As Patrick & Henry Community College prepares to welcome our students back to campus for the fall semester, we wanted to provide our community with highlights from the recently concluded 2024-2025 academic year.
We are thrilled that our enrollment growth continued for a third year with a 5.1% increase in the total number of students served from the previous year. It is important to note that this is the first time in 20 years that P&HCC has experienced three years of total enrollment growth. This includes a 24% increase in Workforce enrollment over the previous academic year, which builds upon similar year-over-year increases from the previous two years.
The college also had a strong year of instituting new programs and initiatives. Thanks to the generosity of the Ratcliffe Foundation which provided a grant for $176,267, P&HCC was able to launch a new heavy equipment operator program at the P&HCC Baliles & Reynolds Learning Center in Patrick County. Additionally, a grant from the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission allowed the college to partner with The Franklin Center in Franklin County to launch a nurse aid program and provide certifications in phlebotomy and certified medical assistance.
To further demonstrate our college’s commitment to regional economic development, P&HCC signed an MOU with the Henry County Adult Detention Center to become the training provider for the region’s justice-impacted population. Additionally, P&HCC successfully relaunched its Middle College program in conjunction with the regional adult education program to ensure that students have a pathway to both a G.E.D. and post-secondary education.
Patrick & Henry also expanded transfer partnerships and programs with our university partners and brought to scale new academic and workforce credentials to meet the workforce needs of our community. For example, the college is part of a consortium known as the SOVA Innovation Hub, which received $600,000 from Go Virginia Region 3 to fund the Rise Collaborative which will fortify Southern Virginia’s standing as a central hub for fostering small business growth, innovation, and economic development.
The college also signed two articulation agreements (the Bachelor of Social Work and the Bachelor of Business Administration with Sports Management Emphasis) with Ferrum College. Additionally, P&HCC was one of eight colleges to sign the Tartan Transfer Agreement to accelerate transfer opportunities to those students who wish to transfer to Radford University.
As part of our commitment to expanding career and technical education for our community, I was delighted to sign a three-way agreement with Danville Community College and Southside Virginia Community College to expand building trades training programs across the southern Virginia region. As part of this initiative, the college was awarded $2.6 million dollars from the Region 3 Workforce Pipeline to expand the P&HCC Building Trades Academy.
The success of the college has been noticed across the community, Commonwealth of Virginia, and country. For example, P&HCC was awarded $127,527 from the Tobacco Commission for an Electrical Training Mobile Lab to serve Henry County Adult Detention Center and The Franklin Center. Additionally, the institution won the prestigious national Advising Success Network award from the Student Choice Awards for Holistic Advising Excellence in Advising Services and was selected to be one of 28 community colleges across the country to participate in Phase
Two of the Rural Pathways Initiative with the National Center for Inquiry and Improvement (NCII). P&HCC was also awarded $150,000 from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV) and VTOP (Virginia Talent Opportunity Partnership) to expand Work-Based Learning opportunities and was also awarded $15,000 from SCHEV to facilitate middle school visits to our campus.
We are also extremely proud of the accomplishments of our student-athletes. P&HCC placed students in nationals for several sports including golf, track and field, and wrestling. Additionally, the 2024 NJCAA Division III women’s softball world series champions followed their impressive run with a runner-up title for the 2025 world series.
As always, the highlight of the year is celebrating the accomplishments of our students at our annual academic graduation ceremony. For many, they are not simply graduating; they are walking into a world of financial stability for themselves and their families. To that end, we are thrilled to share that for academic year 24/25, 515 academic students (a 13% increase over the previous year) earned 714 academic credentials (a 13% increase over the previous year) with 234 of these students (a 17.5% increase over the previous year) participating in our May 17 commencement ceremony.
For 63 years, P&HCC has been this community’s college. Now, more than ever, we are singularly dedicated to our mission of economic mobility for our students and their families. We accomplish this goal by providing our students with the high-quality education and training they need to be successful employees and employers. The economic renaissance in our region is very real, and P&HCC is a critical part of this resurgence.
It continues to be the honor of my life to serve as the president of Patrick & Henry Community College.
-Dr. Greg Hodges, P&HCC President