The Hiatus

It is an all-consuming, all-incompassing, all-hands-on-deck event on our campus.  Everyone pitches in for it.  Everyone.  Every department on campus is either represented in some way or plays a critical role in preparing for or presenting it.  Every facility is referenced or used during it.  It is truly a team effort.  It is the 2010 summer orientation program.  And now, "it" is over!  The last of four sessions finished Tuesday of this week at Meridian Community College.  Now, for about three days we can all exhale....

For the rest of the week, we are on a hiatus of sorts.  We will spend the rest of week not thinking, at all, about orientation.  Ironically enough, our post-orientation afterglow will not include recanting fun-loving antedotes about our new arrivals.  We will not speak fondly of the wide-eyed, bright-smiled, bushy-tailed freshmen who invaded our campus through late spring and all summer.  We will not share tales of how at the ninth hour MCC advisors were able to perform heroic feats by helping students create perfect fall class schedules with only a few keystrokes! We will not reflect on long lines, short treks, hot sun, and cold water bottles.

We will not reflect on our panic-stricken moments where seemingly great peril loomed because of minor technical difficulties, "brown-outs", no-shows, mis-steps, oversights, overestimations, underestimations, misdirections, mis-ques, losts, or founds.  No one will relish in the sighs of relief, smiles, the accolades, the hugs, the pats-on-the-back, the "thank-you's", the "job-well-done's", the "atta-boys" and "way-ta-go's".  We will not tally attendance, surveys, nor discuss outcomes, make projections, neither note points of improvement nor best practices.  No looking back..."We will do none of this because summer orientation is over and we are on hiatus," she said ironically.

Thank you Class of 2010!  We are excited you have chosen Meridian Community College.  Home of the Eagles!  (http://www.meridiancc.edu/) MCC is the place where you can expect us all to give you the best that we've got...

March Madness and the Final Four

Butler. West Virginia. They have clinched seats in the men's bracket. Michigan v. Tennesse and Baylor v. Duke play today. Those left standing will go to the big dance in Indianapolis and a national champion will be named later this week.  In the women's bracket, no final four yet; but we're close.  The ladies will "duke" it out the first week of April. I hear from the sports pundants that it is just maddening trying to determine who actually makes it to the dance, let alone who wins it all.  It's all a big guess, but I am just too ignorant about collegiate basketball to say more than that.  I used to be astute back in the Jordan/NC days.  But today, all I know about March Madness and the Final Four NCAA tourney is pretty much reflected in what you've just read.

These days, the terms March Madness and Final Four mean something slightly different to me.  In college recruitment, where I spend a lot of my professional concern, March Madness marks the near end of the full-court press, man-to-man coverage recruitment efforts that started  the academic year last August.  From last August to now, Meridian Community College participated in college days, career fairs, and community events all across the region.  We hosted campus events that brought prospects to our campus from all walks of life through open houses of our programs and services, job fairs, financial aid workshops, campus tours for students and their parents, local and state academic and career competitions, athletic, social, and theatrical events and etc.  We sponsored events in our community and at our local schools.   We've used all forms of print media and broadcast media to reach out to prospects and inform our community of the educational opportunities available at MCC.  We accommodated prospects who have called and visited our offices, whether they are from this part of the county or another part of the world.  We've played hard, and so August to March has been exciting!

Now, we will shift our attention (somewhat) to the Final Four.  Our Final Four marks the last four months (April through July) of an academic year where MCC begins its orientation season.  During these months, we will focus a significant amount of our time on assuring that those prospects we've met throughout the year will have everything they need to be in place at MCC, so they will be ready to register and attend fall 2010 classes.  Orientation gives students an opportunity to visit our college (on campus or online) as either first-time freshmen who are newly graduated from high school, or as Nontraditional students (adults 19 or older), or as International students, or as Honors students who are current high school seniors that have earned an ACT score of 20 or higher.

With the same level of adrenaline rush of winning an NCAA national basketball championship, we will welcome every student to our campus for the fall to usher them into a new phase of learning that promises to be as memorable as winning a national championship.   Unike the NCAA tournament, it is NOT hard to predict who is the winner when students arrive on campus each fall.

MCC is the winner.  If you are having your first college experience or have been away from us for a while, call to reserve your spot at orientation by calling us at:  601.483.8241 or 800.MCCthe1.  Let us give you the best that we've got...