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GREENSBORO — Dorothy Allison had never been much of a reader, so when she enrolled in GTCC she found she needed a refresher course.

Allison said she took several remedial reading courses and learned techniques such as highlighting, outlining and reading certain portions of a chapter first.

“If you apply yourself, it really helps,” said Allison, who went on to receive her bachelor’s degree from an online university.

Faculty at GTCC plan to help students like Allison with a three-year, $743,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and MDC Inc. The college will use the money to expand support programs for at-risk students.

About 30 community colleges in the country were eligible for the grant, said Richard Hart, communications director for MDC, a Chapel Hill-based nonprofit that strives to help students be successful in their educations and careers.

Fifteen were selected, with GTCC being the only community college in North Carolina to receive the grant, he said.

Brenda Kays, GTCC’s vice president for instruction, said the money will fund programs specifically for students whose scores on placement tests indicate they need remedial work in at least two areas.

They will be matched with programs to help them improve their skills and move forward in their chosen course of study.

“Students who do not have the foundation in place for reading, writing or mathematics have a really hard time and are usually unsuccessful in their pursuit of college-level course work,” Kays said.

The college will establish a Learning Assistance Center on its Jamestown campus. There, students can participate in tutorials and use computers to brush up on their skills, and faculty will have access to research materials, Kays said.

Staff also will implement an advocacy program, in which remedial students are paired with faculty and staff members who will keep up with their progress as they become acclimated to the college environment.

The college also plans to use the money to expand its supplemental instruction program, through which tutors attend classes with struggling students.

The college has been conducting similar programs on a smaller scale through its involvement in the Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count. The Lumina Foundation for Education helps fund the program, which assists minority and low-income students in succeeding at community colleges.

“They wanted to address a very basic and fundamental problem, which was that way too many students who entered community colleges were not finishing what they started,” Hart said.

GTCC was selected for the latest grant because of its success with developmental education initiatives funded through Achieving the Dream. It was one of the first community colleges to participate in the program, Hart said. “Guilford came in at the very beginning and has really embraced the program.”

GTCC has 13,000 students in its curriculum programs and more than 27,000 in continuing education. There were more than 5,000 students enrolled in developmental education programs this past academic year, Kays said.

A central part of helping students in development courses is getting to know the whole student, she said, determining what all their needs are and figuring out what works best.

“We’re trying to see what the student really needs, what fits him or her as an individual, and then meet those needs with the programs, the initiatives that we have.”

She said GTCC will receive the money next month, and some of the programs will be available when the fall semester begins, with others coming online later in the semester.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com.