PEMBROKE – As a regional university, UNC Pembroke can’t offer a major in every subject – yet UNCP has figured out how to propel its graduates into some of the most competitive professional schools in the South.

“We can’t provide every program to every student,” Chancellor Robin Gary Cummings says in the accompanying video.  “And neither should we try – that wouldn’t be a wise use of taxpayer money.

“But what we can do is collaborate with our sister institutions and create what we’re calling Pathways to Success.”

So UNCP has agreements with both NC State and East Carolina, as well as Tuskegee University: If a Pembroke student wants to become a veterinarian, for example, she can take a prescribed four-year course load and work with counselors at both Pembroke and NC State.

“The goal being, after four years, that student is academically prepared and academically competitive to get into the School of Veterinary Medicine at NC State,” Cummings says.

“That’s an incredible pathway to success for a student who comes from Southeast North Carolina and they want to be a veterinarian.”

NC State holds two seats for Pembroke graduates at its vet school, as well as its College of Engineering – and East Carolina holds two seats for Pembroke grads in each class at its Brody School of Medicine.

“This gives this student the opportunity that ‘I can come to come to Pembroke, and then I can move on to whatever my desire is for my future,’” Cummings says.