technology of the INNOVATE and CREATE centers during a campus tour with Michael Booker, left, BancorpSouth
senior vice president of corporate banking, and James “Dan” Rollins III, CEO of BancorpSouth.
BancorpSouth visit paying dividends
James “Dan” Rollins III, CEO of BancorpSouth, and Michael Booker, BancorpSouth senior vice president of corporate banking, toured the INNOVATE and CREATE centers and the state-of-the-art stock market trading room in the College of Business in a February visit.
“We’re looking to build a relationship to help build staff for us,” Rollins said. “We need future leaders in our company. We want to make sure that we’ve opened the doors, to make sure that we come and meet and get to know the students as they are coming through the system so that they can ultimately join our company and be a part of our bank.”
Headquartered in Tupelo, BancorpSouth has 292 commercial banking, mortgage and insurance locations in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas.
Emergency preparedness focus of conference
The first Institutions of Higher Learning Partners in Preparedness Conference brought to campus eight Mississippi universities’ chiefs of police, law enforcement and emergency personnel for what could be a regular series of conferences to share best practices for emergency preparedness.
At the April 15 conference, information and tips were shared related to training, communication and safety techniques, recovery issues from natural disasters and the National Incident Management System.
CEO of Flashnotes shares best digital practices with faculty
Mike Matousek, founder and CEO of Flashnotes, met with JSU faculty to discuss best practices for the digital teaching tool. Forbes magazine described Flashnotes as one of the 12 companies transforming education to watch this year. Matousek launched Flashnotes, an online student-to-student marketplace for class study material, in 2009 while a student at Kent State University.
Saturday school bell rings
Jackson State University and Jackson Public Schools partnered to offer Saturday School tutoring sessions prior to standardized testing in March. Dr. Lennie M. Little, director of the Center for Teacher Quality, recruited education majors to help at Wilkens Elementary, Blackburn and Whitten middle schools and Wingfield High School. Subjects covered included math, English, reading, history and biology.
Sandy Hook mom speaks
A mother who lost her child during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting rampage in Newton, Conn., in 2012, was the featured speaker during the Mississippi Child Welfare Institute Conference. Held in Jackson in February, it was hosted by the Jackson State University College of Public Service’s School of Social Work. Scarlett Lewis started the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation in honor of her son.
School of Journalism making headlines
Media training today, President Carolyn W. Meyers says, must shift to produce “digital storytellers equipped for emerging occupations.”
Subsequently, the JSU Department of Mass Communications is being transformed into a School of Journalism, and returning to JSU to lead the effort is former department head Dr. Elayne Hayes-Anthony. She comes from Belhaven University, where she had served as chair of the Department of Communications for the past 10 years.
Blackburn Middle School gets laboratory designation
Jackson State University has entered a key phase of its historic relationship with neighboring Blackburn Middle School by designating it a laboratory school.
A year in the works, Dr. Daniel Watkins, dean of the College of Education and Human Development, said the concept offers more ambitious ideas to revolutionize learning and instruction for Blackburn’s faculty and its nearly 450 students.