{"id":4330,"date":"2024-12-05T18:02:49","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T18:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.nscc.edu\/thensccvoice\/?page_id=4330"},"modified":"2024-12-05T22:40:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T22:40:38","slug":"november-2024-volume-8-issue-4","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ww2.nscc.edu\/thensccvoice\/november-2024-volume-8-issue-4\/","title":{"rendered":"November 2024 Volume 8 Issue 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Update from the President<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

by Dr. Shanna L. Jackson<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Greetings Fellow Falcons,  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The end of the semester is fast approaching, and what an amazing fall it has been!  Our enrollment is up almost 600 students from the prior fall and, as important, we have seen improvement in persistence and retention. It is the work of each of you that is making a difference. As I stated during Convocation, we are building on the momentum from the last academic year, and this is our year of breakthrough! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are a few updates from the Office of the President:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dickson Groundbreaking <\/strong>\u2013 On November 20 we held a wonderful Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Dickson County Center of Higher Education that will house our Dickson Campus. We are excited to see our permanent home in Dickson getting underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holiday Party <\/strong>\u2013 Special thanks to the Engagement Committee and all others who are helping to plan our Holiday party on December 13. The party will be held in the Art Gallery at the White Bridge campus from 1:30-3:30pm. To ensure that everyone can attend, all campuses will shift to virtual operations from 12-4:30pm. For those who do not want to attend, they will finish out their day as normally scheduled. The Foundation will be providing appetizers and Admin Assembly will be hosting the third annual Sugar Soiree (cookie exchange) at the event. It promises to be a fun time. Don\u2019t forget to RSVP<\/strong><\/a> by December 9!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enrollment Update <\/strong>\u2013 Spring enrollment is underway. As of November 21, spring applications are up 6.5%. Enrollment is moving in a good direction; we are up 9.1% in headcount and 12.4% in FTE. Stay data informed by visiting our new Data Access Page<\/a>. Please contact Institutional Research if you have questions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Office of the President Staf<\/strong>f \u2013 I am excited to share that TaShunda Franklin joined our team in the HR Office as the Manager of Professional Learning and Development. She will support our efforts under the Core Value of Learning and our Professional Learning biennial priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One-Time Payment<\/strong> \u2013 I am pleased to share that TBR has approved Senior Staff\u2019s recommendation of a one-time payment of $1,500 for all unrestricted regular, full-time and part-time benefit-eligible employees that were employed at the institution on or before September 30, 2024, and are still employed at the time of payment. The one-time payment will be included in December\u2019s paycheck, which will be paid on December 20 instead of the last day of the month due to the holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support <\/strong>\u2013 I am always reminded that the holiday season is difficult for many people. Please take care of your mental and physical health. If you find yourself not feeling your best, you can <\/a>reach out directly to Emotional Wellbeing Solution<\/a>s (formerly EAP). They have programs and services tha[ON1]<\/a> [JS2]<\/a> t are offered at no cost to all benefit-eligible employees and eligible family members. Visit Here4tn.com<\/a> for more information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wishing each of you a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Season of Gratitude from Financial Aid<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Brian N. Lee, Dual Enrollment & Federal Work Study Coordinator, Financial Aid<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As we reflect on the past year, we at the Office of Financial Aid are filled with gratitude. We are incredibly thankful for the opportunity to support our students in their pursuit of higher education. It’s a privilege to play a role in helping students achieve their academic and career goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Navigating the financial aid process can be a complex and stressful experience. We understand the challenges our students face, and we are committed to making the process as smooth and accessible as possible. Their dedication to their studies is truly inspiring, and we are honored to play a role in their academic journeys. By providing support and guidance, we hope to alleviate some of the financial burdens and allow students to focus on what truly matters: their education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would also like to extend our sincere gratitude to our dedicated faculty and staff. Your commitment to providing high-quality education and support services is invaluable. You go above and beyond to help our students succeed, both inside and outside the classroom. Your guidance, mentorship, and encouragement make a significant impact on our students’ lives, shaping them into well-rounded individuals. We are truly grateful for your hard work and dedication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A special thank you goes to the Welcome Centers at all our campuses for their outstanding service to our students. Your efforts in answering Financial Aid questions and assisting walk-in students do not go unnoticed. You are often the first point of contact for students seeking guidance, and your professionalism and kindness create a welcoming environment that makes a real difference. Thank you for your hard work and commitment to our mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we express our gratitude to others, let\u2019s also remember the power of gratitude in our own lives. Did you know that practicing gratitude can have a positive impact on your well-being? Studies have shown that gratitude can reduce stress, improve sleep, and boost your immune system. For example, a study by Emmons and McCullough (2003) found that individuals who practiced gratitude journaling experienced increased feelings of well-being and decreased depressive symptoms. Additionally, research by Wood et al. (2008) suggests that gratitude can improve sleep quality and duration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, as we approach the holiday season, let’s take a moment to express gratitude for the many blessings in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From all of us at the Office of Financial Aid, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Bella\u2019s Closet Hosts Free Shopping Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Sharley Ross, <\/em>Admissions Clerk, Clarksville Campus<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Clarksville campus had several ghosts and goblins dressed for Halloween festivities on October 31st<\/sup>. This year the Clarksville Transit System and Nashville State\u2019s Clarksville campus partnered to provide free transportation to and from campus to Bella\u2019s Closet for special \u201cadult trick or treating experience\u201d, a FREE shopping day. Bella\u2019s Closet opened their doors for ALL our students, faculty, staff, and several eerily dressed consumers to enter the boutique. Cynthia Pitts, Faye Forsyth and community volunteers greeted students with an enthusiastic welcome and immediately began assisting student shoppers. They offered professional attire, casual outfits, activewear, formal apparel, shoes, jewelry, books, and more. Bella\u2019s Closet hosted Over 60 students and several faculty and staff from the Clarksville campus in this shopping event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bella\u2019s mission is to \u201cempower women in our community by providing free access to clothing and accessories for job interviews, work, and other important life events. Clothes range from casual, every day wear, outfits suitable for job interviews and even formal attire. There is also a section of men\u2019s wear so our male students were able to take part in this fun day of shopping at Bella\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bella\u2019s Closet has visited the Clarksville campus several times, hosting pop-up shops in order to allow anyone in need of clothing to shop.  Bella\u2019s shopping event on October 31st<\/sup> was the first time an exclusive event for NSCC students, faculty and staff was held at the boutique. We look forward to participating in future community events in Clarksville and supporting local non-profits like Bella\u2019s closet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brunch & Learn<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Patti Vinson, Campus Coordinator<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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On October 30, 2024, the Nashville State Community College – Clarksville Campus hosted a “Brunch & Learn” event for the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System (CMCSS). This informative session aimed to guide staff through key aspects of college admissions, financial aid, and academic programs, while offering a supportive environment to address questions and concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event kicked off at 11:30 a.m. with a welcome and introduction, where attendees were encouraged to sign in and enjoy refreshments. Sharley Ross led the first segment on admissions and testing, providing an overview of the application process, important deadlines, and insider tips for a successful application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, Jaclen Christian discussed financial aid options, outlining scholarships, grants, and the FAFSA application process to help students make the most of available funding. Patti Vinson offered an in-depth look into the nursing program, highlighting prerequisites and potential career pathways for aspiring nurses. Jeremy Calico introduced dual enrollment opportunities, allowing high school students to earn college credits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dyamond Williams then shared exciting news about new programs at Nashville State, broadening academic options for future students and invited an open discussion on additional support NSCC could offer, followed by a Q&A session for further inquiries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This engaging event provided attendees with valuable insights and resources, empowering them to assist students with the next steps on their academic journeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following schools were represented at the event:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adult High School
Alternative School
Kenwood High School
Middle College at APSU
Montgomery Central High School
Northeast High School
Northwest High School
Rossview High School<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Employees Earn Promoting Active Learning Online Course Certification<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

by Amy S. Bryant, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Director, The Teaching Center<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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James Edwards, Hannah Hurdle, Robert Ladd, Zachary Mills, Cynthia Morgan, Harlan Pease, Marla Perry, Piper Sesnan, and Amy Bryant have completed the Promoting Active Learning Online course from the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) and endorsed by the American Council on Education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this course, these faculty learned more about developing effective modules and micro-lectures, teaching powerful notetaking online, using groups to ensure active online learning, using the active learning cycle in online courses, planning effective online discussions, and facilitating engaging online discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engaging in this course requires a large commitment of time for learning, for planning implementation strategies, for implementing teaching strategies in teaching courses, reflecting on the impact of the strategies on students, and planning how to use teaching strategies for future courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Teaching Center celebrates these employees\u2019 commitment to learning, implementing teaching strategies, and reflecting to continuously improve.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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History, Past and Present<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

by Harlan Pease, Associate Professor of Communication, EHCT<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Before November 12, the last time I got emotional in a History class \u2013 I think the only time I was emotional in a History class \u2013 was 9\/11. That morning, I went to the library to study.  Around 10:30, I stepped outside.  I lit a Marlboro, enjoyed the sun for a moment, and it registered that something was\u2026 off.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the moment, I didn\u2019t think much of it.  I smoked my cigarette.  I walked to class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as I was about to enter the building, someone was exiting and told me that terrorists had flown planes into the Twin Towers.  It was such a foreign thought I didn\u2019t really process it.  But in the building, there was that sense of \u201coff;\u201d there was an emptiness.  It was spooky; that person\u2019s comment echoed back.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to a student lounge with a big screen TV, and there it was: playing on a loop, airplanes flying directly into the Twin Towers.  I just sat there, kind of numb, unable to really process it fully.  I glanced at my watch, realized my class, 19th Century European History, was about to begin, and not knowing what else to do, I went to class.  A few other students were there, a few others straggled in, the professor came in, and just as class was about to begin, classes were canceled.  Suddenly it hit me, the reality, the terror those people must\u2019ve felt, that there would have been young kids on those planes, the sense of hope they might\u2019ve allowed themselves to feel, and then the sense that there wasn\u2019t any hope (I hadn\u2019t even begun to process what was happening inside<\/em> the buildings). And the tears came; an iceberg I\u2019d been holding for the last 20 minutes flash-melted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve guessed, I got emotional in History class on November 12, specifically in David Markwell\u2019s Modern US History class. No need to worry; it wasn\u2019t a full-on waterworks, but just that pressure of tears building up behind the eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It started with a picture of four young soldiers in the Korean war, situated behind a 30-caliber machine gun.  They looked to be barely adults, just like many of the students in that class.  I immediately flashed back to my friend Tim\u2019s dad, who was the principal of my middle school; there, he was Mr. King.  But at his house, he asked me to call him Nate (I was at his house a lot, since Tim and I were best friends).  One time after supper, when Mr. King \u2013 Nate \u2013 had had a few too many drinks, he showed us the scar on his back from when he had been bayoneted while fighting in the Korean War.  It shocked me as a kid, and it certainly stuck with me, but seeing that picture of those young soldiers, just kids, triggered something. See, when I was a kid and saw that scar, I didn\u2019t picture Mr. King as a young man fighting a war halfway across the world.  I pictured him as a somewhat paunchy middle-aged man, Mr. King.  I didn\u2019t see him as Nate when it happened, when he experienced that, just a kid as young as the students in my classes, even younger.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that was just the beginning. As Professor Markwell worked through the material, he started teaching the Civil Rights movement.  And he brought to life the incredible sacrifices people made, like those nine young people being escorted to school in Arkansas by the National Guard while the rhetoric of exclusion, the rhetoric of fear, was rained down on them, like those people arrested \u2013 or worse – for not giving up seats on buses, like those people arrested for sitting at a lunch counter.  Just young people, as young as the students in our classes or younger, making sacrifices, sometimes the ultimate sacrifice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I had never thought about how hard it is to teach History. I guess I\u2019d never really thought about the burden the historian carries; the burden of empathy for those people who lost their lives, the families forever changed, but also the burden of context. The burden of understanding how events like 9\/11 lead to unexpected change and war and further sacrifice and loss, and how those events fit into the fabric of human history as just one more date immortalizing the cruelty human beings can inflict on one another to try to change things or, probably more commonly, to try to keep things from changing.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s also the lightening of that burden, the knowledge of the incredible bravery, of dedication, of regular, every-day, people, many just kids as young as the kids in our classes, whose names aren\u2019t immortalized – but whose actions are – in the amalgamation of History. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does the history teacher bring that to life for students, many of whom just want to get the class over with, get their grade, get their credit, get on with their life, who don\u2019t realize they are history as it\u2019s happening, that one day 70 years from now students will be learning about the sacrifices they made as the Covid generation, of being part of a generation where people still struggled for equality, and how their generation moved the needle? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does the History teacher teach that? How does the History teacher teach so that with luck and knowledge, the mistakes of the past aren\u2019t repeated?  How does the teacher do that in a way that remains politically neutral while still addressing issues of right versus wrong and good versus bad?

These questions are the musings of someone who is getting older and becoming increasingly aware of mortality, someone unlike many of Professor Markwell\u2019s students who are there to move toward the future they are envisioning, not to dwell on the past, who are there to learn History like I was there to learn History when I was their age \u2013 give me the info I need and the assignments.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the great things about Professor Markwell\u2018s class was that it served both of those directions of learning and experience: everything was well organized, an excellent multimedia presentation was used, there was a clear emphasis on achieving course objectives, etc.  It was all there, and Professor Markwell also deftly handled the other things that happen in a class: students \u201cmemory-flexing,\u201d confusing memorization with understanding of concepts; comments that weren\u2019t really relevant; comments that absolutely weren\u2019t relevant; all the things that can impact students and take them away from learning.  But there was also the experience<\/em> of it for those receptive to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Markwell\u2019s students are taught History in a way I believe we all strive to teach, whatever our content area.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re all going to be history. And if future generations are lucky, they will learn about that History from a teacher like David Markwell.

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Human Resources Update<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Connie Daniel, Sr Administrative Assistant, Human Resources<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

November 2024<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Nashville State\u2019s newest employees<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAME<\/td>TITLE<\/td>DEPARTMENT<\/td><\/tr>
Machelle Martin<\/td>Student Account Associate<\/td>Learning Center – WBR<\/td><\/tr>
Hailee Schweickhart<\/td>Sr Administrative Associate<\/td>Academic Affairs<\/td><\/tr>
TaShunda Franklin<\/td>Manager, Professional Learning & Development<\/td>Human Resources<\/td><\/tr>
Janessa Graham<\/td>Student Services Advisor<\/td>Advising<\/td><\/tr>
Sheryl Barnhart<\/td>Recruiter\/Completion Advisor, Ready to Reconnect<\/td>Advancing Workforce Equity Grant<\/td><\/tr>
Aimee Irvine<\/td>Allied Health Educator<\/td>Workforce Training<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Please join us in congratulating those who are in new positions<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAME<\/td>TITLE<\/td>DEPARTMENT<\/td><\/tr>
Vincent Steele<\/td>Police Lieutenant – WBR<\/td>Office of Police & Security<\/td><\/tr>
Jeralyn Butler<\/td>Recruiter\/Completion Advisor, Ready to Reconnect<\/td>Advancing Workforce Equity Grant<\/td><\/tr>
Charles Hackney<\/td>Enterprise System Administrator & Data Engineer<\/td>Office of Technology Services<\/td><\/tr>
Sharneka Parker<\/td>Enterprise Business Analyst<\/td>Office of Technology Services<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Please join us in saying farewell to the following Nashville State employees<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAME<\/td>TITLE<\/td>DEPARTMENT<\/td><\/tr>
Emily Curtis<\/td>Director, Student Accounts<\/td>Finance & Accounting<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Please reach out should you have any questions or concerns.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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LinkedIn Learning: Learning for Everyone<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Faye Jones, Ph.D. Dean, Learning Resource Center<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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As a faculty\/staff member, you have access to LinkedIn Learning, a site that includes courses on just about everything connected to the workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interested in learning new software programs?  LinkedIn Learning has you covered with hundreds of courses. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n