000 rural students, North Carolina has one of the highest concentrations of rural students in the nation. The partnership with the Belk Endowment allowed the Advising Corps to partner with four of North Carolina’s top higher education institutions to expand the impact the Advising Corps in addressing the college access needs of high school students in rural North Carolina.

In its inaugural year, nine recent NC State graduates were placed into 9 rural high schools across North Carolina to assist students in navigating the path to college. The following year, the NC State CAC expanded to an additional 12 high schools. Since then, we have added additional service sites to expand and deepen our engagement in the surrounding service areas. The 2024-2025 cohort includes 23 advisers serving in 24 high schools across 14 counties.

Core Values