December 2023 Volume 7 Issue 5

What do all 1st generation students have in common? They love to get together and celebrate with other 1st gen students! At Nashville State Community College (NSCC), we are excited to expand our focus on this population of students as part of the First Scholars Network. On November 8th, the college held celebrations on each of the six campuses where students had the opportunity to fill a gift bag with school supplies, enjoy a cupcake, and show their pride in being First. The Office of Student Life created buttons for both students and staff to wear to show their pride in being a first-generation student, and to encourage students and staff to share their journeys with each other.

A goal for the spring semester is to create a flyer that faculty and staff can post on their office door showing that they are a fellow first generation student. Hopefully, this will help students feel comfortable sharing their concerns or fears about being a college student, but also allow them to see that success is possible.

Earlier in the fall, Nashville State surveyed faculty and staff to gauge interest in working with the first  generation student population. Over 100 NSCC employees stated they wanted to work with these students and over 50% of respondents said they identified as 1st generation students. The institution will be creating avenues for staff to mentor and guide these students through direct support or through college-wide activities designed to bring everyone together for fun and educational purposes.

A first gen student organization was created under the leadership of Gail Harris, Communication Professor, who is working with interested staff to have leadership for the group located on each campus. The “Me 1st” organization has the mission to foster mentorship through coaching by creating opportunities for cultural experiences and community connections. The group organized a toy drive and is planning a cultural trip for 2024. Creating a robust student organization will be one of the most powerful ways to encourage and guide this population of students who often don’t know who to go to or feel comfortable asking for support.

Nashville State’s goal is to ensure that students have easy access to information and resources that can help them stay enrolled and have a successful semester. The college employs two Student Resource Managers who provide students with access to mental health support, textbook and transportation assistance, and food and personal items through the Campus Cupboard. By providing for these basic needs, students can focus on having a successful semester. These resources and staffing will also aid us in our work to support and empower 1st generation students.

This month I reached out to adjunct faculty and here are two responses to my questions. Steven Hancock taught ENGL 0815 and 1010 this semester and Pattye Post taught MATH 1530 this semester. Here are their stories.

Steven Hancock

Until May 2023, I lived in the same ZIP Code my entire life. However, my wife is an amazing RN and accepted a staff position at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. So, we decided to move to Spring Hill.

I taught at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution and the White Bridge Road campus this semester. Next semester, I will teach at the women’s prison, RMSI, and the Southeast campus. All of these locations are about an hour away from my home. When not teaching, I edit content virtually for a company in Las Vegas. On Sundays, I drive back to Knoxville to pastor Macedonia United Methodist Church. Eventually, I hope to serve a church locally. 

Interestingly, I hated attending high school. I did not go to college until I was in my thirties because of my feelings about school. I got my degrees online from Liberty University. During this time, I developed a new passion for education, especially English and writing classes. Soon after getting a B.S. in Religion, I completed an M.A. in Professional Writing. This sparked a deep desire to help students, especially those who have struggled previously. Nashville State opened the perfect door for me to accomplish this. 

I stay motivated by remembering the great need in society for education. I am reminded of a verse from the Bible that says, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). Education gives me an opportunity to help young people and the incarcerated population. It is inspiring to watch students overcome adversity to accomplish new goals in life. This is why I feel that I am perfectly suited for the community college environment as opposed to a university. My only wish is that I could do this work full-time.

My time at NSCC has been a great opportunity that I truly appreciate. I have been given all the tools I need to be successful. I also take great pride in explaining to the students the resources offered to them by the college. Thank you for taking the time to learn about me.

Pattye Post

1. I am not from Nashville.  I grew up in West Tennessee – Camden which is about 1.5 hours west of Nashville.
2. I assume by “here”, you mean NSCC. I was a Senior Lecturer for Murray State University in Murray, KY for 11 years. A family job opportunity caused me to leave Murray and move to Dickson, TN. I didn’t work for the first year I lived here. I missed teaching, but I didn’t want to drive to Nashville every day to and from work. I took a job in the local school system. After 2 years, UT Martin approached me about teaching a night class for them (in Dickson). Shortly after that I learned of Nashville State and starting teaching for the Math Department here. Later dual enrollment classes became a reality, so I fought long and hard to get them at Dickson County High School. I was SO excited to be teaching at the college level again. While I retired in May, after 38 years of teaching, I am still teaching part-time for the Math Department at NSCC and am very happy to be able to do that.
3. As I said, I did not want to drive to Nashville, or any significant distance, to get to work. I teach at the Dickson Campus (or online classes), so my drive to work is about 10 minutes or less.
4. During my ‘down’ time I try to spend a couple days a week going through my house – closets, cabinets, drawers, cellars, etc – and separate what I have accumulated in the 23 years I have lived here into what I need and no longer need. I keep what I think I need and take the rest to Goodwill. I have also joined the YMCA and the Dickson Senior Activity Center which offers everything from yoga to ballroom dancing and everything in between. I try to take advantage of that 3 days a week. I also now have more free time to spend with my sons and their families who live in Clarksville and Illinois. So babysitting is top on my list of things ‘to do’.
5. I have to say – my favorite class has always been math! To me working math problems is like working a puzzle — when you get the answer, you finished the puzzle.
6. I cannot remember a time I did not want to teach. When I was young (probably around 8 years old) I received a free-standing chalkboard. As silly as it sounds, my idea of fun was pretending to be a teacher and lining up my dolls and cat (poor thing) and ‘teaching’ them math and English.
7. Being retired now I look back at all those years and do not know how I juggled all of my many jobs and responsibilities. I stay busy now most of the time and have only a small percent of the amount of work I used to have. During those years and the many times I was tired and wondered how I would get everything accomplished, I told myself that it was my job to not only complete whatever tasks were before me, but to do it to the best of my ability. It is very common for my students to tell me that they do not like math (“hate” is the word they typically use). So I always felt my job was to try to make math more understandable and help them have success with it. Usually, students didn’t like math because they did not have pleasant memories of it. I hope that through the years, I have given students a sense of success with math and understanding that they will indeed use math, in some form or the other, every day of their life.
8. While being given any 2 wishes seems great, I actually cannot think of anything to wish for. Since 2005 I have worked with the Math Department at NSCC. They have ALWAYS gone above and beyond to immediately help me with whatever I needed. There is not a greater group of people to work with. They truly care for our students here, but they care about the instructors as well. Obviously, there is the idea of higher pay which could be a wish to incentivize making the job easier, but I have turned down the higher pay at other institutions to remain loyal to the Math Department at NSCC and benefit from their knowledge and assistance. They have helped me more than they could ever know. I am truly grateful for their help all these years and their dedication to making the students at NSCC be the best they can be.
9. I am not that unique. However, I do have an experience that few have had. In 2000, I was approached with becoming a National Board Certified Teacher. At the time, there were only 11 National Board Certified Teachers in Tennessee. I accepted the challenge having no idea what I was getting into. After the first meeting and finding out some facts (such as the pass rate was lower than the pass rate for those taking the law exam), the teacher I was working with decided to pull out. I have always tried to complete every job I commit to, so I stayed. What resulted was a year of intense work and research and writing and videotaping classes and many other tasks. The process of National Board Certification opened my eyes to ways of teaching that were outside my comfort zone. Reflection after each and every lesson is a crucial part of teaching. I was ecstatic to receive my National Board Certification in Mathematics in November, 2001 and join the ranks of the other 11 teachers in TN.  After obtaining my National Board Certification, reflection became an integral part of my teaching.  I learned to constantly research and look for new and innovative ways to make each concept easier for students to understand. If a lesson didn’t go well, I knew I needed to change it to make it better. I learned that the same lesson could work well for one group of students, but not another, so I needed to change to adapt to that. Changing my teaching styles from one group to another became an integral part of my teaching. Constantly reviewing and researching my teaching skills and teaching methods helped to keep my teaching fresh and up-to-date. My hope is that my students were able to benefit from all that work.

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The NSCC Voice

Founded 2017

Cliff Rockstead, Managing Editor
David Gerth, Assistant Managing Editor
Isabella Putman, Layout Editor

December 2023 Contributors

Dr. Gracie Andrews King
Amy S. Bryant
Janet Dennis
Cecily Freeman
Rosemary Hackney
Tom Hayden
Dr. Shanna L. Jackson
Joseph P. Johnson
Christopher Saunders
Dr. Julie Williams