Cedar Crest College and Lehigh Carbon Community College have signed a dual admissions agreement making it easier for LCCC students to earn a Bachelor’s degree.

This agreement will make the process and transition easier for students looking to transfer from LCCC to Cedar Crest.

LCCC students who have applied to and are accepted to Cedar Crest through this agreement will be able to attend informational sessions with college faculty and staff as well as have access to campus events such as theater productions, concerts, recitals, athletic events and student government.

The agreement will also allow students pursing an associate in arts or an associate in science degree at LCCC to be admitted to Cedar Crest as a junior.

Cedar Crest College President Carmen Ambar said this agreement is the combination of a really long relationship the college has had with Lehigh Carbon Community College.

“We are excited to formalize this arrangement,” Ambar said. “We’ve had our articulation agreement for many years but this is the time we come to formalize a dual enrollment agreement because we know there are many paths to a college education.”

Ambar said this agreement is all about the seamless transition for students to attend Cedar Crest College.

“Often times for students that next phase of their education after community college can be a little daunting,” Ambar said.

“Each fall we have about 50 or 60 transfer students and many of those students are from LCCC.

“And, so for us this is about making the experience for them less complicated and less cumbersome.”

She said this agreement will make it easier for students to consider Cedar Crest College and for the college to identify the students who want to think about Cedar Crest as their first choice.

The other thing about this dual enrollment that can be really great for students is that they can go ahead and engage with Cedar Crest even while they are at LCCC, Ambar said.

“We all like to show up places where people already know us,” she said. “For students, I think it makes this transition not feel like a transition, it makes it feel like you are going on to the next phase.”

She said even though Cedar Crest is an all-women’s college, which is an important part of their mission, they have the School of Adult and Graduate Education.

There will not be much limitation for young men who want to transition to the college.

Many of the college’s majors are SAGE majors in social work, criminal justice and psychology, Ambar said.

Young men who fit the criteria, which students who attend community college usually do, will be able to enter SAGE, Ambar said.

“We have a couple of undergraduate majors young men of any age can attend,” she said. “Nursing for an example is a major any student, no matter their gender, can attend.”

LCCC President Dr. Ann D. Bieber spoke briefly on the agreement and Cedar Crest College.

“It is all about a student’s success and we want our students to reach their full potential,” Bieber said. “These types of partnerships allow our students to know it is a reality. They can graduate, they can move forward and the pathway will be seamless for them.

“It also helps them as they are moving along a pathway, knowing what their end goal is going to be.”

“It (Cedar Crest) is wonderful, the environment here continues to nurture, challenge and help the student graduate and go out into life in the community.”