Haslam announces TN Promise retention rates at 81 percent

JACKSON, Tenn. — Gov. Bill Haslam announced this week that 81 percent of Tennessee Promise students in the state re-enrolled this spring after finishing up the fall semester.

Jackson State Community College ranked 6th in highest number of returning students. They had around 665 Tennessee Promise students last fall, and 553 came back this semester.

“We did have an increase in FTE [full-time enrollment] because the Tennessee Promise requires students to be full time, whereas in the past we would have more that weren’t full time that would only take nine hours,” Tennessee Promise Liason at JSCC Robin Marek said.

The Tennessee Promise allows new high school graduates to attend a community college or technical school in the state for free for up to five semesters.

“I was not planning to come to college at all. I don’t come from a poor background, but we don’t have a lot of money, so the Tennessee Promise helped out a lot,” Tennessee Promise student Joshua Sanchez said.

The school has a team that focuses on helping Tennessee Promise students stay with the program by helping the students with paperwork, watching their class attendance and keeping the students on track to graduate in time.

“We also created a mentorship team that helps the ones that started in their first year coming in to make sure we are monitoring their attendance and trying to reach out,” Marek said.

JSCC said they are embracing the Tennessee Promise by creating programs to help mentor students here on the Promise to motivate them to pursue their dreams.

“I can tell that the Tennessee Promise has helped me a lot to be where I am right now and the future that I want to have,” Tennessee Promise student Celeste Hernandez said.

Dyersburg State also ranked fifth in the state for highest retention rates, and TCAT schools combined totaled at a 94.7 percent retention rate.