Lorri Chambers of Manteo is the winner of a $50 gift card for participating in College of The Albemarle’s Quality Enhancement Plan idea survey.  More than 290 entries were submitted last fall from students and others who responded to online surveys and paper surveys distributed via courses, at COA’s Fantastic First 50 Festival and the Chowan County Regional Fair.  The winning entry for the $50 gift card was randomly chosen from all participants.  

Chambers, director of The Art Village in Manteo, was excited to learn that she had been selected as the gift card winner.  Assisted by her daughter Larisa Pardo, Chambers opened The Art Village, a nonprofit educational cooperative for local artists, in early June.  Both mother and daughter have studied at COA. 

When she submitted the idea survey, Chambers was taking Introduction to Business.  After completing this course, she wrote a business plan for The Art Village.  Chambers credits COA with giving her the confidence to found The Art Village, which has been a dream for her since she worked with artists in Alexandria, Va. on The Torpedo Factory as a youth.  Chambers said that her experience attending college after losing her husband to cancer is “what put me in the mindset that I could do anything I put my mind and my heart into.”  Upon receiving the gift card from Laura Morrison, QEP co-coordinator, Chambers offered gratitude and said that the money would be used to purchase more art supplies.

Through surveys like the one Chambers and nearly 300 others completed, along with other methods of generating feedback from all COA stakeholders, more than 2,700 individual ideas to enhance the quality of learning at COA have been suggested. 

For more information on The Art Village, please visit www.outerbanksartvillage.com.  For more information on COA’s Quality Enhancement Plan, please visit the QEP website www.albemarle.edu/about-coa/quality-enhancement-plan-qep or email qep@albemarle.edu.

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