Cranfield, McCleskey Receive SCC's Academic Excellence Awards

SYLVA - Virginia Cranfield of Franklin and Aleta McCleskey of Sylva were recently honored in Raleigh for being selected as Southwestern Community College's Academic Excellence Awards recipients for the 2003-04 academic year.

Each year, Academic Excellence Awards are given to two students from each of the 59 colleges within the North Carolina Community College System (NC CCS). Of the more than 700,000 students in the NC system, only 118 receive the honor each year. Recipients are chosen based on grade point average and a written essay detailing their "community college" experience.

Virginia Cranfield of Franklin and Aleta McCleskey of Sylva were selected by Southwestern Community College to receive Academic Excellence Awards from the North Carolina Community College System on May 7 in Raleigh.

Virginia Cranfield

Aleta McCleskey

All recipients were invited to attend the Academic Excellence Awards Luncheon held in Raleigh. In addition to the award recipients, members of the General Assembly and college officials attended the luncheon.

Cranfield, who is majoring in Health Information Technology and maintaining a 4.0 grade point average wrote an essay, entitled "The Difference a Person Can Make." Her essay discusses how her SCC advisor, Marti Hunter, profoundly impacted Cranfield's desire to continue her education after the loss of her young son.

Her essay says, in part, "Marti is a person I will remember all my life. She is empowering me to learn and be my best everyday, and has opened the doorway for me to see opportunities I never thought of."

McCleskey, a professional athlete and a student in SCC's nursing program, wrote an essay about achieving her academic goals.

"Upon leaving Toni Knott's class, I knew I could do anything I put my mind to…" said McCleskey in her essay. "Attending Southwestern Community College has given me the opportunity to achieve academic goals that as a professional extreme athlete, I never dreamed possible."

The North Carolina Community College System is one of the three largest in the country. It is the primary source for job training, literacy and adult education in NC.

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