SPRING 2016

QUARTERLY

Community colleges like SouthArk afford stu-dents the opportunity to start locally and go

anywhere through the power of university transfer. Business student Brittney Haynes of El Dorado is doing just that.

Haynes enrolled at SouthArk after graduation from El Dorado High School in the fall of 2014. With a love for El Dorado and advice from friends already attend-ing universities, Haynes felt comfortable choosing SouthArk for its smaller class sizes and welcoming atmosphere.

“I had a lot of friends who had graduated before me and actually had gone to different colleges. They all told me to stay home at least one semester and get used to college life,” Haynes said. “It is a big differ-ence from high school.”

Haynes said that she hasn’t learned only in the classroom at SouthArk, but life skills outside of it. Ul-timately it will make her a better-prepared university student when she graduates with an associate’s degree in business, which she is on track to do this fall.

Initially she was drawn to physical therapy as a career, but decided instead that would rather run a health-care business than personally provide patient care. Ultimately she wants to own her own PT center.

Noting that she has worked for several dif-ferent businesses in her young life, Haynes said that entrepreneurship “is something that I have a love for.”

“You learn a lot of life skills in business cours-es,” she said. “You learn

STUDENT FEATURE: BRITTNEY HAYNES

On her way

Brittney Haynes came to SouthArk with the intentions of graduating, then transferring.

to do your journals and all your business records that you have to do. It is better for you to know how to do it than just handing it off to someone who gets paid to do it.”

She said that her favorite thing about SouthArk is the desire that the instructors have to teach on an indi-vidual level.

“The teachers at SouthArk actually want to help you learn and want to see you graduate,” she said.

Haynes plans to take all of her university courses online after graduating from SouthArk. She intends to focus on business management and human resources when she transfers. She said that she iis grateful for the help SouthArk will give her not only in preparing her academically for the university, but also for giving her assistance in applying there.

Haynes’ relationship with SouthArk will continue after transferring. She said that she still will be on campus using proctors in the testing center, plus using the library.

NEWS & NOTESFROM FEBRUARY, MARCH AND APRIL

SOUTHARK FOUNDATION

The biennial An Evening With Stars fundraising event was held on April 2 and rec-ognized Friend of the College First Financial Bank and Dis-tinguished Alumni Jim Tucker and Regina Lambert. It also in-cluded live music and dancing.

The foundation participated in ArkansasGives on April 7, a 12-hour statewide fundraising effort for not-for-profit organi-zations of all kinds.

The annual Donor-Scholar Luncheon was held in late April, giving scholarship recip-ients the opportunity to meet donors who funded them.

The Career Pathways program learned in April that it was tied for the highest percentage (82) of em-ployed graduates in 2014-2015.

The Academic and Career Achievement Program was ap-proved as a comprehensive transi-tion and postsecondary program in April, becoming the first program in the State of Arkansas to gain this status.

Annual African-American Family and Friends Day activi-ties were held in February, one of several activities that were part of the college’s observation of Black History Month.

Gardening expert and TV show host P. Allen Smith was the second speaker in the 10th annual Lec-ture Series in March.

Upward Bound held GospelFest VIII, a concert that acts as a fund-raiser for the program, in March.

The financial aid office held Dollars for Scholars Day on the West Campus on March 13, an outreach effort intended to help students apply for federal student aid successfully.

Textbook author Dr. John Suchocki spoke to physical-science students as part of a national tour in March. He is the co-author of the class’ book “Conceptual Physical Science.”

The marketing and commu-nications department received two national awards in March for college promotional videos. The National Council of Marketing and

Public Relations selected South-Ark’s general promotional video as the best in the country in 2015. SouthArk’s summer promotional video took third place in its cate-gory.

In late March U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman toured the college.

SouthArk hosted the first-ever South Arkansas Welding Skills Competition in March, which pitted secondary technical center welders from several different schools against each other. South-Ark won the competition. In April the welding program put another feather in its cap by taking home three awards at the state SkillsUSA Competition.

The Alpha Gamma Iota Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa inducted 24 new members at a ceremony in April.

The Semi-Annual Student Recogntion Ceremony was held on April 21.

High-school students were recognized for their contributions to the annual literary magazine Writers Ink on April 24. A contest that goes along with the magazine provides cash awards to selected winners.

Manufacturing Exploration was held on the East Campus on April 26 in an effort to introduce interested members of the public to college programs supported by the Regional Advanced Manufac-turing Partnership: Unleashing Potential grant.

Wow! Another Spring Commencement is upon

us. Graduation is a great accom-plishment in and of itself, but I am always pleased to learn of what our students go on to accomplish after graduating from SouthArk.

Many of these students graduate from our liberal-arts division with transfer degrees and certificates—that is, general-education creden-tials that by design are intended for transfer acceptance at universities. Other students complete a degree that takes them directly into the workforce, such as degrees in our health care, business, criminal justice and engineering technology fields. These students also may pur-sue further education through our 2-plus-2 articulation agreements with area universities. We often promote the abundant advantages to beginning one’s higher-educa-tion journey at SouthArk, and we say that such a step can lead to anywhere in life.

Certainly it can, and often does. Along with the many nurses, weld-ers and chemical process opera-tors, we also count chiropractors, dentists, business administrators, accountant executives and veteri-narians among our alumni. A few days ago I was told that a young

FROM THE PRESIDENT

COMING EVENTS

man who graduated from SouthArk recently was accepted into a gradu-ate-level criminal-justice program. The list goes on.

When speaking at local events, I often ask how many in the crowd have taken at least one class at SouthArk. It is always amazing and rewarding to see how many hands are raised. South Arkansas Com-munity College truly does make a difference in so many lives in our region.

The success of our students is something that we measure as our own success. We help them to develop and achieve their academic

and life goals. We share in their pride and joy. And if they choose to further their educational careers, graduate from universities (per-haps with multiple degrees) and go on to become teachers, lawyers, doctors—maybe FBI criminolo-gists—we continue to applaud their efforts.

It is such a rewarding profession to know that you have touched so many lives.

MAY2-5 Spring final exams6 Spring semester ends11 Girls Learning About Math and Science13 Spring Commencement

17 Board of Trustees meeting25 Foundation Board meeting30 Memorial Day (college closed)31 Short summer term I and long summer term begin

JUNE21 Board of Trustees meeting

JULY4 Independence Day (college closed)5 Short summer term II begins

Speaking with a group of state legislators and members of Arkansas Commu-nity Colleges, which visited our campus in March.