FedEx Pilot Encourages MSCC Aviation Students to Stay Focused

Prospective pilots should consider their career progression as their No. 1 hobby and No. 1 job to succeed at the highest levels, says a former Navy pilot and current captain with FedEx Express.

Brad Smith, senior MD-11 crewmember at FedEx, visited the Mid-South Community College campus recently to speak with students in the MSCC/Upper Limit Aviation Professional Pilot Program.

“Getting a job and moving on with your career should be the complete saturation of your brain,” said Capt. Smith, who has worked at FedEx for 24 years after serving 7 years in the Navy. “The only way to get where you want to go is to have a plan and a clear path and follow it.

Business/Industry Training Comes to Forefront

While Mid-South Community College doesn’t generally function as an employment agency, we are working diligently with area business and industry to develop relevant, focused training designed to put people to work. Thanks to our cooperative partnership with Southwest Tennessee Community College and the creation of the Greater Memphis Workforce Development Institute, we have an enhanced level of resources to meet the needs of our region.

On April 17, we hosted an Employer’s Forum to solicit feedback from area businesses and industries about services they would like to see us provide. We were encouraged by the number of companies that participated, as well as the insights they offered, and we are excited about the opportunities in front of us. Most of what the Forum participants described to us is what we hear from employers every day – they can’t find the kinds of employees they need to sustain or grow their business. With this new partnership, we want employers to look to us to fill those workforce voids.

Millington, Jonesboro Students Take MSCC Speech Titles

Erin Clark of Millington, Tenn., won two first-place awards, and Eric Gladden of Jonesboro earned a first and a second at Mid-South Community College’s 2014 Speech Contest held on Wednesday, April 9.

Clark prevailed in the Prepared Speaking MSCC Topic and Prepared Speaking Open Topic categories. Gladden won the Impromptu Speaking competition and placed second in Prepared Speaking Open Topic.

Fenter Family Endows MSCC Scholarship in Memory of Roy L. Gray

Mid-South Community College President Dr. Glen Fenter and his family recently converted an annual scholarship into an endowed one that assures it will continue indefinitely.

Established in 2005 in honor of Dr. Fenter’s maternal grandfather, the Roy L. Gray Endowed Scholarship provides financial assistance to working parents who have earned a GED®.

“I learned a lot from my grandfather, and I think the lessons that I learned watching him have clearly served me well in my present career and hopefully for the rest of my life,” Dr. Fenter said. “They have certainly been lessons that I have tried to impart to my children.”

MSCC Appreciates High School Counselors

Can you imagine working at a job where one minute you are writing a scholarship recommendation letter and the next minute you are serving as a crisis intervention specialist? Such is the life of a school counselor. Last week, Mid-South Community College had the privilege of welcoming guidance professionals to campus for our annual Counselor Appreciation Day. While providing a free lunch and some door prizes doesn’t even begin to express our gratitude, it at least gives us an opportunity to demonstrate in some small way how much we appreciate counselors for the daily contributions they make to our community and region.

I moved to West Memphis in 1990 as a high school principal, and it didn’t take me long to recognize how important counselors are to the educational process. While their job descriptions are varied and their responsibilities are many, they all have a common mission: to play an important (and sometimes irreplaceable) role in shaping the lives and the futures of our young people. Their job is often a juggling act of mammoth proportions as they prioritize, multitask, and discern while serving as many as 300 students – and that’s almost the best-case scenario in terms of numbers. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250-to-1, but the national average is closer to 470-1, based on figures from the 2010-11 school year. We’re doing better than that in Arkansas at 316-1, but that still means a ton of work for someone who deals with everything from bullying and abuse to clerical requirements.