Educational leaders speak at Jackson Rotary Club meeting

JACKSON, Tenn. — One organization provides educators the platform to discuss education and literacy.

Three college board leaders sat on a panel and spoke with Jackson Old Hickory Rotary Club members while sharing their college’s success stories.

Seth Harden with Jackson State Community College stepped in for Dr. Carol Rothstein to speak on this panel.

“I always leave these things with ideas from the peers so, it’s always good. We get to connect with the University of Memphis and partnerships with them so, I’m leaving here with ideas which is always great,” said Harden.

Harden also talked about the opportunities that Jackson State has to offer for their students, such as their CTE program.

Along with Harden, Derriell Springfield with Western Governors University says that recruitment for this university improved during, and now after the pandemic.

“I think WGU does a really good job of recruiting students and meeting them right where they are. So, there is a lot of focus on this workforce learning. As I mentioned, a lot of things we have in the pipeline so that we can actually, in the future, give students credit for things that they’re doing in the workforce,” said Springfield.

Rick Bloomer with the University of Memphis and UofM Lambuth shared some updates regarding both campuses.

“This R1 status denotes us as the highest research activities school. So it’s only three R1 institutions in the State of Tennessee, University of Memphis, Vanderbilt, and UT Knoxville, and we’re one of those three. In the United States there’s roughly about 140 R1 institutions,” said Bloomer.

For students enrolled at University of Memphis at Lambuth there will be a new program offered in fall of 2026, which is a need in West Tennessee.

“We will be starting a new doctor of physical therapy program at the Lambuth campus in Jackson, Tennessee. We will enroll 40 individuals per cohort and we will have a total of three cohorts,” said Bloomer.

These educators all agree that the best ways for students to prepare for college are to learn time management, ask for help, and work on literacy comprehension.

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