Willie Jackson (JSU 2010-14) of Vicksburg is a rising junior Civil Engineering Major at Jackson State University. This summer, he moved from his parents home in the Bluff City to live with his grandfather for three weeks in Jackson so he could volunteer as a math tutor for 84 students enrolled in the JSU Summer Developmental Program. He gets a ride with me to campus at 7:00 a.m. and remains until 5:00 and sometimes 6:00 p.m. tutoring those who need help in math. His explanati

on? "I love math and I love helping people." He reluctantly accepts a small food allowance for his labors but otherwise indeed volunteers without any apparent hidden agenda. He just helps others. Such benevolence from a young black man is seldom known or at least publicized. His grandfather and I enrolled at JSU about the same time back in the 1960s. His parents live and work in Vicksburg. Somewhere down the line, family values were instilled that manifest themselves in this young man. He is an unselfish oasis in a desert of selfishness. Better yet, he is lending a hand to high school graduates in the nine-week Summer Developmental Program process of qualifying to attend a Mississippi public university (Mostly JSU) this fall. JSU is doing it again, Challenging Minds and Changing Lives!And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'"
(Matthew 25.35-40)

Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk

Pleshette Smith not only Talks the Talk,she Walks the Walk. The die-hard Jackson State University alumna visited with young women enrolled in the JSU Summer Developmental Program and left her number and email address. She said in effect: "If you need me, or if there is anything I can do, just call me." Behind closed doors, she shared the advantages of being lady-like, being responsible, being focused, and of course being scholarly. They needed to hear this from one who's been there, done that, got the T-Shirt. That's the spirit of there being but One (1) Jackson State whether it's students, alumni , faculty staff, administration, parents, or fans, friends or supporters.

Students Who Attend Class

Students Who Attend Class Tend To Pass T-shirts produced first $1,050.21 for JSUNAA Hilliard L. Lackey Scholarship Fund this spring. New shirts go on sale Thursday, August 16, 2012. Other campuses will also carry these shirts this fall. K-12 schools are being contacted as well. Something great is in the making! Stay tuned....

Teaching College Freshmen

Teaching practices, both in high school and college, frequently help create disengaged students. High school teachers often rely too heavily on memorization and require little rigorous academic discipline all the while developing a personal relationship with the students. College freshmen expect that same supportive personal relationship with the college professor. The supportive relationship in high school between the student and the teacher is probably especially strong with the better students; thus, the better students may be especially vulnerable in the shift to the university with larger classes and less personal attention from the professor. In addition, in high school material is usually covered in class, requiring little outside reading, and testing is more frequent and lacking in demands for critical thinking. Consequently, students enter college with little understanding of what is needed, even though they think they will have to study harder when they are in college: they end up trying to do more of what they did in high school. They have not developed the reading (generally being able to learn material from class presentation rather than reading the text) and analytic skills that are demanded of them in the university.

Bette LaSere Erickson and Diane Weltner Strommer's Teaching College Freshmen. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1991, pp. 3-23.

JSU alumnus Troy Catchings gives advice to students...

Students be ready for your best year of school ever

During the summer of 2011, I was handed an opinion piece written that ran in this paper for a number of years at the beginning of that school year. It was writt

en by the late Elizabeth J. Smith, a retired educator. Local Clarksdale Municipal School District administrator Lynda Downing almost begged.........