Author: Mary Margaret Busby

Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives Philip Gunn served as guest speaker for a paralegal assembly on Monday, April 17 in the McGowan Workforce Building on the Holmes Community College Ridgeland Campus. Gunn is over District 56 – Hinds and Madison counties. The program was organized by Paralegal Technology program coordinator/instructor Darleen Dozier.

The Holmes Community College Ridgeland Campus received an Award of Appreciation from the Mississippi Tobacco-Free Coalition of Madison, Yazoo and Holmes Counties on Tuesday, April 11. Rochelle Culp, director of the coalition, presented the award to Ridgeland Campus Vice President Dr. Don Burnham following the Honors & Awards Program held in McGowan Workforce Training Center.

The Holmes Community College Ridgeland Campus recognized its students’ achievements and honors during the 2017 Honors Day Program held April 11 in the McGowan Center.

Ridgeland Campus student Lydia Fortenberry recently placed third in the Drawing Division at the 2017 Mississippi Community College/Junior College Art Instructor’s Association (MC/JCAIA) Student Art Competition/Exhibition. Her award-winning pastel was titled, “None Will Love the Butcher.” Fortenberry’s work and that of students from colleges across Mississippi who submitted artwork for the statewide competition are on display at East Mississippi Community College’s Golden Triangle Campus in the art gallery through April 12. An awards reception for the student artists will be held April 13 at 10 a.m.

Holmes Community College, along with the other 14 community and junior colleges in Mississippi, signed an agreement with Millsaps College to enhance the opportunities for students to transfer directly from a community college campus to the Millsaps campus in Jackson. The agreement outlines coursework that aligns with the Compass Curriculum followed by all students at Millsaps.

Alice Austin, Holmes Community College’s Ridgeland Campus assistant director for the Associate Degree Nursing (AND) program, recently earned her PhD in nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Her dissertation was titled, “African American Child and Adolescent Obesity: The Parent’s Perspective.”

Holmes Community College’s Vice President of Workforce Development Mike Blankenship recently completed his PhD in Community College Leadership through Mississippi State University after defending his dissertation, “Human resource managers’ perceptions of soft skills, involuntary employment turnover, and the efficacy of a proposed career pathway model.” Offered through the Center for Distance Education, the Community College Leadership program consists of core courses of study in leading and managing in the community college, interdisciplinary courses in a rural context and courses in research and statistics.

Registration for summer and fall classes 2017 begins April 3 for all campuses.

During their spring break, Marie Holmes and her two daughters – Monica Holmes Allen and Amanda Holmes – did something they had always wanted to do: visit Holmes Community College. Because Holmes is their family name, they had always been curious about the institution and what it was all about.

Six Holmes students represented Holmes Community College at the 2017 O.C. McDavid Journalism Conference held in conjunction with Jackson State University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies on March 30 at JSU’s Mississippi e-Center. Two members of the Growl student newspaper – Mia Jones from the Ridgeland Campus and Ethan Burton from Goodman placed in the McDavid Conference Better Newspaper Contest Student Division. Jones won second place in the Editorial Division and Burton placed third in Editorial Cartoons.