Mississippi College Begins 186th Academic Year

Mississippi College sophomores Kendall Avery, 19, of Memphis and Ellie Sills, 19, of Vicksburg. Both are music education majors.

Kendall Avery considered going to college in Tennessee, but that suddenly changed when the undergraduate from Memphis visited Mississippi College.

“I walked on the Clinton campus and God told me where I should be,” said Avery, a 19-year-old MC sophomore. A music education major, she ruled out schools like the University of Memphis and Union University in Jackson, Tenn. to join the MC family. “I always see people here I know. I love it,” Avery said as she walked to College Street with classmate Ellie Sills of Vicksburg Monday morning.

With day classes to begin Wednesday August 24^th, students like Avery are showing up on the Clinton campus in big numbers to buy textbooks, pick up car decals, make new friends and take part in a blitz of Welcome Week activities. Others were busy touring the MC campus that’s seen its share of construction projects over the summer months, including a new front entrance for the Robinson-Hale football stadium.

The Welcome Week lineup includes Monday’s picnic with President Lee Royce at the Ross Barnett Reservoir, Tuesday’s Clinton block party on the brick streets of Olde Towne, and a Mississippi Braves game at Trustmark Park Friday evening. Rounding out the to-do list will be a softball tournament, Thursday’s concert & dinner, Jackson area service projects, a Baptist Student Union party and a trip to the Indian Lanes bowling alley.

At the Christian university, officials predict this fall’s enrollment numbers will exceed the record 5,019 students signing up for classes a year ago. Residence halls are packed again, the bookstore is crowded, and finding campus parking spaces can be a challenge at times. In late August, nearly 150 MC Choctaws football players are practicing for the “Backyard Brawl” to open the 2011 season against rival Millsaps in Clinton on September 3.

No matter what’s their hometown or their academic field, students say are happy they selected Mississippi College.

“I came to one of the best music programs in the Southeast,” says Thomas Bonner, 18, a sophomore from Pineville, La. “I also like the size,” added the music education major. In the long run, Bonner plans to become a high school music teacher and later pursue his doctorate in music. Being a college student in the capital city area was also a big selling point for the Louisiana resident. “There’s plenty to do in Jackson.”

MC’s strong nursing program attracted Brittany Ransom of Brandon. A 20-year-old Brandon High graduate who has diabetes, the MC junior says her desire to help other people drew her to the nursing profession.

Others like Colby Linn, a freshman from McGehee, Arkansas, say a Mississippi College family tradition played a role in his decision to enroll here. Colby, who celebrates his 20^th birthday Tuesday, says his great uncle attended MC in the early part of the 20^th Century and became a pastor.

Having close friends from Arkansas attending MC is another plus, Linn said.

Freshman Kara Beth Holt, 18, of McGehee, Ark., says she first visited the Christian university to see her older brother play on the Choctaws football team. After making a number of three-hour trips to Clinton to see the gridiron action, she did a little more research on Mississippi College, and felt it was the right place for her.

“So far, there’s plenty to do to keep you busy,” said Holt as the future nursing major joined fellow freshmen at the campus cafeteria for breakfast Monday morning.

Another MC newcomer, Skyler Myers, 24, of Philadelphia, Mississippi, said there were a couple of reasons driving his decision to attend the Baptist-affiliated institution. The university’s Christian environment and its biology program are the two biggest factors, he said. The Meridian Community College transfer student hopes to attend dental school, and believes his Mississippi College education will get him prepared.

Getting MC’s more than 500 faculty and staff members ready for the university’s 186h academic year, President Lee Royce focused on “The Meaning of Life and the Christian University’’ in his address Friday morning at Swor Auditorium.

“We can help each other and our students find meaning and purpose in life as we engage and integrate the love of God and love of man into our thoughts, attitudes and work,” Royce said. “We can allow the love of God and the love of man to influence our work and life both in and out of the classroom whatever jobs we pursue.”

In essence, Royce said, “we can obey Christ’s two great commandments calling us to love God and to love our fellow man, and in that continuing work of obedience under the influence of God’s Spirit, come to know more about the meaning and purpose of life.”

At Friday’s program, MC leaders also welcomed the university’s new faculty and staff members and saluted a number of retired professors and administrators returning to the Clinton campus for fellowship time and a campus-wide luncheon following the 90-minute ceremonies.