Bailey - Week One - EMCC

  Just to kick things off, I am Cory Bailey. Once my summer graduate hours are completed, I will officially be a second year master's student pursuing a degree in counselor education with an emphasis in student affairs. This summer, I am doing my practicum at East Mississippi Community College (EMCC) in Mayhew, MS. I am going to be working on a variety of projects throughout the summer; specifically, I will be working with the following two committees: Retention and Dual Enrollment/Dual Credit Improvement.

Activities:

• Met with the dual enrollment/dual credit committee and brainstormed problems. We discussed areas of improvements. (Excuse me for not being very specific on topics...we were told to keep what was discussed in the meeting, inside the meeting)
• Met with the retention committee and evaluated the problems in which a perspective student may encounter when applying to EMCC as well as the struggles or obstacles he/she may face after being admitted.
• Discussed barriers with Distance Learning and met with an ITS employee about specific improvements that could be made to the website. 
• Toured the campus and met different colleagues.

Reflection:

   As a former Itawamba Community College (ICC) student, I was excited about getting back in the realm of community college after being away for nearly five years. Since I'm not familiar with EMCC or the way in which it operates, I was a little scared as I drove to the campus on Tuesday, June 5. As I walked in and greeted my supervisor, Debi Valentine, she said, "Hi Cory, you are in for a treat today." I was excited and inquired for more details. We were about to head over to a committee meeting pertaining to the Dual Enrollment/Dual Credit Improvement project. Three hours later, we returned to her office where she defined some of the things that were covered. She apologized for such a long meeting but I assured her that I really enjoyed it. Being in student affairs has really opened my eyes to transfer students. This group of students are dealt with at MSU yearly in many forms, but I have never thought about the type of transfer student that community colleges deal with. I have always considered just the graduating high school senior. Whenever I was in school, dual enrollment was present but I am not as familiar with dual credit. It was very cool sitting in on a meeting that was discussing this population and the way in which to make their transition to a full-time student easy. We also discussed obstacles that they may face as a high school student taking classes from EMCC. It is the goal of EMCC to work on this project and construct a process or plan in which to abide when addressing dual enrollment/dual credit students.
   Thursday, we went into another meeting. This time, we were talking about retention. We evaluated a perspective student by looking at a "day in the life of" this student. We progressed from the application process to actual admittance. Apparently, some problems have risen since the spring term that made EMCC aware of some problems with Distance Learning and the admittance of students. We are trying to cope with those problems and make overall improvements to help guide students in the right direction.
   I really enjoyed my first week. I was introduced to topics that EMCC is facing today. My supervisor believes in me and my ability to think outside the box and bring a different perspective to the table. Her supportive nature is really making me feel like I will be successful this summer. I look forward to working on these teams and reporting back policies and changes that I get to be apart of enacting or proposing.