Jenkins

SCOOBA – Abby Jenkins has been hired as athletic academic advisor at East Mississippi Community College, as announced recently by EMCC Director of Athletics Dr. Randall Bradberry.

In her role, Jenkins is responsible for monitoring the academic well-being of EMCC’s student-athletes. In acting as a liaison between the EMCC faculty, student-athletes and coaches, she assists in course selection and also monitors the daily academic progress of all student-athletes on the Scooba campus.

Jenkins enters the collegiate working ranks after having served as a guidance counselor for the Philadelphia Public Schools since 2009. Following her three-year stint working at the elementary school level, she was elevated to the high school/middle school counseling ranks prior to the 2012-13 academic year. Jenkins’ primary responsibilities as guidance counselor included advising students on class scheduling and career pathways while also assisting them during the college application process.

Jenkins’ college education career began at the junior college level during a year at East Central Community College in Decatur. After earning her undergraduate degree in secondary education with a minor in social studies from Mississippi College in 2004, she taught world geography for a year at Lamar School in Meridian before beginning her counseling career at her high school alma mater, Leake Academy in Madden.

During her four-year working stint at Leake Academy, where she also taught psychology and Mississippi history, Jenkins continued her higher education by obtaining her master’s degree in school counseling from the University of West Alabama in 2007. In addition to being a member of the Mississippi Counseling Association, she has completed the Mississippi Alternate Path to Quality School Leadership Program and has been specially trained through the National Institute for School Leadership for dropout prevention.

“Helping students is my passion,” Jenkins continued. “Our children are our future, and educators have a great responsibility to get them all to the next level. To me, the next level is ensuring they are productive citizens in whatever pathway they choose.”

The former Abby Loper and her husband, Ryan, are both natives of Neshoba County. They are the parents of two boys, Hayden, 10, and Henley, 8.