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.

Nashville Brings Japanese Culture and Cherry Trees to the South

By Austin Clark

Motlow Buzz Reporter

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Nashville officials celebrated the ninth annual Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival on April 8 by announcing that the Japan-America Society of Tennessee Inc. has planted over 900 cherry blossom trees throughout the city.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has partnered with Consul General of Japan Masami Kinefuchi to set a goal of planting 1,000 cherry trees throughout Nashville’s Metro Parks to glorify the long-lasting friendship between Japan and Tennessee. The Cherry Blossom Festival has made this goal possible through the celebration of Japanese culture and traditions.

The Nashville Cherry Blossom Festival is held every spring in Nashville Public Square to commemorate the blossoming of cherry trees. The festival is a free, non-profit celebration that includes activities such as Japanese games, food catered from local restaurants, merchandise, lectures, musical performances, artwork exhibits, martial arts, traditional clothing, and much more.

CEO Leigh Wieland said that the numbers attending the festival grow each year. The dramatic increase in the community’s attendance makes it possible for a genuine experience of Japan, free of charge, for thousands of individuals who will never have the opportunity to travel and experience it for themselves.

“Over the last nine years, we have planted over 900 Japanese Cherry Blossom trees in Metro Parks and public spaces, beautifying Nashville’s landscape for all to enjoy as a reminder of Japan-Tennessee friendship,” Wieland said.

In Japan, the cherry blossom is a symbolic representation of life. When these trees blossom in early spring, their bright colors serve as a visual representation of how delicate life is and how we take it for granted. These people not only come together to admire this beautiful phenomenon, but to also celebrate the underlying meaning of life as a whole.

Festival attendees enjoyed a taste of Japan through local food vendors that included sushi, fresh hibachi, fried rice, and various dessert options. The full experience also included a marketplace that sold anime merchandise from past conventions, local Japanese paintings, limited edition collector’s items, and hand-sewn komotos.

Established in 2000, JAST is a non-profit organization that is funded by individual and corporate membership fees and grants from government institutions and private foundations. Headquartered in Nashville, JAST is overseen by a 25-member volunteer board of directors from leading businesses, institutions and organizations from across the state. Honorary co-chairs of the society include Haslam and Kinefuchi.

As another annual festival comes to an end, JAST inches closer to its goal with less than 100 cherry blossom trees remaining to be planted. The group hopes to achieve its goal by next year.

“We welcome the involvement of corporate and civic groups, student organizations and individuals interested in helping us raise funds for the tree planting and festival.” Wieland said. “We also welcome volunteers to help with tree planting and on-site at the festival each year.”

Links for the online donations and volunteer sign-ups are found on the festival website at www.nashvillecherryblossomfestival.org 

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Motlow College Seeks New Building for Record-Breaking Attendance

By Mike Sparks

Motlow Buzz Reporter

SMYRNA, Tenn. -- It is no surprise that the Smyrna Motlow State Community College Center is Tennessee’s fastest growing college with 2,500 students this spring semester, much to the credit of Gov. Bill Haslam’s vision of Tennessee Promise.

Haslam’s Tennessee Promise has been a resounding success. With that success has come a fast-paced 32 percent rate of growth between the fall of 2014 and 2016. The two-building Smyrna Motlow State Community College campus currently has only 33,000 square feet. The classrooms are packed with 35 students each, teachers sharing small closet-sized offices, no area to host large lectures or a large gathering, and a small overcrowded library. The need for this new addition is greater now than ever before.

The rapid enrollment at the Smyrna Campus has led to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and Board of Regents both prioritizing the Smyrna Motlow’s third building as the number one priority in Tennessee for higher education.

The cost of the new 79,443-square-foot building is $27 million. The college is required to raise $2.7 million or 10 percent from local sources such as nonprofits, local county, and municipal governments.  

The new three-story building will be located at the northwest corner of the campus. It will host a much-needed 22 classrooms, one-stop shop for recruiting and financial aid, physics lab, general biology lab, computer science lab, art lab, chemistry lab, anatomy and physiology lab, EMS lab, nursing lab, medical technician lab, mechatronics lab, 15 private faculty offices, and additional office space. Students will be pleased with the new Cyber Café, which will provide seating for students to interact, study, eat, and much more. In order to be more efficient with space, rooms can be utilized together to accommodate up to 350 students. The new library will boast over 6,500 square feet and be available to the general public as well.

“I’m very excited about the new library, which will host 60 computers, open space for 60 students, eight group study rooms, stack space for up to 10,000 volumes and more,” said Campus Librarian Paige Hendrickson. “The students are extremely excited about not only the new library, but also the new Cyber Café.”

In 2014, Tennessee was the only state offering a wide-reaching program that gave recent high school graduates the chance to go to community college without paying tuition. With the ever-increasing cost of a college education, Tennessee Promise came as a relief to many struggling families and students. College tuition debt has amassed to $1.4 trillion today, leaving the average college graduate with roughly $37,000 in student debt, up 6 percent from last year, according to the Federal Reserve.

Educational experts say Tennessee's example as a higher education trailblazer could help shape higher education policy for years as students move through the education pipeline. The Tennessee Promise is an increasingly popular model as Tennessee plays an important role in the education debate.

Many may not be aware that the campus library is open to the general public, which helps with those who may not have Internet access and who may want to apply for jobs online, email or other needs.  For more information on how to get involved with Motlow State and the great things that are happening, visit www.mscc.edu or call (615) 220-7800.

Haslam’s ‘Drive to 55’ Initiative sets the goal to increase the percentage of Tennesseans with a postsecondary credential to meet Tennessee’s current and future workforce and economic needs. The governor has championed both his tuition-free college and the Drive to 55 initiative. For more information on Tennessee Promise or Drive to 55, visit www.TnPromise.gov or www.Driveto55.org