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Summer 2015 Orientation Wraps Up at Mississippi College


Hunter Haws of Euless, Texas

Driving 17 hours from his home in Delta, Pennsylvania, Alex Caldwell enjoyed his summer journey to Mississippi College.

His destination was MC’s July 9-10 freshmen orientation. And the long drive from his tiny community near the Maryland border was worth it.

After two days of meeting leaders like President Lee Royce, making new friends, and learning more about Mississippi College’s academic programs, the 19-year-old believes he’s at the right place.

“I loved orientation,” Alex said as summer sessions ended Friday for more than 170 freshmen from the Southeast and across the nation. “I got to meet many new people.”

Alex spotted one pretty familiar face in the crowd. His older brother, Will Caldwell, is an MC senior and nursing major on the Clinton campus.

“It’s really neat to have my brother here,” Will Caldwell said. “It’s nice to have part of the family at MC.”

Alex brings other MC family connections. Joining him on the Clinton campus was his mother, Balbina Caldwell. She attended Mississippi College for three years until her husband deployed to Japan in 1992. Alex’s dad, Clay Caldwell, is a 1992 MC Law School graduate.

A graduate of Harford Christian School in Maryland, Alex says family ties to Mississippi College explain only part of his decision to become an MC Choctaw.

“Sealing the deal was MC’s new electrical engineering program,” Alex Caldwell says. He became interested in robotics as a 5th grader and will join the university’s first electrical engineering class in late August.

Living in small-town Delta, Pennsylvania (population 741) made Clinton, Mississippi an attractive place for Alex to go to college.

Other freshmen experienced life at the Baptist-affiliated university as sizzling temperatures soared into the mid-90s.

“It feels like family,” says MC Choctaws football player Hezekiah Woods, 18, of Enterprise, Alabama. “That’s important when looking for a school.”

A running back on the Enterprise Wildcats team last season, the kinesiology major looks forward to facing Gulf South Conference football squads in NCAA Division II ranks this fall.

A graduate of Covenant Christian Academy in Colleyville, Texas, freshman Hunter Haws, 18, won’t go far to find friends on the Clinton campus.

Three other Covenant Christian Academy grads in 2015 will join the marketing major as freshmen: Daisy Rogers, Josh Clark and Lydia McCollum.

Orientation isn’t just for students. There were opportunities for 200-plus parents to tour the campus, shop at the bookstore in Olde Towne, and get to know faculty and staff. Before beginning their 6-hour drive home to Euless, Texas, Hunter’s parents, Terri and Chris Haws, raved about their visit. “Everybody the parents were dealing with were very warm,” Chris Haws said. “It’s too good to be true.”

Family ties to MC made a difference for freshman Sarah Malone, 18, of Huntsville, Alabama. Her mom, Lea Ann Malone is a 1990 MC graduate who grew up in Forest. A Westminster Christian Academy graduate, the future teacher said she wanted to stay in a Christian environment.

MC was the best choice for freshman Richard Ingram. The Shreveport, Louisiana resident will play football for the Choctaws as an outside linebacker or small safety. But sports really wasn’t what sold him on the 5,000-student university. “He was really impressed with the pre-med program,” says his dad, Vic Ingram. “He wants to be a neurologist.”

Lady Choctaws soccer player Lauren Hardesty of Corinth, Texas credits her cousin, Rowan St. John of Dallas as the MC student who got her interested in the university. As summer orientation was wrapping up, Lauren said she’s in love with its beautiful campus, its people and Christian atmosphere. “I like this place,” says the freshman nursing major. “People care about you.”