Events
College Opens New Location and Welcomes Historic Enrollment
RALEIGH, N.C. (August 15, 2024) – A new academic year at Wake Tech started with the opening of a new location and another surge in enrollment!
The college welcomed more than 25,700 degree-seeking students Thursday for the first day of the fall semester. It's the highest fall enrollment in college history. More than 8,500 of those students are new to Wake Tech – that is also a record!
Classes began at Wake Tech East, the college's newest location, on Rolesville Road in Wendell. Wake Tech President Dr. Scott Ralls was there to greet the first students with donuts and chat with them as they headed to class. He also surprised an unsuspecting student with a $250 scholarship from the Wake Tech Foundation to help pay for books. Ralls calls these scholarships "Golden Tickets," and he hands them out with chocolate bars made by students in the Baking & Pastry Arts program.
New student Jonas Hooks was the first student that Ralls spotted walking in the door and was the lucky recipient of a Golden Ticket! Hooks, a recent graduate of East Wake High School, was almost speechless when Ralls presented him with the scholarship.
"Wow! Thank you Dr. Ralls," said Hooks. "When I woke up this morning, I was not expecting this."
"We like to say 'expect the unexpected at Wake Tech,'" Ralls said. "People choose Wake Tech because it is a great return on investment. The road to jobs in our dynamic local workforce or a transfer opportunity to one of our great universities runs through Wake Tech."
Wake Tech East offers the following degree programs:
- Associate in Arts
- Associate in Science
- Associate in Engineering
- Emergency Medical Science Associate in Applied Science
Staff and faculty were on hand at Wake Tech locations across Wake County to welcome students, answer questions and help them navigate buildings and find classrooms. The college has planned several welcome back events for students during the first week of classes, including resource fairs, grab-and-go food and voter registration information. Golden Ticket scholarships will be handed out on various campuses over the next several days.
Wake Tech also has new offerings this fall, including new certificates and diplomas in Biotechnology, Supply Chain Management and elementary teacher preparation to help people with bachelor's degrees earn their teaching licenses. Other updates at Wake Tech campuses:
- The N.C. Highway 540 Triangle Expressway is set to open soon, providing a convenient new access point for the Southern Wake Campus.
- Design is underway for a new simulation hospital at Perry Health Sciences Campus.
- The Massage Therapy program has moved to the Western Wake Campus in Cary.
It's not to late to apply for Fall semester classes. Twelve- and eight-week accelerated classes are starting soon. Visit apply.waketech.edu.
