NWCC Education Majors Make Hall of Fame

Just this past week, the 2014 Northwest Hall of Fame was announced, and three of the 11 students named to this highest honor were education majors.
“We were so pleased to have our students represented in the Hall of Fame this year. I am very pleased that our students are so active on campus and in the community,” Julie Correro, division director of Education said.
The division offers Associate of Arts degrees in elementary and secondary education, exercise science, health and physical education, pre-communicative disorders and recreation. Students get the core classes they need to prepare them for the four-year college or university. In the education major, students can choose either elementary or secondary, depending on the ages of students they want to teach. The education major can be completed on any of Northwest’s three campuses or online, Correro said.
Education majors at Northwest also have the opportunity to visit and observe in local classrooms. The Northwest Education Association (NWEA) is a student organization for educations majors. Generally, speakers from school districts or four-year colleges, or former students who are now working in the field speak at their monthly meetings. The group is active in the community as well; conducting fundraisers and food drives for local charities and Ronald McDonald House.
Correro credits two of her instructors, Pam Simpson and Terri Hawkins, for sponsoring NWEA. “They do a tremendous job with this group,” Correro said.
Simpson stressed the importance of the group’s interaction with professionals in their field. “The NWEA club membership allows our members the awesome opportunity to observe in classrooms of their chosen subject areas in the Senatobia Municipal School District for 90 minutes a week for a five-week period during the spring semester. Hopefully, this experience will enable our students to know whether or not they have chosen the career path that best suits them, and they also will receive invaluable insight on many various methods of discipline and classroom management. I would like to encourage all education majors general college majors to consider membership in the NWEA,” Simpson said.
“We want teachers to be top notch. It is more difficult to get into teacher education than it is in almost any other program these days. They have even raised the GPA requirement from 2.75 to 3.0,” Correro said.
In addition to the education major, the other majors offered through the education division prepare students for the four-year college or university. The division also offers physical fitness classes such as aerobics, spin class, Pilates and Zumba for both students and the community. “We definitely want everybody, students and the community, to know that they are invited to participate in these classes. You don’t have to be a physical education major to do so,” Correro said.
One of the things that Correro emphasizes in her division is student advisement. “One of the goals of the Education Division here at Northwest is to give our students good advice and guidance about what classes to take so that they can be successful both here, and after they leave here. We are so excited to see so many of our former students out there teaching in the field today,” Correro said.
For more information on the education division, visit the website at www.northwestms.edu or contact Correro at 662-562-3257 or email jcorrero@northwestms.edu.
Courtesty NWCC public relations.