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The U.S. Department of Education reports that students who earn college credits before high school graduation reap numerous benefits. These include an increased likelihood of college graduation, a reduced average time to obtain a college degree, and significant savings on tuition and other expenses.
Southside Virginia Community College works hand-in-hand with the school districts across our service area to bring a slate of options to area high-school students. One of the most immersive and challenging opportunities is the Governor's School of Southside Virginia (GSSV), an academic-year program that enables gifted and highly motivated juniors and seniors to spend half of each school day with their peers in a college campus setting.
Virginia's Governor's School Program originated in 1973, and today it has expanded to more than 40 sites. Some focus exclusively on summer programming. GSSV is one of 19 that operate through the full academic year. Enrolled students spend part of their day at one of SVCC's main campuses and then return to their local high schools for other required programming. Upon successful completion, students receive an Associate's degree from SVCC in addition to receiving a high school diploma from their local school.
GSSV students participate in a learning community with an intensity that goes deeper than traditional education. Mrs. Wesley Swain, Director, notes that students "follow a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum in science, math, English, and research courses. They use current technologies in laboratories where they conduct in-depth research and work with each other on special projects. They also benefit from the real-world experiences shared by local business and industry leaders who assist with research projects and serve as mentors and examples."
Mrs. Swain explains, "Admission to GSSV is based on a competitive selection process, and prospective students should know that the amount of work required is greater than that of traditional high school courses."
Each of the ten public school divisions in SVCC's service area that participate in the Governor's School of Southside Virginia hosts its own recruitment meeting for prospective students and their parents. SVCC's two main campuses also hold "GSSV Shadowing Days" for interested students. These events allow students the opportunity to travel to campus, participate in classes, and experience a GSSV day. Interested students should seek specific scheduling details from their school counselors.
In general, admission requirements include an overall cumulative 3.5 GPA (or recommendation from at least one core teacher who feels the student would qualify, except for unusual situations or conditions) and the successful completion of Algebra I and II and geometry for junior level students.
Potential students should remember that GSSV courses at SVCC's campuses are college classes, not simply high school classes held in a college setting. They include college-level content and are taught by instructors who have the degrees and credentials to teach at a community college. Upon successful completion, students receive high school credit as well as college credit, which becomes part of their permanent college transcripts.
For more information about the benefits and challenges of this program for gifted and highly motivated high school juniors and seniors, prospective students can visit the GSSV website at gssvsouthside.org or contact the GSSV Director, Mrs. Swain, at wesley.swain@southside.edu.
Dr. Quentin R. Johnson is president of Southside Virginia Community College, an institution of higher learning that provides a wide variety of education opportunities to a diverse student population within a service area that spans ten counties and the City of Emporia. He can be reached via email at quentin.johnson@southside.edu.
RICHMOND – Statewide technology upgrades to the Virginia State Police emergency dispatch telephone systems have resulted in the non-emergency phone numbers for each of the Department's seven field divisions to change. The new phone numbers are being phased in by division now through the end of October 2023. The communications transformation will generate approximately $250,000 in savings annually for state police.
"The technology change moves state police from an antiquated analog telephone system to a digital system that will allow integration between all seven emergency dispatch centers across the Commonwealth and two additional disaster recovery sites," said Captain Thomas A. Bradshaw, Division Commander of the Virginia State Police Communications Division. "The transition to the new phone numbers will be seamless, and we have built in an overlap period that allows the old phone numbers to still accept calls. Those calls will automatically forward to its corresponding new number for up to 30 days, then an announcement will advise the caller of the updated phone number."
The upgrade does not impact #77 or the toll-free numbers assigned to each state police field division.
The following are the new Virginia State Police Emergency Dispatch Center non-emergency contact numbers:
Wytheville Division IV: 1-540-444-7788 (Effective week of Sept. 11, 2023)
Culpeper Division II: 1-804-750-8778 (Effective week of Sept. 18, 2023)
Chesapeake Division V: 1-804-750-8788 (Effective week of Sept. 25, 2023) This is Emporia's Division.
Salem Division VI: 1-540-444-7798 (Effective week of Oct. 2, 2023)
Appomattox Division III: 1-540-444-7778 (Effective week of Oct. 9, 2023)
Fairfax Division VII: 1-804-750-8798 (Effective week of Oct. 16, 2023)
Richmond Division I: 1-804-750-8758 (Effective week of Oct. 30, 2023)
RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia hotel employees are being trained how to recognize and report the signs of human trafficking in an effort to reduce the number of victims.
The 30-minute, online training program officially launched this year. Current employees had to complete the course by the end of June. The General Assembly passed and funded a bill last year allowing the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services to create the online course.
Del. Shelly A. Simonds, D-Newport News, sponsored the measure.
The course is free to employees and must be completed after six months of employment and every two years. There are over 115,000 hotel employees that would be required to take the course, according to figures provided by the American Hotel & Lodging Association.
The VDCJS was "fully dedicated to this issue," Simonds said.
State leaders budgeted nearly $466,000 in the biennial budget for the state agency to provide the online course. The training is necessary because sex and labor trafficking occur frequently in hotels, according to Simonds.
"Law enforcement can only do so much, they need citizens to be involved and knowing the signs that human trafficking might be going on," Simonds said.
Virginia hotels supported the training. Hotel brands like Hilton and Marriott even had their own online course before it was mandated, according to Simonds.
Brands without their own training must complete the state-required course.
"Now this law requires that everyone does it, including smaller operators, smaller motel chains," Simonds said." I think it's really going to lift up the standards for everyone."
The Virginia Department of Health enforces hotel employees to have their human trafficking training certificate on file, according to Simonds. This certification is transferable to other Virginia hotel chains.
"There's a lot of support across Virginia for cracking down on human trafficking," Simonds said. "And whether it be from the hotel industry, tourism industry, the legislature, the Virginia State Police — we're all working together to find solutions."
Human trafficking affects at least 150 to 300 victims per year in Virginia, according to the Human Trafficking Courts' website.
Specific data is unknown due to underreporting from survivors. In 2019, 370 victims were identified in Virginia by the National Human Trafficking Hotline. This number does not represent the full scope of victims due to potential lack of knowledge surrounding trafficking or resources such as the National Hotline, according to the organization's website.
Tommy Herbert is the director of government affairs for Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association, a trade organization that works to inform its members of law requirements and available training. Its website provides legislative information, bill tracking and multiple training programs.
The organization does not perform the training, but offers training resources to companies and their employees, according to Herbert.
"VRLTA looks forward to a future of advocating on behalf of Virginia's restaurant, travel, and hotel lodging industries as well as working with Virginia government stakeholders to enhance Virginia tourism," Herbert stated.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin, in an executive order on his first day in office, pledged his administration's commitment to help combat human trafficking and provide support to survivors.
State Attorney General Jason Miyares led a two-day Virginia human trafficking Call to Action summit in Richmond at the end of August. The summit covered trends and solutions to the state's human trafficking problem, according to a statement from his office.
Miyares works with local, state, and federal entities to prosecute traffickers and support victims, according to his spokeswoman Chloe Smith.
Miyares supported state legislation that also required first-year public university students to complete an online human trafficking training course during their school's orientation, according to Smith.
The attorney general also helped prosecute four individuals last month connected to a large-scale human trafficking ring which operated out of a Williamsburg laundry facility. Over 100 survivors were reported in connection to the ring, according to Smith.
RICHMOND, Va. -- The regional Fall Line Trail is set to officially break ground in Henrico County next month. The 43-mile-long trail will span from Petersburg to Ashland and serves as a counterpart to the Capital Trail.
Regional planners see it as a "spine trail" that can connect towns, schools, businesses, public transit stations, and other trail networks throughout Central Virginia.
"It's basically an alternative transportation corridor for non-motorized vehicles that will connect to a lot of things," said Todd Eure, assistant director of the Henrico County Department of Public Works.
Eure is a member of the PlanRVA Fall Line work group committee. PlanRVA is a state-designated council of nine localities that collaborate over regional projects.
Henrico County plans to start on the project in October, near Bryan Park. County leaders have designed the trail, set aside funding, and began to acquire land easements for their section. Henrico's portion of the trail is over 7 miles long and will be built in eight phases, according to the county.
The work starts near the City of Richmond line with an asphalt shared-use path from Bryan Park Avenue across Lakeside Avenue and into Spring Park. The project is a quarter-mile long and estimated to cost $1.2 million, according to the county.
The next phase, estimated at $3.3 million, will extend the trail from Spring Park to Dumbarton Road. Eventually, the trail will reach Chickahominy River at the boundary line between Henrico and Hanover counties. The county hopes to have its work completed by 2025, according to Eure. The plans allow for a longer time frame. Planners hope to complete the Ashland to Richmond section by 2025.
"We're trying to design ours to be a world-class trail," Eure said. "We are making it wider than the Capital Trail, so we're doing ours at 12 feet wide, as opposed to 10 feet, because we are building it for success."
Organizers face a few challenges ahead of the entire trail's completion. There is an overall $30 to $50 million funding gap, according to Eure. Everything from Ashland to Richmond is already funded, Eure said.
Local and state funding, along with federal grants and private donations helped raise $250 million. The trail originally was estimated to cost approximately $266 million. Costs have gone up marginally due to inflation and other design reasons.
PlanRVA still needs to buy some land for the trail and determine what percentage of out-of-pocket construction costs counties and townships will pay.
Members of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority Fall Line Trail work group met on Sep. 6. Topics discussed ranged from the content and color of signage, the funding gap, and how to incorporate information about local history and nature along the trail.
There will be 11 miles of trail under construction once Henrico breaks ground, followed by Hanover County in January, said Emily Monroe, community engagement coordinator for Bike Walk RVA, a Sports Backers affiliate. It is "really massive" to see the project take shape after years of paperwork, she said.
"So seeing these big connections really start to happen is exciting," Monroe said.
Richmond recently secured approximately $30 million for parts of the trail through state funding, according to Sports Backers' Bike Walk RVA. The group also helped raise some funding for the Fall Line's development by hosting community engagement events at hikes, rides, and events along parts of the trail.
State and local support for a massive regional trail wouldn't have been possible without the success of the Capital Trail, according to Eure. Eure has worked closely with the Capital Trail Foundation and witnessed the uphill battle to get the trail supported, funded and built. The 52-mile trail runs east from Richmond's downtown riverfront into Williamsburg. The Fall Line Trail will run north to south and provide a connection over to the Capital Trail.
"Nobody wants the Fall Line Trail to take 20 years," said Eure. "I think at a regional level, everybody understands the value that these trails bring to the residents of the region and to tourism, to economic development."
The projected date for the completed trail is sometime between 2029 and 2031.
The quality of life for citizens along the trail will "improve drastically," according to Monroe.
"When community members are able to feel safe when they walk, bike, or roll, they're more inclined to use alternate methods of transportation in more aspects of their daily lives," she said.
