Northwest Mississippi Community College's Evening School program on the Senatobia campus is making aggressive changes to meet the needs of area students, said Dana French, who was recently hired as Evening School director.
This new attitude is based upon two core principles: ask students what they want and provide good customer service.
"We hope to offer the same courses and programs at night that are currently being offered during the day," French said.
"Good customer service encompasses more than offering what the community wants and listening to their needs," she continued. "It also involves providing classes when it is convenient for the student. We plan to utilize every avenue available to us to meet those needs."
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Dr. Stacy Jones (left) helps students enrolled in his physical science lab during a session of summer evening school on the Senatobia campus. Photo by Dana French
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An example would be the Real Number System for elementary education majors. This class has never previously been offered at night.
According to French, Northwest's goals for Evening School also include the development of career clusters. Career clusters are courses or groups of courses from the same discipline or various disciplines that are merged together to meet the criteria as prerequisite courses for a two-year degree program or certification.
The development of career clusters is not new to French, who previously ran a Cisco Networking Academy program in both Arkansas and Tennessee.
"In Memphis, I worked closely with a team of teachers in developing career clusters for high school students," she said. "These career clusters were based on the Cisco Academy program and the Cisco Certified Network Associate certification. Students who completed the program in high school were placed in career tracks that prepared them for a two-year college, which in turn prepared them for a four-year degree. I hope to do the same at Northwest."
"But at the same time, we intend to offer new innovated programs that parallel with the need to develop a strong workforce, such as our new Geographic Information Systems (GIS) course that is being offered this fall," French said.
An instructor design team has created curriculum modules demonstrating how spatial information technologies can be applied to a variety of disciplines. An "Introduction to GIS Technologies" course has been added in Career-Technical Education this fall. Sections of the course will be offered on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 4:15 to 5:45 p.m. and 6:30 to 7:45 p.m.
"Our students will be starting careers in emergency response professions, such as law enforcement, firefighting, engineering, health and epidemiology, just to name a few," said Joyce Brasell, Northwest director of Workforce Planning and Development. "GIS technology is increasingly important in planning for and responding to man-made and natural disasters. We want Northwest students and graduates to have the very latest in technical tools to give them the edge in the job market."
In the area of customer service, the Evening School program is developing a new Web site called Northwest After Dark. The purpose of the Web page is not only to notify students of upcoming schedules, but also to enlist the input of the local community through a special section of the site titled "You Tell Us." Local residents can log on and write in requests for classes they would like to see offered at Northwest. It also gives the community a chance to tell Northwest what areas need to be improved.
Northwest is also working on partnerships with other schools and civic organizations to offer community outreach programs in areas such as an Alzheimer's support group.
"We have been approached by an area corporation to offer a training academy to area high school students, much like the Cisco program that I ran in Arkansas and Tennessee," French said. The details are still being worked out and waiting state approval.
In time, the Evening School program will extend its hours and offer more courses on weekends. The Senatobia Evening School office is located in Yalobusha Hall. The hours are 4 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Call (662) 560-1104 for more information.
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