Category Archives: Education

IHL Commish Emphasizes the Need for MS’s Future Success: More College Grads

IHL Commish Emphasizes the Need for MS’s Future Success: More College Grads

COLUMBUS – Info courtesy of the Dispatch

Glenn Boyce – IHL commissioner (courtesy photo)

Glenn Boyce, commissioner of Mississippi’s Institutions of Higher Learning, recently spoke to the Rotary Club about what he feels is needed for the state to continue its success in business going forward: Namely, getting people into college – and more importantly – seeing them through to graduation.

“Mississippi’s future economic growth is post-secondary training,” Boyce said. “The simple truth is that if we don’t get Mississippians through college with a degree, our economic growth is going to stagnate. By 2020 — that’s just three years from now — studies show that 65 percent of all new jobs will require a post-second degree or specialized training.”
Educating residents is one thing, though. Keeping them is another important issue, Boyce said.

He pointed out that students in Mississippi have been making great strides in recent years in terms of both education in general and the college graduation rate, but that we still lag far behind the national average. He also spoke about the need to provide viable work opportunities for new graduates in-state: “You hear a lot about what’s called ‘The Brain Drain’ in Mississippi,” he said. “It’s disturbing. We’re losing as many as 50 percent of our graduates to other states. It’s not because they don’t love Mississippi. It’s because there aren’t opportunities for them here. If they have the opportunities, they will stay. In fact, we know that Mississippians come back to the state at a high rate when opportunities arise.”

Fortunately, things are looking up – step by step. “Thanks to the (IHL) board, we’re starting two bio-medical engineering programs at Mississippi State and Ole Miss,” Boyce said. “We want to create a wave of engineers specially trained for the bio-medical industry and then go after those companies. But we have to create the labor pool of qualified workers before we can go after those companies. We can’t bring in the companies and then train workers.”

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Insitu Visits MSU in Search of Talent

Insitu Visits MSU in Search of Talent

 

The Dispatch – Starkville, MS

Executives from Boeing subsidiary Insitu were in town recently, following up on last year’s work towards establishing a foothold for their aircraft in the Golden Triangle area. They are currently seeking candidates to fill at least two “high-skill” positions within their company, along with a possible internship, and they have chosen MSU’s recent job fair as the best place to start looking. Mississippi State is the lead university in the Federal Aviation Administration’s Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE) program. The university is also an FAA Center of Excellence.

Insitu leadership Darcy Davidson, Benjamin Tarkany, Charlton Evans, and Jon Damush meet with the local media at Mississippi State University Tuesday afternoon. The Boeing subsidiary that works with unmanned aerial systems is opening a location at the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park in Starkville. Photo by: Deanna Robinson/Dispatch Staff

Benjamin Tarkany coordinates talent acquisition at Insitu.  “We have established a vision of what we want to do with the office,” he said. “At first it was more (looking at) what are the capabilities in the area, and we’ve aligned what we can do project-wise with the talent pool here and what we think we can realistically bring to sit out of this office and see benefit from it . . . We’re engaging candidates here locally and we’re also hoping to bolster our applicants by being here and present,” he later added.

Insitu Vice President and General Manager Jon Damush said,  “The challenge in that is that you might be able to find a place that has conducive airspace, but most of the time conducive airspace is not co-located with any kind of infrastructure or human resources capacity, let alone an academic capacity . . .When we became aware of what was happening at Mississippi State with the ASSURE program and economic development efforts that are going on here, to us it looked like the perfect alignment of factors.”

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Joe Max Higgins Helps Golden Triangle to Make a Great Impression

Joe Max Higgins Helps Golden Triangle to Make a Great Impression

“Business Facilities” magazine did a great article following up on CBS’ coverage of our own Joe Max Higgins not too long ago, highlighting his zeal and efforts in bringing manufacturing plants and jobs to our area. Higgins has been working tirelessly for many years to help revitalize our area — and that’s Good for Business!


Excerpt:

Thanks to an interview on last Sunday’s 60 Minutes broadcast on CBS, the economic development community has a new mega-star, and his name is Joe Max Higgins. Higgins is Economic Development director for Mississippi’s Golden Triangle.

As revealed during his star turn on 60 Minutes, Higgins is a project-building dynamo. Since he arrived in the Golden Triangle in 2003, Joe Max has turned a rural stretch of the Magnolia State into one of the hottest high-growth locations you can find anywhere. If you didn’t watch Sunday’s show, we encourage you to check it out.

Here are some highlights:

Under Joe Max Higgin’s leadership, the area has attracted $6 billion in new investments. Unemployment in the Golden Triangle is now 6 percent and falling fast.

Beginning in the 1990s, the Golden Triangle began suffering an exodus of manufacturing jobs in its primary industries of textiles, toys and tubing, with a majority of the estimated 12,000 jobs it lost leaving for overseas locations. Since Higgins arrived, more than half of these jobs have been replaced. According to Joe Max, the influx of 6,000 new manufacturing jobs to the tri-county region was driven by companies who had offshored production coming to the realization that they could produce their goods and get them to market from plants in Mississippi cheaper than by shipping them to the U.S. from overseas plants.

Joe Max’s in-your-face approach has landed some killer deals for the Golden Triangle, including a Steel Dynamics plant that is one of the most advanced steel mills in the nation.

Higgins’ bulldog tenacity is applied to state and county officials as well as corporate site selectors. He’s succeeded in convincing them to pony up more than half a billion in incentives and tax breaks to grease the wheels of dealmaking in the Golden Triangle.

Higgins told 60 Minutes that when he arrived in the Golden Triangle the area was “paralyzed” by poverty. But he saw some golden assets that could form a foundation for solid growth, including an airport, railways and waterways that connect the area to the Gulf Coast in the south and the Great Lakes in the north.

Higgins told the locals to shake off what he called “a losing attitude” and realize they had the assets to make the Triangle “big and strong and fast.”

Bulldog indeed. You’ve got our full attention Joe Max, and we look forward to keeping everyone up to date on the great progress being made in Mississippi’s Golden Triangle.

 

Click this link to view the full article

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Business and Higher Education in MS Working Hand in Hand

Business and Higher Education in MS Working Hand in Hand

January 19, 2017

Press Release, MS State (link below)

More than 95 percent of jobs created during the recovery have gone to workers with at least some college education, while those with a high school diploma or less are being left behind, according to America’s Divided Recovery: College Haves and Have-Nots, a recent report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

Understanding the crucial link between higher education and economic development, the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning and the Mississippi Development Authority have worked together for decades to leverage higher education assets to attract business and industry to Mississippi. The two entities formalized this partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Glenn McCullough Jr., Executive Director of the Mississippi Development Authority, Dr. Douglas W. Rouse, President of the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning and Dr. Glenn Boyce, Commissioner of Higher Education, at a Board of Trustees meeting held Thursday [Jan. 19] in Jackson.

In collaboration with Mississippi’s eight public universities, the Board of Trustees and MDA will showcase Mississippi to companies that will create jobs and invest capital.

“Mississippi’s public universities are a strategic advantage in community and economic development so MDA is pleased to formally recognize our partnership with the Institutions of Higher Learning to provide new career opportunities for Mississippians,” McCullough said. “Working together, MDA and the IHL will aggressively leverage the assets we share to accelerate economic opportunity for Mississippians throughout the state.”

Dr. Glenn Boyce, Commissioner of Higher Education; Dr. Douglas W. Rouse, President, Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning; and Glenn McCullough, Jr., Executive Director, Mississippi Development Authority. Photo: MS State

As outlined in the MOU, the expected outcomes include:

— Increased pipeline of companies to consider Mississippi for expansion and growth.

— Increased number of corporate contacts and project leads for MDA.

— Increased opportunities for corporate entities and Mississippi’s public universities to support one another.

— Defined and mapped catalog of the respective economic development strengths of Mississippi’s public universities.

— Increased business growth across the state.

— Stabilization and growth of jobs in defined sectors.

“Working together, our university system and the state’s economic development engine can build on our collective strengths for the benefit of the state,” Boyce said. “This Memorandum of Understanding better defines our roles and efforts, enabling the partnership to become a force multiplier for the state’s economy.”

Some of the planned efforts include shared marketing messages, joint outreach to strategic clients and business leaders and identifying and supporting shared legislative priorities. Each organization will designate a representative to serve as a point of contact and liaison for the effort who will support the goals of the MOU.

In addition to the MOU signing, another initiative was announced at the ceremony. This initiative is an online tool designed to help recent and soon-to-be graduates find jobs in the state, www.msgradjobs.com. Set to complete the pilot phase and begin statewide implementation soon, the site allows students to receive email alerts when jobs in their desired career tracks become available.

The online tool was conceived by Mark Henry, Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Employment Services. Spearheaded by MDES, the site was developed by the National Strategic Planning & Analysis Research Center (NSPARC) at Mississippi State University and is managed by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security. The career centers at the universities assist MDES in informing students about how to create a profile and use the site.

“This website is an important tool to help our students transition into the workforce and keep our graduates in the state,” Boyce said. “I’m not sure there has ever been a better communicative tool for keeping students up-to-date on job openings.”

MDA, IHL and the universities also plan to hold a semi-annual strategic conversation to align strategies and goals and produce a joint annual summary report of the outcomes and results of their collaborative work.

 

Click here to see original article: MS State Press Release

 

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MSU and Ole Miss Rank Highly in National Online MBA Poll

MSU and Ole Miss Rank Highly in National Online MBA Poll

WTVA brings us great news –  both Ole Miss and Mississippi State University got excellent scores in a nationwide study of online Master of Business Administration degree programs conducted by US News & World Report. The state is looking better and better for prospective businessmen and women! And THAT’s Good for Business!

Here is their press release:

(WTVA) – Two Mississippi universities have been ranked high when it comes to earning an MBA online.

U.S. News & World Report tied Ole Miss at number 21 nationally when it comes to earning a Master of Business Administration online and Mississippi State University tied at number 18.

According to the report, earning a Master’s degree in business adminstration is one of the most popular and growing graduate programs a person can take.

The report ranked schools using five criteria: student engagement, admissions selectivity, peer reputation, faculty credentials and training, and student services and technology.

To see the full list, click this link.

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Ground Broken on EMCC’s $42mil Communiversity Facility

By Golden Triangle Development LINK

GOLDEN TRIANGLE – On Friday morning, December 9, local, state and federal agencies gathered to break ground on the Golden Triangle’s newest workforce development project, The Communiversity.

EMCC Communiversity Groundbreaking. Courtesy The GTR LINK

EMCC Communiversity Groundbreaking. Courtesy The GTR LINK

A $42+ million dollar project, the facility will be East Mississippi Community College’s state-of-the-art workforce technical training facility at the Golden Triangle Campus. Community groups began working on the project in December 2013. Funding for the project is sourced from state bonds ($18M), the Appalachian Regional Commission ($10.7M), local community funds from Clay, Lowndes and Oktibbeha Counties ($13.5) and EMCC ($400K).

The new facility includes an interactive, museum style lobby and 21 high bay learning areas, a manufacturing display venue, classrooms and laboratories, and incubator bays for new start-ups. The 16 classroom spaces will be equipped with the latest in A/V technology. The facility will also include office, conference, and food service collaboration spaces for EMCC and other entities. The project consists of 145,638 square feet.

“Federal, state, and local agencies have come together to invest in the workforce here in east Mississippi and we could not be more pleased,” said Dr. Thomas Huebner, East Mississippi Community College President. “This project is a game changer in workforce education and development and we are excited about the opportunities it represents for the communities we serve.”

Both non-credit workforce classes and career technical programs leading to the Associate of Applied Science Degree will be offered.  Construction is under way and is scheduled to be completed in 2018.

“This facility will put the Golden Triangle on the cutting edge of workforce training,” said Joe Max Higgins, Jr., CEO of the Golden Triangle Development LINK. “Clay, Lowndes and Oktibbeha counties should be commended for investing in their citizens. The Communiversity will be a massive asset to industrial recruitment and our existing industries.”

Read the full press release here: http://www.eastms.edu/news/Pages/communiversity-groundbreaking.aspx

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Palmer Home Teens Working Hard to Help Nonprofit

Palmer Home Teens Working Hard to Help Nonprofit

Teens from Palmer Home for Children are working hard to support their home and others like it, while learning real-world skills in customer service, in order to prepare them for life as young adults. And that’s Good for Business!

Courtesy of The Dispatch

palmer-homeTeenage residents of Columbus’ Palmer Home for Children have been helping fans on MSU game day to find parking at Cadence Bank, right across the street from The Mill. The teens collect the $20 parking fees – all of which goes to the Palmer Home locations in Columbus and Hernando, as well as a partner location in Tennessee. In addition to helping them to raise much-needed funding, it also raises awareness of the fact that the children’s homes even exist. The local Palmer Home provides a home, food, clothing, and education for about 112 local children who might not otherwise have had ready access to any of those things.

Tom Green, director of operations and facilities at Palmer Home, supervises the children as they provide the service. “The objective is to get these young (people) in a different social environment, let them present themselves, let them talk to the patrons of the parking lot,” Green said. “But, most important, it teaches them life skills of engaging with people, making change and giving instructions.”

Marketing director Kellum Kim said that the Palmer Parking project, which began during the 2014 season, has raised about $30,000 in that time, or about $2,500 per game.
“It’s important for them to learn just that face-to-face interaction in a business setting,” Kim said. “A lot of our kids do have after-school jobs or volunteer in other capacities, so it’s not just like they’re here on our campus never socializing with the outside world. But a lot of their jobs are here on our campus.”

For more info and the full article, click here: http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=53930

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MUW Adds New Member to its Athletic Staff

MUW Adds New Member to its Athletic Staff

The W, which has been beefing up its athletics program recently, just added a new shining star to their pool of talented individuals. Brooke Beasley was both a star athlete, and a star student during her time at Alabama State. She will now use her backgrounds in athletics, accounting, and business to help The W reach even greater heights. She and the school are – without a doubt – good for Columbus, and that’s Good for Business!

MUW – PRESS RELEASE

Columbus, Miss. – W Athletics has named Brooke Beasley as the assistant director of athletics.

Brooke Beaasley, Athletic Director at The W (courtesy photo)

Brooke Beasley, Athletic Director at The W (courtesy photo)

“We are very fortunate to have Brooke join our staff.  Her vast experience working in the business department for athletics at Alabama State and her most recent work in financial aid compliance will be a tremendous asset to our growing staff,” said Jason Trufant.  “A former standout volleyball student-athlete at Alabama State University, Brooke will also assist our women’s volleyball program and head coach Roxanne Hernandez.”

Prior to joining The W, Beasley worked as a compliance specialist at Wallace State Community College where she performed Title IV federal financial aid calculations, monitored compliance with federal and state requirements and assisted students with the day-to-day financial aid process.

“I am excited by the opportunity that The W presents. Reviving an athletics program is a huge undertaking, but it is also very exciting to reestablish something that is such an important part campus,” said Beasley. “The W already has such a rich history, and reestablishing the athletic program is one of those history making moments. Anyone would be blessed to be a part of this amazing opportunity.”

Formerly at Alabama State University, Beasley served as athletics business manager which included reporting monthly and annual expenses forecast and assisting with ticket distribution, game day operations and NCAA compliance.

As a Division I student athlete, Beasley was captain of the Lady Hornet Volleyball team at Alabama State University and named 2012 Southwestern Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year, two-time Southwestern Athletic Conference Champion and Capital One Academic All-District team for two consecutive seasons. As a volleyball player at Wallace State, Beasley was selected for the 2011 ACCC/Region 22 Tournament MVP and 1st team All-Region.

She holds a master of accountancy and bachelor of science in accounting from Alabama State University, where she graduated with a 4.0.

Beasley officially started her role as assistant athletics director on Oct. 24.

http://www.muw.edu/news/3910-beasley-joins-w-athletics-as-assistant-director-of-athletics-2

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MSU Student Volunteers Come Together to Help Feed Those in Need

MSU Student Volunteers Come Together to Help Feed Those in Need

STARKVILLE, MS (Sourced from Starkville Daily News, WCBI) –

ms stateRoughly a hundred MSU student volunteers recently joined forces to pack and ship five thousand meals to be sent out to hungry families in Mississippi and beyond, as part of a project to help raise awareness of food insecurity.The Oxfam Hunger Banquet model was used for their pre-work meal, where students were divided up into several groups meant to proportionally represent various “income levels” and what families at those levels might find themselves eating. The smallest group by far – those randomly chosen as the “high income” group, sat down at the tables for a multi-course meal with real plates and silverware; the largest two groups – the “low income” ones, sat on the floor with paper plates, plastic forks, a mound of mashed potatoes – and precious little else. Students reportedly ate relatively little, many of them never having previously known just how bad many families in need really have it.

Click the links below for the full articles and more info:

http://www.starkvilledailynews.com/content/msu-raises-awareness-food-insecurity-miss-beyond

http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=53727

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EMCC Playing Host to LAN Party and Gaming Competition This Friday

EMCC Playing Host to LAN Party and Gaming Competition This Friday

MAYHEW

Information courtesy of the Dispatch

East Mississippi Community College (EMCC) will be holding a LAN party and video game competition this Friday at their Golden Triangle Campus outside of Columbus. IT’s scheduled for 6 PM to Midnight, and the entry fee is $5. Pizza, chips, soda, and cookies will be provided for an extra $5. Entrants of all ages are welcome, though children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult, who must sign a release form. Attendees are encouraged to bring any online-capable computer or video game systems with them, to take part in the festivities; some equipment will also be made available on-site.emcc-logo

EMCC last held such an event in March, and ninety players showed up. Information Systems Technology instructor Brandon Sesser hopes that even more folks show up this time:  “Everyone is invited to come out and game their hearts out and network with like-minded individuals,” he said. He went on to say that you never know what the other players might wish to play. It could be anything from online chess to the latest and greatest action-packed online games or long-forgotten classics.

There will also be a competition held, with the winner taking home their choice of a small EMCC Information Systems Technology program scholarship or cold, hard cash. Second place will will a Walmart gift card, and an AMazon gift card will be given away as a door prize. Players will test their skills in Mario Kart, Team Fortress, and Super Smash Bros. games, in each of three rounds. “By having them compete in different venues, it shows who the best all-around gamers are and not just who is the best on a console or who is best on a PC,” Sesser said.

Preregistration is encouraged but not required. To preregister, contact Sesser at [email protected] or via Facebook at the “AITP (EMCC)” page.

Read the full article here: http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=52498

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