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Johnston Community College

Acting While It Still Matters: How Johnston Community College Uses Timely Insight to Grow Enrollment and Bring Students Back

60%

Enrollment growth

24%

More returning stop-out students

$400K

Additional state aid

120

Students re-enrolled

6

Semesters of double-digit growth

The Situation

Johnston Community College (JCC) is a public community college in Smithfield, North Carolina, serving Johnston County and a region shaped by steady growth and changing workforce needs. As part of the North Carolina Community College System, JCC supports multiple entry points for learners – curriculum students pursuing degrees and credentials, students building skills through workforce and continuing education, and high school students earning college credit through dual enrollment. That breadth means the college is continually balancing access and quality at scale: ensuring the right sections are available, students can move through programs without unnecessary delays, and support can flex as student needs shift.

In recent years, that balancing act became more dynamic. Enrollment momentum can change during the cycle itself – not only from term-to-term, but day-to-day as applications convert to registrations, yield patterns emerge, and course demand develops unevenly across programs and modalities. JCC also wanted to strengthen its ability to understand course success, withdrawals, and persistence patterns in ways that reflect how students actually experience college: by modality, pace (standard versus fast track), and population. Students benefit most when the institution can respond while there is still time to act: when seats can still be added, when outreach can still influence registration, and when academic support can still prevent a withdrawal.

JCC’s priority was to ensure teams across enrollment, academics, student success, and institutional research could work from the same timely picture of what was happening, so decisions about scheduling, outreach, re-engagement, and support could be coordinated early enough to protect student progress.

The Solution

JCC partnered with ZogoTech to unify key institutional data and make it usable across the college in near real time. Instead of data living in pockets or arriving after the fact, teams across enrollment, academics, student success, and institutional research can work from the same definitions and a current view of enrollment movement, course demand, persistence patterns, and stop-out behavior. That shared foundation supports faster decisions when outreach, scheduling, and support can still change outcomes.

JCC uses this foundation in several practical ways:

  • Enrollment monitoring and rapid response: Enrollment and institutional research staff monitor applications, registrations, yield, and credit-hour production to guide timely adjustments to outreach, scheduling, and communication strategies.
  • Section-level scheduling decisions: Deans and department chairs use fill-rate, waitlist, and section-level enrollment patterns to add, cancel, or adjust sections earlier, improving seat utilization and protecting student access.
  • Student success and persistence analysis: Academic leadership and student support teams examine course success, withdrawals, and persistence by modality, pace (standard vs. fast track), and student population to guide tutoring strategy, coaching focus, and course design decisions.
  • Equity-focused resourcing: Leaders disaggregate key metrics by demographics, enrollment status, and program to identify gaps and direct advising, tutoring, and basic-needs supports where they are most needed.
  • Stop-out identification and re-engagement: Using momentum and stop-out patterns, JCC launched targeted re-engagement campaigns in partnership with Motimatic to reach former students with outreach aligned to their situation and next best step.

Carrie Pitts-Densmore, Vice President of Enrollment and Marketing, describes how this changes daily work: “We use data every day to guide decision-making, personalize outreach, and improve the student experience… ZogoTech allows us to target and personalize messaging at scale – ensuring students receive information that’s relevant to their goals, progress, and current situation.”

Cari Drew, Dean of Student Success, explains: “By consolidating real-time information, ZogoTech streamlines advising processes and reduces time spent navigating multiple systems. This gives staff more time to engage directly with students and ensure they remain on track with their academic plans. The increased visibility into student behavior and progress supports more proactive outreach, resulting in more effective interventions and stronger retention and completion outcomes.”

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“Within 5 minutes I had the data I needed without having to pull several reports, do a bunch of joins… It was all done for me in the ZogoTech tool. So something that would’ve taken me hours – I was able to do within 5 minutes and get the data I needed.”
Dr. Terri Lee
Vice President of Institutional Research and Effectiveness

The Benefits

JCC’s move to a shared, up-to-date data foundation has strengthened both outcomes and execution. The benefits show up in measurable enrollment growth, stronger re-engagement of former students, and faster, more coordinated decisions that protect course access and student momentum.

  • Sustained enrollment growth supported by earlier visibility: Since Fall 2021, JCC’s day one fall curriculum enrollment has increased by nearly 60%, growing from approximately 4,110 students to over 6,500 students in Fall 2025. JCC has reported six consecutive semesters of double-digit enrollment growth, including a 14% year-over-year increase in Fall 2025, a 26% increase in Summer 2025, and a 14% increase in Spring 2025. With the ability to see pipeline movement and course fill rates early, teams can respond in time to help more students enroll and stay enrolled.
  • More returning stop-out students through targeted re-engagement: Re-engagement campaigns increased returning stop-out students by 24% from Fall 2024 to Fall 2025. One targeted campaign alone re-enrolled approximately 120 former students, generating an estimated $400,000 in additional state aid allocation dollars. For students, the impact is a clearer, more timely path back – outreach that arrives with relevant information and an actionable next step.
  • Better course access through faster section decisions: With section-level enrollment, fill-rate, and waitlist visibility, academic leaders can adjust course offerings sooner. This reduces late cancellations, improves seat utilization, and helps more students get into the courses they need – especially when demand shifts quickly by program or modality.
  • Earlier interventions that reduce withdrawals: By examining success, withdrawal, and persistence patterns by modality and pace, JCC can focus tutoring, coaching, and course design decisions where students are most likely to struggle. That earlier support helps students recover before a tough start becomes a withdrawal.
  • More consistent support for students who need it most: Disaggregating key metrics by demographics, enrollment status, and program helps JCC identify where gaps persist and direct advising, tutoring, and basic-needs supports toward the students most likely to benefit.
  • Stronger cross-functional alignment and confidence in decisions: JCC described a culture shift: teams across enrollment, academics, student success, and institutional research are working from the same definitions and current picture of trends. That reduces time spent reconciling numbers and increases time spent acting – improving coordination between outreach, scheduling, and support strategies.

Together, these benefits reflect a more responsive model at Johnston Community College – one where enrollment, scheduling, re-engagement, and student support decisions are coordinated early enough to matter. With shared visibility into pipeline movement, section demand, persistence patterns, and stop-out behavior, teams can adjust outreach and course offerings during the cycle, intervene sooner when students begin to slip, and bring former students back with clearer, timelier next steps. The result is not just stronger growth and re-enrollment outcomes, but fewer avoidable delays for students and more consistent follow-through that helps more learners persist and complete credentials aligned to long-term opportunity.