Members of the Snead State Arab
Center staff are honored with the Arab Chamber of Commerce Circle of
Excellence Business Award. L-R: Arab Chamber President Deneille
Dunn, Johnny Ingram, Jane Easterwood, and Karen Chamness.
Arab Today Photo by Dwight Hayes
March 12, 2009
The Arab Chamber of Commerce Circle of
Achievement Award was presented to the Snead State Arab Instructional Site
during the annual chamber meeting ceremonies Thursday night. Billy Roy
made the presentation after telling the audience of the significant impact that
the Arab Instructional Site has had upon the area.
Click for additional photos from the entire meeting...
March 12, 2009
This “company” as it would be has been a part of Arab for many
years now. As I start to tell you about our Circle of Excellence
Business Award winner….it will only take a minute for you to
figure out who we are honoring tonight. So here it goes….this
group has been teaching courses at Arab High School since the
1970’s and many of our area high school graduates have taken
advantage of this convenient, affordable way to begin their
higher education. Older adults have been able to go back to
school to earn a degree or be retrained for employment. Many
lives have been enriched by the efforts of Snead State and we
should all be thankful for having them as part of our community.
Snead State opened the Arab Instructional Site in the summer of
2005 with an enrollment of 81 students. The enrollment has
climbed to 320 students in the Spring of 2008 and is already
over 300 for the spring of 2009. The student body is made up of
approximately a 50/50 ratio of first-time college students and
adults seeking to enhance their career opportunities. All
courses offered are transferable to any state-supported college
or university. In addition to offering college courses, the Arab
Site also administers the GED examination and offers some adult
education courses. The staff works with Arab High School to
offer the ACE “Accelerated College Enrollment” program that
allows seniors who have met all their high school obligations to
earn college credit before graduating from high school. Along
with the Dual Enrollment classes offered at the high school,
graduating seniors may earn enough hours to enter college as a
sophomore. With reasonable tuition and the option of remaining
at home, students who previously could not afford to go away to
college may now earn their degree. By attending courses at the
center and incorporating online courses from the main campus, it
is possible to earn an associates degree and not leave Arab.
Snead employs three full-time personnel and 15 part-time
instructors. Snead invested approximately $260,000 to build out
the Arab facility into classrooms, a computer lab, student
lounge area and offices. New for this past year Arab High School
and Snead State worked together on the new LPN program being
offered in the Health Sciences Occupation program. Snead State
helped secure the Department of Labor grant to assist in funding
this program. The Snead Center has provided computer training
for city hall employees and has taught conversational Spanish to
benefit several local companies.
The nomination form for this award states that the business
should have demonstrated community –minded leadership. We
believe that through the years, Snead State has done that for
the Arab area and with the addition of the Arab Center and its
investment here, deserves recognition and our thanks for
expanding their presence in Arab. Under the leadership of Johnny
Ingram, Karen Chamness and Jane Easterwood, the center will
continue to grow and serve the Arab Community for many years
offering our young people an easily accessible and affordable
college education. Although it is not a business for profit, the
dollar value of services provided to this area cannot be
measured. We feel that our entire city and its citizens have, or
will benefit from Snead’s presence in Arab.
Please join me in congratulating Snead State Community College,
Arab Instructional Site as our 2009 Circle of Business
Excellence Award winner.
