Tennessee Reconnect is Here!

         SMYRNA -- Motlow Smyrna’s husband-and-wife team Brian and Veronica Mitchell hosted a TASSR on the Go (Tennessee Association for Student Success and Retention) event on April 20 to help Reconnect students achieve their college dreams.

         The event, which drew faculty and staff from six community colleges and universities, focused on the tips and tricks necessary to help Reconnect students successfully engage into the college environment.

         Nancy Pevey, the mathematics dean for Pellissippi State Community College, Skyped in to discuss PSCC’s Reconnect experiences so far. Although the program officially starts next fall, PSCC used its own foundation funds to start the process a year early, opening the door to more than 900 students who fell into the Reconnect category.

         Pevey said limited time is one of the major challenges Reconnect students face. How do students find the time to work, attend their classes, do all of the classwork, take care of their families, and try to squeeze a bit of sleep in there? Child care is another big issue facing Reconnect students. However, Pevey add that PSCC’s Reconnect students were often flexible and dedicated, traits that will help guide them toward success.

 

         Dr. Talia Koronkiewicz, the assistant vice president for Student Services at Volunteer State Community College pointed out that college education is not something reserved to a small group of dedicated students. It is a necessity. Within a few years, most jobs in this country will not only require post-secondary education but also a post-secondary degree.

         According to Koronkiewicz, as adult students strive to advance themselves in the workforce, the most difficult obstacle for success is retention. Academic institutions will need to focus on ensuring that these adult students have the skills and support to make it all the way to graduation.

         Motlow State Student Success Coach and Adjunct Mathematics Professor Veronica Mitchell noted that as more adult students enter the classroom, educators may have to think outside the box in terms of keeping them engaged. Adult students may not be the first in line to participate in class discussions, but they want to be involved. They have life experiences that they want to share. Those life experiences have also most likely led them to build the critical thinking skills necessary to understand why it is necessary to write papers or to take history classes or to learn sine, cosine and tangent, because the knowledge of those concepts will actually be used in life.

         Still, a limitation educators may face with incoming Reconnect students is in the form of technology. Online and web-enhanced classes demand that students not only do the coursework but know the D2L technology necessary to be successful.

         Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam’s education platform opened the door to the Drive to 55 Program, an initiative dedicated to increase the number of Tennesseans with a postsecondary degree or certificate to 55 percent by 2025. This will ensure that more Tennesseans are better equipped with the skills and credentials needed to support the state’s economy from here forward. This started with Tennessee Promise, a program that made it possible for huge numbers of high school students to go directly into the community college or TCAT system. But on the horizon is Tennessee Reconnect, which focuses on adult students 24 and older who strive to obtain a college degree.

        

         Fall 2018 will be a time of change as Motlow Smyrna takes that big step forward with the start of Reconnect. Classes will be even more diverse, filled with folks of all ages, cultures, races, socioeconomic statuses who are all focusing on that same goal-walking across the stage at graduation. Motlow State is up for the challenge and will definitely be a major player in helping reach the governor’s Drive to 55 goal.