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-Higher education has seen declining enrollment and rising costs, but how a local college is faring Hello, I'm Don McCorry on this edition of Tennessee's talking the topic is Jackson State Community College.

They have a president who started last year, and joining her is a winner of this year's SOAR Award.

Let the conversation begin.

-That's so cool.

-Then that's when I said that.

-The problem with that idea is-- -Wow.

That was amazing.

-Then I came up with a solution.

-What was that about?

-Here's what I think about it.

-Now we're talking.

-West Tennessee PBS presents, Tennessee is Talking.

Let the conversation begin.

-Thanks for joining the discussion here on Tennessee is Talking.

I'm Don McCrory.

Higher education is a hot topic.

As some schools face declining enrollment, others are seeing sky-high tuition costs.

Here at home, Jackson State has a leader in her second year on the job, and joining her is a winner of a statewide award.

We welcome Dr. Carol Rothstein and Work-Based Learning Coordinator Kathy Roberts.

Let's start with Dr. Rothstein here.

How is Jackson State faring in this tough economic time?

-We are certainly seeing our enrollment starting to rebound over the past few years.

It's something that nationwide colleges have seen a decline in enrollment, especially since the pandemic.

However, we're starting to see that enrollment come back to our baseline and even starting to increase.

Our applications are up over the past three years.

We're starting to see a lot of students returning back to college.

-That's great.

Hybrid or is it all in person?

-We have both.

We have students who take completely online clas.. because that is their choice but we also have classes that are completely on ground or where students can come to the campuses and take those classes in person or they can do hybrid as well.

A lot of our students do both.

They will take classes on campus, but also supplement that with some online classes to help go along with their schedules.

-This is your second year at Jackson State.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

-Sure.

I'm a first-generation high school student.

Both of my parents dropped out of school in the eighth grade.

They grew up in very poor families.

They had to help their families survive.

They got jobs.

One of the things for me was the expectation that we would go to-- that my sisters and I would graduate high school.

There was really no expectation to go to college.

The expectation was that you would go to work.

Which I did.

Graduated high school and went to work.

I tried to take some classes at a local community college, but I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do or even if I was doing it right.

I dropped out.

I got married and had my family.

I have three children.

When my daughter was in the round kindergarten age, somebody asked her, what do you want to be when you grow up?

That age old question.

Her response was, I want to be a nothing like my mom.

I wasn't working.

I didn't have an education and so that really struck me that I was not setting a great example for them.

I decided to go back and finish my education.

I did, I went back and finished my degrees and took a job as an admissions counselor at a community college.

That's really what started my passion for higher education because I knew the transformational power of education and how much it can change somebody's life.

-That life-changing story probably has an impa.. at Jackson State today?

-Absolutely, that's really where I found my purpose.

I knew as an admissions counselor, I was working with students who were like me, who I had to take developmental math.

I was an adult student.

I had parents who did not go to college.

I didn't have any guidance on how to do college.

That was really important for me is when I was working with those students, I was those students.

I knew what this meant for them.

That has really carried over in my career that helping people reach their goals, helping people find economic mobility, has really just been my passion and that's carried over my entire career in higher education.

-I see that you were at Nashville State Community College.

-Yes.

-Outside of the difference between Nashville and Jackson, can you tell me a little bit about the differences in the two schools?

-It's not a lot different because we both have the same missions.

We're both really focused on-- as all community college, on meeting students where they are, and that it doesn't matter what their background is or what experiences they've had, we're meeting them where they are.

We're empowering them through education, and we're connecting them with their future and with opportunities.

There's not a lot of difference other than maybe the size of the institution, of course there's different people, but everyone that works at a community college is really focused on helping people.

Outside of the differences of obviously the cities that we're working in, and the different connections there, there's not a lot of difference between the actual community colleges.

-As a new resident of West Tennessee, has there been anything that has stood out to you?

-It's very familiar for me.

I am from West Virginia, and I grew up in a very small town.

Actually Jackson is a bigger town, a bigger city than where I'm from.

It really feels like home to me.

One of the things that has struck me coming to Jackson State and coming to West Tennessee, is really how widespread the network of Jackson State is.

Everywhere I go, there's an alumni or someone who has taken dual enrollment classes with us.

For me, that was surprising.

I have not seen that before, that really just-- I always say Green Jays are everywhere, because I've never seen that before, where everywhere I go, there's a connection there somewhere.

It's been wonderful, West Tennessee.

Everyone here, the people here are just so welcoming and positive and just supportive and really proud of West Tennessee and especially for looking for the future of what's happening in West Tennessee.

-Will you share with some of our viewers some of the new initiatives and programs that are underway at Jackson State?

-Absolutely.

We're working on surgical technology and medical diagnostic sonography.

We're working in partnership with West Tennessee Health Care to bring those programs on.

We want to expand, of course, we're going to talk about our Advanced Maintenance Technician program.

We're working on expanding that program.

We also would love to expand some of our educational programs as well.

We're looking at all of those programs that our industry partners need and how do we bring those programs to Jackson State.

-I hear that there is a new piece of construction that's happening on the campus, the Workforce Building?

-Yes.

Right now it's the Regional Workforce Training Center.

This was really started years ago by the Greater Jackson Chamber.

They recognized the need for our industry partners to have somewhere to go to do trainings or increase educational opportunities for their incumbent workers or for potential employees.

They've really been working on this building for a long time, and we were lucky enough to receive funding from the governor, from the state, to build a 60,000 square foot workforce buildi..

It will include a section for TCAT, so they will have a program in there.

It will have the advanced maintenance or engineering science technology program, and we'll be able to expand that and really update some of the equipment in there.

It'll be state-of-the-art.

Then we're going to have an area called our Flexible Training Labs, and those are spaces that the workforce can meet with our workforce coordinators, create training programs that are short-term that meet their needs as well.

We're really excited, we're hoping to have a groundbreaki.. so we're looking forward to that.

You'll see some other changes happening on campus too.

We're updating our administration building.

We're updating our parking lots.

We're updating some of our other buildings, our athletic facilities and fields.

We'll really see a transformation on Jackson State's campus as we move into the future, but we're really excited about that workforce building.

-I guess it would be fair to say that this regional workforce building is something that's going to be very attractive to industry coming into West Tennessee.

-Absolutely.

That is one of the main reasons for this building is to support our current industry because they have needs, they have training needs as well, and then also some of our incoming industries as well.

This is something that is going to be a sh.. with the Chambers, with the industry partners, with the TCATs and with the community college on how do you support industry partners through a building like this.

-I'm sure you get asked this quite a bit, but let's talk a little bit about the future, the vision that you have for Jackson State and for West Tennessee.

-Absolutely.

I always go back to my vision and three R's, and not reading, writing arithmetic, but really our relationships, our resources, and our reputation.

My vision for the future is a relationship with the community, that we are known throughout the community, that we support the community, the community supports us, we have those relationships built.

Relationships on campus with our students and focusing on helping them achieve their goals.

Our resources, looking at different ways for grants to help support us, increasing our visibility of our foundation and support for our foundation because that goes back to our students.

That's direct money for scholarships, that's helping with some of these facilities increases and improvements that we're making, and of course our reputation is that we want everybody to know our story.

Our story is excellent high quality education at affordable prices.

Sometimes it's even free with all of the available funding through Promise and ReConnect and then we have a lot of grant opportunities as well for students.

You can get a high quality education right here in West Tennessee directly into the workforce or into a four-year degree if that's your choice, if that's your future goal.

A lot of our students are going right into the workforce with great salaries, 60 to 70 to 80 thousand dollars within the first few years of going into the workforce and that is really building for the economic stability and the economic future of West Tennessee.

Ten years after graduation, 74% of our graduates are still right here working and providing for our community.

-I know that there are many members of our community and many of our viewers that would love to support Jackson State.

How can they do that?

-Absolutely, so we have a foundation and that foun.. where you can obviously donate to that foundation.

If you're an industry partner, we always want to connect with them to help, if we look at different ways to do trainings or equipment, but you can also donate to the Foundation for Scholarships.

If there's a need that we need to provide, we are here to provide for the community as well.

That would be reaching out to me, and let's talk about how we ca.. our industry partners or our community partners as well.

-Great, thank you.

Cathi Roberts?

-Hi.

-How are you?

-Good, thanks.

How are you?

-I'm very good.

Thank you so much for being with us this morning.

-Happy to be here.

-Congratulations on your SOAR Award.

-Thank you very much.

-Tell us a little bit about the award itself, its history, and how you were nominated.

-The SOAR Award is a state-recognized award from our parent company, the Tennessee Board of Regents, and it stands for your Statewide Outstanding Achievem..

They are given to individuals who have gone above and beyond to help students and the programs be successful.

I am this year's state award, so I was nominated, which was the most humbling part.

It's great to be the state award winner, but more humbling and more importantly was the nomination from our local industry partners and the students and the staff and faculty at Jackson State.

My understanding is there were several letters of nomination that came from the school.

I had some students who sent in nomination letters and also industry partners who supported my nomination for this.

Then we did some interviews and I'm the state wi.. -Are you the first person at Jackson State to have ever won this award?

-For the staff member-- -For the staff?

-Yes, I'm the first for staff.

Last year we were the winner for both the student and the faculty member.

-Wow.

You have a reputation now.

-Yes.

-Okay, big shoes to fill.

-Absolutely.

-Tell us a little bit about the position that you hold at Jackson State.

-My position at Jackson State allows Jackson State to work with industry partners in developing programs or opportunities where we can grow students to meet their needs.

The primary program that I work with and get to be a part of is through our engineering systems technology program.

It's called the AMT Co-op, which stands for the Advanced Maintenance Technician Co-op.

What we do is we prepare students to go into manufacturing.

When you walk into a factory and the very large pieces of equipment, we're the ones who are keeping those things going.

It's a co-op, so our students are fortunate they come to school two days a week.

The other three days a week, they work.

Yes, I have 32 manufacturers in this area that support this program by sponsoring a student to go to work three days a week as a maintenance technician.

Not in production, but they're actually starting as a maintenance technician.

We provide an hourly wage of $17 an hour.

They get 50-cent raises every semester.

Right now when you graduate, you're making $19 an hour working three eight-hour day shifts.

You graduate the first Saturday in May.

Monday, you go to work for your company making anywhere from $28 to $32 an hour without overtime.

In about five years, most of our students are making six figures.

-Can you tell us about some of the industries that your partners work?

-Sure.

We started about 12 years ago and we started with .. We grew to 12 and now we have 32.

Some of the names you might recognize, Delta Faucet, Stanley Black & Decker, Toyota, those are recognizable.

Some of the ones that you might not recognize, Ber..

They make all your plastic bottles.

We have LyondellBasell.

They make all the little plastic beads that go in your car that make your dashboards.

Sunoco, they make every can that Pringles goes in.

Five different sizes, if you're ever on trivia.

Five sizes of Pringles cans.

We make it right here in Jackson.

We stamp out the lids and everything.

We have Menasha.

After Kellenova fills the cans, they go over to Menasha.

Menasha stacks them to use for displays before they ship them out.

We have very small companies like LyondellBasell is one of our smaller companies, up to the larger Toyota Manufacturing, Toyota Bushaku.

We make all the engine blocks in North America right here in Jackson.

-For the Toyota.

-For Toyota.

-Camry.

-For all the cars.

-For all the cars.

-Every car if it wasn't for Jackson, Tennessee, they would not be on the road right now.

-Great.

-It's absolutely fascinating to think of all the .. does give back.

-Yes, I had the opportunity to do a tour at Toyota.

It is an amazing place.

-Did you see the dancing robot?

-I was about to talk about the dancing robot.

-The AMT students, that's one of the first things they get to do when they graduate, is go in and program that dancing robot.

-Wow.

-You've seen some of our work.

-I've got the video on my phone.

-Very cool.

-Yes.

I'm sure you might find a listener or.. with Jackson State, and how would they go about contacting you to express an interest?

-if you're an industry partner.. some students that we could put in and help you be more productive, and you're interested in working with the global best maintenance te.. then my email is croberts7@jscc.edu, or just call Jackson State and ask for Ms. Cathi.

Everybody knows me, and it'll get to me.

If you're a student or the parent of a student, now's the time.

We have several spots available, and we have an a.. Again, call me and I'll help you walk through it, and we'll get you through the process.

-Now, is there an application process for the students in order to enter the program?

-Absolutely.

The first step is to apply to Jackson State.

Then do your financial aid stuff too, because Tennessee Promise or Tennessee Reconnect, you're probably going to get to go basically for free, and then on our website at jscc.edu, you will find the application, which is just a job application.

The manufacturers will review that application, and then you'll come in for an interview, which is a great fun day to see the students come in.

They'll do probably six panel interviews in a day, and so for some of the students, they've never interviewed for anything, so imagine six panel interviews.

Then they will do what we call the AMT draft.

They'll select numbers, and they'll pick their student, and then they'll go to work, hopefully by the first of August, and then we'll start school the end of August.

-Are first-year students elig.. -Those are who we want to start at the ground level, rather start with no habit than bad habits.

We take students who are traditional 18-year-olds right out of high school and non-traditional students, so if you're thinking of a second career, and you think this might be an option for you, call me.

We'll get you set up.

-Talk a little bit about recruitment.

Where do you get students from these days?

-For our program, we'll get them anywhere.

We'll go to the high schools.

I would say the majority of our students, though, actually do come from families who have manufacturing backgrounds.

We have someone who's in a manufacturing facility.

One of our biggest barriers is the fact that when you say you're working in a factory, a lot of people still see it as their granddad's factory, where that's what you had to do.

Now it is so technical.

We are talking about automation.

We're talking about robotics.

We're talking about high-end, cutting-edge curriculum that can take these students anywhere in the world, and like Dr. Rothstein said, the majority of them stay here, but the skills are global.

We will go into high schools to recruit and into the manufacturing facilities.

They're running videos about us on their TVs, whereas our students are so proud when they graduate.

It's just great to watch.

Our manufacturers are equally as proud to be a part of this and to see their student be successful.

They also helped promote our program.

-I'll say the governor also came to see the program and was very impressed with that and our students give that tour.

Our students are the ones that interact with the governor and share with him all about the program.

As far as for Jackson State as a whole, for our recruitment, we have a go green tour is what we call it and we go out to all the high schools in our areas and we bring faculty and staff and our financial aid team and our admissions team to go out there and meet with students in the high schools and talk with them about what potential programs they would like to go into.

What do they need to do to the application, to do the financial aid.

Then also all the opportunities at a community college that you might not think about, such as study abroad.

Students can go to Jackson State and travel abroad in the summer.

They could go to the Galapagos Islands or you could go to France or Italy or Brazil.

There's so many options for students to do as a community college student.

-For me, that would have been a really big incentive.

[laughter] -Yes.

-I have to admit.

-There's such great opportunities, es.. who may not have ever had that opportunity to travel abroad and experience a different culture.

When we try to tie that back to their program and to their learning outcomes.

There's so many things that are available at a community college that you might not be aware of.

Part of our recruitment is to share all the wonderful things that you can do right here and at home, but also explore the world.

-If you were asked to explain why Jackson State is the right school for you, how would you respond?

-I would say that, one, the people at Jackson State, every employee there cares about you.

We care about the students and we want to make sure that you achieve your goals.

We have high quality programs.

Our faculty are outstanding.

They're amazing.

We have small classroom sizes and our tuition is the lowest in West Tennessee, but we also have all of the amazing programs to help pay for that so that it's really, for most of our students, it's either low cost or no cost for them.

You don't have to leave home.

You can work.

We have flexible schedules, so it really, we're designed to fit around the student and n.. to fit us.

That's why we are the smart choice.

Sometimes you think about, you hear about ROI and as you talked about, I think previously about the high cost of education and the ROI for education, but when you look at a community college, you're looking at a low cost, high return investment.

That is why Jackson State is the smart choice.

We're here for you.

-Earlier you said, meet the students where they are, and it clearly sounds like that that's exactly what you're doing.

-Yes.

-Unfortunately, we've run out of time.

I'd like to thank you both for being here.

It's been a pleasure meeting you and we wish you continued success at Jackson State.

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