Are you tired of watching your co-workers get promoted while you seem to be stagnant? Are you one of those people who go to work each day wishing you had prepared for the career of your dreams? Is it stressful trying to succeed in today’s highly technological and competitive business climate with outdated knowledge and skills learned more years ago than you’d like to admit?

If the answer is yes, or if you’re just wise enough to realize the importance of lifelong continuing education, take heart. Your solution is within reach in a close-to-home setting at the Meridian Campus of Mississippi State University.

East Mississippians can enroll at an area community college in a university-transfer program for their first two years and then transfer to MSU-Meridian Campus to complete bachelor’s, master’s and specialist’s degrees — without putting their lives on hold.

In turn, our community also benefits when our “road scholars” are able to stay here and continue to make contributions as taxpaying citizens and good neighbors.

“It is a unique and sometimes misunderstood, yet highly effective, partnership,” said Linda Butler, who directs public relations and marketing for MSU-Meridian.

“At first, some people find it confusing that we don‚t also offer freshman and sophomore classes like most traditional residential campuses. But once they understand we’re here to cooperate, instead of compete, with community colleges, they understand it is a winning combination.”

The key, Butler said, is for students to plan ahead by talking with an adviser at MSU-Meridian early in their sophomore year to assure a smooth transition from community college to MSU-Meridian.

“It’s sad, but preventable, when transfer students show up at MSU-Meridian thinking they are ready to enroll, only to find out they either took classes they didn’t need or are lacking required prerequisite classes,” Butler said. “They could have saved themselves money and time by just checking first with an MSU-Meridian adviser.”

Butler also said MSU is mindful it has been entrusted with the wise investment of taxpayer dollars and is developing additional partnerships to eliminate duplication of services and to facilitate smooth transitions for students between institutions.

In addition to a wide variety of academic offerings in arts and sciences, business and industry, and education, Butler points out some of the recent partnerships and program expansions facilitated by the MSU-Meridian Campus to better serve target regional markets:

The bachelor of business administration degree program will be offered at the Pearl River Resort’s Choctaw Hospitality Institute (in addition to the MSU-Meridian location) beginning in the fall. Call (601) 484-0153.

MSU will begin broadcasting the Distance Master of Business Administration degree program and providing remote classroom access to eight National Guard locations in Mississippi beginning in the fall. For more details, visit www.distance.msstate.edu/MSNG or e-mail tswann@msstate.edu.

The social work program at MSU-Meridian will begin offering a day program in the fall. Call (601) 484-0144.

The first Saturday MBA for Professionals class is scheduled to graduate in 2007 and a new class is forming now. Call (601) 484-0150.

Teacher education programs are available at the bachelor, master and specialist levels. Call (601) 484-0170.

Many students are exploring broadcast communication, psychology, interdisciplinary studies, and general liberal arts degrees. Call

(601) 484-0140.

Consider this. Many of us frequently update our wardrobes, expend a great deal of effort to keep our bodies in shape, endure often painful and expensive procedures to make over our appearance, strategically analyze long-range financial and retirement planning options, and take time out of our busy lives to play golf, go to movies, shop and, in many cases, just waste a lot of time.

However, it is a shame that many of us don’t have the same, or even higher, regard for our intellectual maintenance. After all, the old adage is well-accepted that, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”



FIND OUT MORE

For more information about educational opportunities at Mississippi State University-Meridian Campus call (601) 484-0100 or (800) 824-5288 or visit www.msstate.edu/meridian.