Alumni Accomplishment-Myverick Garcia

Photo by Ryan Moore

 Congratulations!  to JCJC 2010 graduate, Myverick Garcia as the new Miss Mississippi USA! The biological science major took 1st runner-up honors and earned Miss Congeniality and Most Photogenic honors in last year's competition but she came home with the crown this year.  Thirty ladies were vying for the crown over the November 4-6 weekend competition in Tunica, Miss.  

  Myverick said she was thinking, when they called her name as the winner, "This will be great on my resume...I can audition for a Disney character; I'M GOING TO DINEYWORLD!"

  Pageant officials quickly reminded Myverick she has to compete in the Miss USA pageant first!

  She added, "Last year everything went right. This year nothing went right.  I was just hoping for top ten. I think I was more excited about my pageant roommate, Regan Looser-Miss Rankin County, being a finalist, that I could have picked her up when we hugged!  She was first runner-up."

   The Hattiesburg native will be competing in the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas, June 2012. If she should win that competition she will go on to represent the United States in the Miss Universe pageant.

  Myverick is currently on track to graduate from USM and is planning a career in dentistry. The Miss Dixieland contestant is a dental assistant at Dr. Lake Garner's office in Ellisville.   

Alumni-Accomplishment David Lowery

  Congratulations!  to Dr. David Lowery, a JCJC English instructor and JCJC graduate.  He has recently collaborated with Dr. Jalynn Roberts from William Carey and Dr. Jessica Roberts from USM, on the published document, "Alternate Route and Traditionally-trained Teachers' Perceptions of Teaching Preparation Programs." Their research has been published in The Journal of Case Studies in Education. 

   Lowery explains, "The purpose of the article was to evaluate different methods of teacher training.  Traditionally-trained teachers generally get a degree in their subject area or elementary education, and they take education courses and student-teach as part of their undergraduate degree.  Alternate route teachers are those who decide to teach after they have finished their degrees.  They normally do not have any education background;just a subject-area degree.  Within the first couple of years of teaching, they have to go back to school to take specific education courses in order to get their licenses renewed.  The article sought to look at both sides of teaching preparation by doing a qualitative analysis of interviewees who were alternate route or traditionally-trained by using a self-created questionnaire.  We then compared the two groups to note any similarities and differences in their ideas.  Overwhelmingly, we found that both groups thought that more time was needed in the classroom before becoming a teacher."

 Hattiesburg's newest author is a JCJC and USM alumnus.  Congratulations!  to David McRaney, as his new book, "You Are Not So Smart" has soared to the top of the charts.

  The 2004 Jones graduate and 2007 graduate of The University of Southern Mississippi, is currently the Director of New Media at WDAM-TV and has found time to take a blog and turn it into a book.  To read the full story, click on the link:

"You Are Not So Smart".

  Air Force Captain Chris Sanders, who attended JCJC his freshman year of college in 2001-02, is among those giving Afghans the opportunity to succeed, as the Wake Forrest University Alumni newsletter reports.  The military lawyer and '08 graduate from Wake Forrest was based in a Minot, North Dakota AFB before being deployed to Afghanistan in May.  His mother, Marsha Sanders is the JCJC Pharmacy Technology lead instructor and is proud of what her son has been able to accomplish in this war-torn area.  To read the complete story, click on: Chris Sanders helping in Afghanistan

Thanks to the Office of Communications and Public Relations at Wake Forrest University for use of this story.

Bobcat Club & Basketball

  The JCJC Alumni Association is inviting you to join the Bobcat Club, which is the official Booster Club for JCJC Athletics.  Click Bobcat Club Application to sign up to be a member.

  We will have a have a special Tailgating Times during Basketball season. See you there!

Fine Arts-Christmas with the Arts

 *This month's art show in the Eula Bass-Lewis art gallery at JCJC features the artwork of alumna, Amy Walters. The art show is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. through 3 p.m., and Fridays, 8 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.
  

*Christmas with the Arts will be on Friday, December 2, at 7 p.m.  Bring in the holidays with Jones in grand fashion!  Read  JCJC Christmas with the Arts for more details.