April 2025 Volume 8 Issue 9

Completed in just six weeks, the Ready to Reconnect Medical Assistant Cohort 1 blazed the trail for future cohorts as the first group to complete this intensive workforce training program. These students didn’t just complete the program—they excelled. Every individual in this diverse group of five successfully finished 100 percent of the coursework, and an impressive four of the five passed their state board exam on the first try. Aimee Irvine, Allied Health Educator said, “As their instructor, I can say that the students of NSCC’s Ready to Reconnect Medical Assistant Cohort 1 have excelled beyond academics. Each one of them have demonstrated many times the essential qualities every medical assistant should possess: dependability, flexibility, integrity, and perseverance. They rose to the challenge with open minds and hearts. I am incredibly proud of this cohort and am confident that each of them will be a valuable asset to any medical office.”

This inaugural class comprised students from all walks of life, each bringing unique experiences, challenges, and aspirations. Their collective success is a testament to their determination and the support system created by faculty, staff, and community partners working together to ensure student success. “This first cohort represents what workforce development is all about: transforming lives through education, opportunity, and support,” noted Dr. Kenisha Burke, Ready to Reconnect Program Manager “They set the bar high for every group that will follow.”

Offered at the East Davidson Campus for the first time, this Medical Assistant program underscores the campus’s growing role as a hub for workforce innovation and advancement. It’s another example of how our collaborative efforts create new career pathways and meaningful change for individuals across Middle Tennessee.

We couldn’t be prouder of our trailblazing Ready to Reconnect Medical Assistant Cohort. Congratulations to these future healthcare heroes—they’ve made history at East Davidson!

Graduate Veronica Harris receives Certificate of Completion

Medical Assistant Cohort 1 Graduates Celebrate!

• Pillar One: Learning Mindsets – We help students see how Nashville State will reflect their personal, academic and career goals through mindset work in growth, purpose, and sense of belonging while learning at Nashville State.

• Pillar Two: YouScience – We use an online aptitude and career discovery site called YouScience to connect a student’s personal strengths, interests and values to Nashville State degrees and potential careers.

• Pillar Three: Degree Works Academic Plan – Students make a concrete degree plan in Degree Works. This personalized plan lets students consider the best degree, pacing, and course choices that reinforce their decision to attend Nashville State.

• Pillar Four: Resources – From people resources like family, friends, classmates, instructors, advisors, librarians, and tutors to financial resources like Nashville GRAD, The Falcon Market, childcare assistance, and transportation assistance we let students consider the resources they have and the resources Nashville State can provide.

Interested in learning more about the NSCC 1010 pillars? There are four training videos I recorded in summer 2024 housed in The Teaching Center’s Professional Development Library. Search for keywords NSCC 1010

• NSCC 1010 Training Mindset GPS
• NSCC 1010 Training What is YouScience? Why is it Important?
• NSCC 1010 Training How to Make an Academic Plan in Degree Works
• NSCC 1010 Training D2L Topics I Should Know for NSCC 1010

Know an Alum Who Inspires? Nominate Them Today!
Is there an alum whose achievements, impact, or dedication deserve the spotlight? Now’s your chance to honor them. Use the categories below to submit your nomination — self-nominations are welcome, too!​

Distinguished Alumni of the Year
This prestigious award honors a distinguished Nashville State alumnus or alumna who exemplifies excellence in their professional achievements, demonstrates outstanding leadership through volunteerism, and serves as an inspiring role model within their community. Nominees must have graduated from, or completed the equivalent of at least two semesters at, Nashville State Community College or Nashville State Technical Institute.

Outstanding Young Alumni of the Year
This award recognizes a dynamic and visionary Nashville State alumnus or alumna who is forging new paths in their career, demonstrating exceptional leadership through volunteerism, and making a meaningful impact in their community. Nominees must have graduated from, or completed the equivalent of at least two semesters at, Nashville State Community College within the past 10 years.

Hello Falcon Family,

A huge thank you to our incredible sponsors, vendors, guests, and volunteers for making this year’s Tennessee Flavors such a success! This event wouldn’t be possible without your support, and because of your generosity, we raised $65,540 to help students overcome the challenges that can stand in the way of their academic success. We know that starting college is just the beginning—your contributions help ensure students have the resources they need to make it to graduation.

Special Thanks To:

• Jamica Hines and Southeast campus team
• Chef Paul Brennen and the Randy Rayburn School of Culinary Arts
• Facilities and Maintenance Department – Howard Anderson and Eric Walker
• Tom Hayden and Marketing Communications & Marketing Team
• Dave Edgington and students in the NSCC Music Department
• Chief Phelps and Police & Security Department

Volunteers – John Cunningham, Hamid Doust, Sheryl Dusek, Ruth Green, Julie James, Dave Jehle, Jennifer Knapp, Steven Magee, Natalie Olsen, Ebony Rose, Kim Silverman, Mia Sneed, and Sandra Timberlake

Featured Flavors – Bacon & Caviar, Beach Haven Winery,  Bubble Pop Tea, Butter Milk Ranch, Chef Paul Burnash, W Hotel, City Winery, Corsair Distillery, Deacon’s New South, Elliston Place Soda Shop, Harth inside Hilton Nashville Green Hills, Hap & Harry’s Brewing, Heroes Vodka, Honky Tonk Brewing, Little Harpeth Brewing, Limo Peruvian Eatery, Margot Cafe and Bar, Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint, Midtown Café, Music City Center, Nashville Sweet Tea Co., Nothing Bundt Cakes, Ole Smoky, Puckett’s Restaurant, Purple Toad Winery, Savarino’s Bakery, Scout’s Pub, Southbound Tequila, Tennessee Whiskey Workshop, The Pepper Pot, The Randy Rayburn School of Culinary Arts, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Urban Grub, and YeeHaw Brewing.

Thank You Tennessee Flavors Sponsors –  Regions Bank, Kroger, HCA Healthcare/TriStar Health, GSRM Law, Debbie & Joey Hatch, Sysco, UBS, AFS Foundation Repair & Waterproofing Specialists, Alliance Bernstein, Ascend Federal Credit Union, Greater Nashville Hospitality Association, Hoar Construction, Jani King, Kraft CPAs, Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, Performance FoodService, Piedmont Natural Gas, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Varallo Public Relations, Jovonna Palmer, and Dr. Richard & Nancy Rhoda

Thank you again for being part of Tennessee Flavors and for the lasting impact you’re making on our students and community. Together, we are creating opportunities and opening doors to brighter futures!

Join us next year on Tuesday, May 19^th!

“What would you do if you weren’t scared?”  This is a question you might read in a motivational book or hear from a speaker at a motivational seminar, but it’s not really a question you’re likely to hear in day-to-day conversation (at least in my experience).  But that doesn’t mean it’s not a question worth considering in situations besides motivational books/seminars; in fact, I think it’s a question we should consider, as it’s a question we often indirectly ask of students – whether we intend to or not. 

April 7^th, I visited Professor Scott McRoberts’s Foundations Studio class, and that’s really what I want to talk about, but before I get to that, I fear we need to discuss fear itself.

There’s a student in Scott’s class who I had last semester in Public Speaking, one of those students of a type I’m sure we’re all familiar with: very bright, but hampered by something that prevents them from getting an “A.”  Not that getting an “A” is the point; maybe a better way to say that is something prevents them from fully realizing their potential. 

This particular student is very shy, and she would come to talk to me after class, wait until everyone else had asked their questions and left, and then ask me about her idea for her speech. It would invariably be something unique, interesting and really fantastic for doing the assignment.  I would tell her that. I would encourage her to run with it; I’d be a cheerleader for the topic idea and her potential to do a great job with it. 

And then…then we’d meet in the computer lab to workshop outlines, and this student would have nothing – not even a start to an outline.  We’d chat, and it was invariably the same conversation: “I just didn’t really think the topic would work, I was afraid of the audience wouldn’t like it, I wouldn’t do a good job of presenting it, and so on.” It wasn’t that she’d been doing nothing; it was that she had been stewing in anxiety and fear over the projected result, rather than engaging with the process, and she had nothing to show for it. 

We’d have the same conversation as before; I’d help her get started, and she would finally get something on the page.  Then the next week she’d deliver her speech and get a “B” or “C” because she procrastinated for so long and the speech that she gave was missing lots of things that matter in terms of the grade: a clear introduction and conclusion, effective transitions, properly cited sources, etc.  From a critical thinking/creative/originality perspective, her speeches were stunning in their potential.  But because of that fear, she didn’t engage in the process that is required to bring good ideas to fruition. 

Often education involves teaching students a process and helping them internalize it through feedback: how to work a math problem; how to cite a source; how to create a hypothesis and conduct an experiment; how to analyze for problems; how to apply a concept, to write a business plan, create a sculpture, etc. and etc.  School gives students the opportunity to repeat those actions and get feedback.  Unfortunately, too often, it doesn’t work that way. Students think the idea or the topic is where the grade is, not in the process.  And because they’re so invested in the topic, they face fear because they’re focused on the result, not the process.  They face fear because they think they’re going to be judged on the quality of their idea, not the execution.

Part of the process involves taking a chance.  It involves making a commitment to an idea and running with it, which is hard to do in a world that is overrun with inexpensive information and advice at the click of a mouse or touch of a screen.  How do we get students to take a chance?  This is a big part of education I don’t think we talk about enough. 

This fear also leads to wanting a safe, easy assignment that spells out exactly what to do in order to get a good grade, to not have to risk anything. It leads students to things like ChatGPT.  It leads them to Googling possible topics rather than mining their own incredible wealth of knowledge and interests. 

It’s not the fault of students.  They don’t see that their teachers have had multiple bad ideas.  My students don’t see the pages and pages and pages of drivel I wrote as an English major and that those pages were the learning process of “how to present an idea” – so if I’m lucky enough to have a good idea, I’ll some sense of how to present it.  

It’s also not that students don’t want to communicate and create; students can sit in class and write an essay’s worth of text on their phones, and they are clearly creative in their language, dress, and outlooks. 

Yet when faced with an assignment, the well is dry from fear.   

This all leads me back around to Scott’s class (finally!).  In the class, the students presented the sculptures they had been working on, wire structures that could stand on three points or be hung from one point and had some covering on parts of the wire structure, but not totally encased with fabric or paper.  Scott had each student present their piece.  He and the other students would visually assess it, and the students would offer some feedback. Then Scott would offer his feedback.

What was really great about Scott’s feedback was his ability to meet each student where they were. Even someone as challenged as I am when it comes to the visual arts could see that some pieces were better than others.  And yet Scott made every student feel as if they were on the same exact playing field, that their piece was the absolute center of attention, and that it was not being measured relative to any other students’ work (and I have to mention that creating such an environment among students doesn’t just happen; Scott created it). 

Scott focused on what the student had done and what they could do to refine and/or re-vision: the process.  No mention was made of the subject or the topic.  

But deeper than that, Scott encouraged all of them to take chances.  He encouraged by celebrating the chances they took and encouraging them to take more chances, all within the framework of the assignment.  It’s a skill that all of our students need.  It’s a skill that all of us need.  I wished I were a student in the class, because I would like to be encouraged to take a chance on my miserable visual art potential, just for the chance to take a chance.  It’s a skill, a possibility, that has nothing to do with rote memorization, or being able to read and understand a textbook or…or anything that’s easy to assess.  Trying to determine how much of a chance each person took with what they did is highly individualist, and impossible to grade, but that’s where Scott went with his students.  He encouraged them to take chances with their art.  We might not immediately think of that as a skill, but it absolutely is: it’s the skill of being able to answer that question about what we’d do if we weren’t scared and actually follow through with the answer. 

Scott really hammered this home when he introduced the next unit, where the students are going to make dolls.  He simply showed several dolls that he himself had made, but it wasn’t in a sense of “this is what your doll should look like,” because all the dolls were different: different emotions, different materials, different sizes, etc.  No student would’ve been able to extract some sort of system of how big the doll should be, or what materials it should encompass, or anything of that nature.  What they could extract is how to take a chance. 

This is a skill we need more and more of in our world.  Taking a chance on talking to someone who doesn’t look like us.  Taking a chance on something that doesn’t look like an “easy A.” Taking a chance on something not suggested by Google.  Taking a chance on opening our mind to the possibility that there are other ways to perceive the world.  And that’s what Scott is teaching his students.   

Student | Lakeya Talley

1. Have you lived anywhere other than Nashville? If so, where have you lived?I have lived in Nashville my entire life. It feels good to be a native.

2. Why is getting a college education important to you?
The first reason it is important for me to get a college education is because I want to accomplish all my goals I set out for myself throughout the years. The 2nd reason is because I have 4 children that I want to show how important education is.

3. Why did you choose to take classes at Nashville State Community College?
I chose Nashville State again because I graduated from this school in 2019 and now I am seeking another degree and Nashville State is more cost efficient than most schools.

4. What are two things that get in the way of doing better in your classes or make it very hard to get the grades that you want to get?
I have 2 smaller kids that take up a lot of my time because those 2 of my 4 are 2 under 2. If I had a big support system of family to help me, to help me out some it could be a little easier to study but honestly I make it happen the best way I can. I am a full-time mother but I also work full time so that takes away from me studying as well but its no excuse, I gotta get better with time management.

5. What keeps you motivated to wake up every morning and go to school, even if you are tired? What do you tell yourself when you feel like it is too much and maybe you want to quit?
I am motivated to get up every morning to go to work and school because I want to get my RN Degree. I really want to accomplish all my goals. My kids also motivate me because I want more for them and for our family as a whole. I tell myself that time does not stop for anyone that it will continue to pass so I might as well do it now. One day I will look up and I’ve completed my goal and graduated RN school.

6. Describe two good experiences that you have had since you have been taking classes here.
My first experience is the students.  There is no discrimination when it comes to age. Some of us are older, some are younger but all we see is that we are all here to reach a common goal to become successful in whatever we set out to do. I am happy I have connected with a lot of the other students that I have because they have helped me through this journey and that help was much needed and appreciated.

My second experience is with my professors. I feels as though each professor I have encountered here wants the best for their students and they will go out there way to help us achieve our goals.

7. If you were granted three wishes and you could wish for anything you wanted, what are three things that you would wish for that would help you achieve your goals at Nashville State? (*You can wish for ANYTHING, no matter how crazy. If having a personal chauffeur to drive you around would help you, wish for that, for example. 🙂
I would ask for childcare at the school so when I do not have anywhere to take my kids and so that I do not miss class that they can come up to the school with me while I stay in class.

My second wish would be that they open up the RN program to more than 50 students per opening and that they would let the program accept 3 times a year instead of once a year that way more students could become nurses at Nashville State instead of having to reach out to other schools and transfer to get into a program.

My third wish would be for the Hybrid classes to be more time <in class> so we can get more learning and skills from the professor.

8. Have you made any new friends while taking classes at Nashville State? If you have, what do you have in common with each other outside of the classroom?
Yes I have made a few new friends at the school. I am older than most of them, the only one with kids but what we have in common is that we all want to be in the healthcare field.

9. Who is your favorite musician/band? What is your favorite movie or TV show?
I love to listen to Beyonce, Lil Wayne and a few more artists but these 2 are my top favorite. One of my favorite movies is The Best Man and Love and Basketball.

10. Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself? Maybe something you think makes you unique or what your plans are for the future?
I started school straight out of high school in 2005, I started at Tennessee State University. I love the school but I was working and trying to help take care of my younger siblings plus provide myself with a stable home to live in because I lived alone at such a young age. My grades started dropping my second year because I had so much on my plate, I ended up failing out of school. I did not give up so I started at Nashville State many years later and ended up getting a degree in 2019 in psychology. In 2021 I graduated from Tennessee College of applied Technology and I became a Licensed Practical Nurse and now I am back here at Nashville State to become an RN. I will tell anyone, especially working mothers, to never give up and EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE. With God all things are possible.