News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
As the first month of the fall semester comes to a close, Vol State reports an abundance of new Tennessee Reconnect students.
Eric Melcher is the Coordinator of Public Relations and Marketing at Vol State.
“When we originally started we were hoping for about 800 new students to be enrolled. And we have wound up with more than a thousand,” Melcher said. “So we are excited about how it has turned out.”
Cookeville Higher Education Campus hosts 154 Tennessee Reconnect students this semester. (Photo: CHEC Facebook)
Vol State has 154 Reconnect students attending the Cookeville Higher Education Campus this semester.
“I think we are getting in good numbers of students to start. But the thing about Tennessee Reconnect is it is a long-term thing,” Melcher said. “It really is going to be reaching out to adult students and encouraging them to consider coming to college, for years to come. ”
Vol State has a total of 2,031 Tennessee Reconnect students enrolled across all campuses.
Melcher said returning to college poses as a challenge for most nontraditional students.
“They haven’t been in a college or even a high school class in ten twenty or thirty years. So they really need to catch up in certain areas, especially in math. Aside from our classes,” Melcher said. “Which are orientated towards folks that have to catch up, we also have free help with math and papers and assignments in what we call the Learning Commons. We have just opened a new Learning Commons location at CHEC.”
Melcher said CHEC plans to expand the new Learning Commons in order to offer better services.
Nontraditional students usually make up a large portion of Vol State campus life, Melcher said.
“We have had adult students for years at Volstate, this is part of who we are. So we are very committed to working with adult students. And I think, actually, we find that even though they are worried about coming into a college classroom,” Melcher said “They really lend a lot to a college class. They have a lot of experience. They kind of have a breath of knowledge that maybe some of our younger students don’t have. ”
Reconnect applications for the spring semester are available for those interested. For more information, visit the Tennessee Reconnect website.
