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By Eric Frazier
The Dispatch
THOMASVILLE A short visit with Toni Underwood, site coordinator at Davidson County Community College ’s Thomasville Education Center, quickly reveals her role as the nerve center of the operation.
At her desk just inside the entrance, where five “walk-ins” show up on an average day, she answers the phone to give an interested prospect information. An associate appearsfrom a classroom, requesting information about a student. Underwood retrieves the data from her computer.
Periodically, a bell rings. It’s time to check on a new student being tested in an adjacent room. Underwood administers placement tests, completes registration documents and provides orientation for new students.
Then, a teacher gently opens the door and whispers that a student doesn’t have enough gas in her tank to make it home. Underwood loans her some money.
“We do more than just education here,” she explains. “It’s a very caring and close-knit group. We’re all about the students.”
Many of the center’s students have lost factory jobs and have trouble reading employment ads. Over time, they gain basic skills and often the confidence to consider regular classes at the main campus.
“It just makes you feel good to know you’ve been a part of that,” Underwood says. “… By the time they get to a certain level and are ready to take the GED, you can just see it in their eyes.”
Underwood grew up in Thomasville and graduated from East Davidson High School in 1971. She attended Ashmore Business College before taking an administrative job at Thomasville Furniture Industries.
She stayed at TFI until 1984, when she became a stay-at-home mom for 10 years. She and her husband, Steve, live in Trinity. Their son, Justin, is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte , and their daughter, Natalie, is a freshman at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro .
Underwood returned to work in 1994 as a part-time assistant in the General Education Development program at DCCC. Four years later, she became a full-time workplace cordinator when the college got a grant to establish on-site training programs at large employers like Lexington Furniture Industries, Stanley Furniture and especially Thomasville Furniture Industries, where management gave her an office at one of the plants.
As a former TFI employee (her father had worked there, and her husband still works there as a designer), she had strong bonds with many workers. That program served at least 3,000 hourly employees and was deemed so successful TFI and DCCC shared the cost to continue it after the grant expired. When large-scale layoffs and plant closings began in 2003, however, Underwood moved back to the DCCC campus.
Recognizing the need for dislocated workers to improve their skills, city leaders offered DCCC the vacant, former fire station on Randolph Street to house the center, which opened in June 2005.
“When the opportunity came available, this was something I really thought I would be very interested in doing,” she recalls. “It’s been one of the most rewarding jobs — being at this center. … I really love my job.”
In its first year, the center counted 7,613 enrollments, and during the fall 2006 semester, Underwood recorded a “duplicated head count” of 5,733 enrollees. That means the figure includes students who signed up for more than one class. Individual class statistics show weekly totals ranging from 244 students to 365.
“That’s a lot of people coming through every week,” she notes.
The center offers free GED courses each morning Monday through Friday, afternoon sessions three days per week and evening classes twice per week. English as a Second Language is also provided free of charge. Art, math, continuing education courses and specialized training in Carrier transport refrigeration units are also offered.
When asked what she does in her spare time, Underwood says, “Right now, I’m taking classes.”
She is working toward an associate degree.
“A lot of the people here know that I’m taking classes,” she says. “It is a good opportunity for them to see that even though I have a full-time job, I’m continuing my education.”
Underwood’s efforts have not gone unnoticed by her supervisors. Pat Phillips, associate dean of basic skills, calls her a great role model for students.
“I attribute a great deal of the success of the center to Toni’s enthusiasm … It’s evident on a daily basis that she loves the center.”
Eric Frazier can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 226, or eric.frazier@the-dispatch.com
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