Jackson State Community College one of 11 colleges selected for student success initiative

Jackson State Community College is working on the implementation of a pilot plan as part of the Reimagining The Community College Experience program. The RCCE is an initiative through the Tennessee Board of Regents with the goal of improving student success by making the exploration of many careers available to them, as well as career advising, and the opportunity to achieve a workforce-focused certificate in their first semester. 

The schools participating in this Tennessee Board of Regents program were asked to design and submit proposals for how they would work to achieve the goals stated above within the outline of a concept paper provided by the Board’s Office of Policy and Strategy. Ten colleges in addition to Jackson State Community College submitted proposals and Jackson State’s was approved, alongside Walters State, Southwest Tennessee, and Pellissippi State.

Chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents, Flora W. Tydings, was quoted in a press release about the selected schools, saying, “The four proposals selected were bold, comprehensive and best captured the ideas and pillars presented in the concept paper, and each had a thorough and robust approach to implementing the main elements.”

Within this academic year, Jackson State Community College is working on the details and implementation of their pilot program before it begins for students in the Fall 2023 semester. The school will have three years in which to show that its plan is succeeding in improving student outcomes, at which time the Board of Regents will evaluate to determine if it will implement the program more broadly. The Board of Regents is awarding all 11 selected schools $2.2 million in grant money to assist with funding each school’s plans.

Jackson State Community College President Dr. George Pimentel was also quoted in the press release as saying, “Thinking outside-of-the-box is something I encourage daily here at Jackson State. Every idea has potential to make progress and I can say that there have been some intriguing ideas presented over the years to take the college to the next level. This funding will allow us to explore those ideas, put them into practice, and make an impact in the lives and careers of our students.”

Jackson State’s pilot plan includes a partnership with American Job Center to help students look into their career interest, front loading the first semester or year of a student’s classes into “career clusters” that will lead them into a workforce-focused certificate so that all first time freshmen will have a certificate by the end of their first year. There will also be a redesign of other courses. 

Dr. Jennifer Lopes, Vice President of Academic Affairs, spoke about this strategy, saying, “Knowing the students and the community we serve as a college, we went back to the drawing board asking ourselves ‘how can we better serve every student that walks through our doors?’ which set the foundation of developing our plan. This plan gives students the ability to excel during and after their college career. We want them to enjoy the program they’re going into sooner, rather than later, and ultimately, reinforce their classes with certificates so they can work right away.”

The Reimagining the Community College Experience program as well as the concept paper and more information can be found at the Tennessee Board of Regents website.

More information about Jackson State Community College can be found at the school’s website.