Contact: Kenneth Billings
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State officials are announcing the establishment of the Meridian Community College chapter of the National Center for Appalachian Leadership Honors Program.
University President Robert H. "Doc" Foglesong and MCC President Scott Elliot signed the joint agreement last week making the Lauderdale County institution the eighth school in two different states to be part of the student leadership and character development program.
"We are honored to have Meridian Community College as part of the ALHP National Consortium," Foglesong said. "Through this agreement, we will work together to begin building our young people into the leaders of tomorrow."
The first MCC chapter participants will enroll this fall for seminars and lecture programs throughout the semester. In addition to studying leadership skills and strategies, they will receive mentoring and instruction via special classes.
Additionally, MCC program graduates enrolling at MSU automatically are extended membership invitations to the ALHP-Sonny Montgomery Chapter on the Starkville campus.
Meridian joins Jones County Junior College in Ellisville and East Mississippi Community College-Mayhew Campus in the consortium. Others include Concord, Marshall, and West Virginia-Parkersburg universities, and Southern West Virginia Community College.
Honors program members are selected on the basis of academic achievements, including grade-point average, ACT scores and class ranking.
As with the other ALHP members, Mississippi State's Sonny Montgomery Chapter is a highly selective program that last year involved 29 students. In addition to studying leadership skills and strategies, the curriculum included a series of presentations by visiting national and local leaders in a variety of professions.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional information, contact Dr. Cade Smith, ALHP director, at 662-325-0244.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.