School News

KSU Receives $2 Million Grant

Kennesaw State University recently received a $2 million grant to bolster two of the university’s outreach programs, Thrive and Achieve Atlanta, both of which help promising students achieve academic success and progress to graduation.

Thrive is a KSU initiative designed to help students transition more easily to college, while providing the support they need to help maintain the HOPE scholarship and stay on track to graduate. Thrive students have access to pre-matriculation workshops and conferences, academic advisers, graduation coaches, peer counseling, learning communities and an academic alert tracking system.

Achieve Atlanta was created by the Whitehead Foundation, and strives to help students from Atlanta Public Schools enroll in college and, ultimately, earn their degrees. In 2017, Kennesaw State became a partner institution with its first cohort class of 18 scholars. That number has grown each year, and currently there are 141 Achieve Atlanta students enrolled at KSU.

This grant was awarded to KSU by the Goizueta Foundation. Established in 1992 by the late Roberto C. Goizueta, who was CEO of the Coca-Cola Co., the foundation challenges organizations to think about education in innovative, strategic ways, as a catalyst for creating life-changing opportunities for individuals and long-term benefits for the communities in which they live and serve.

Chattahoochee Tech Breaks Ground on Manufacturing Center

Community leaders gathered last month at the North Metro Campus with Chattahoochee Technical College staff and faculty for a groundbreaking ceremony for the college’s $8,905,000 Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Emerging Technologies.

The 20,001-square-foot center will house the college’s precision machining and manufacturing program, as well as the industrial maintenance and electrical technology program. This facility also will feature high-tech labs in emerging technologies and robotics. Noncredit skilled workforce training in industrial maintenance will be available for local industry in this facility, through the college’s Office of Economic Development.

“Local industries have an increasing need for a trained workforce in advanced manufacturing technologies,” said Chattahoochee Tech President Ron Newcomb. “This facility will be dedicated to advanced manufacturing training, and will allow us to answer employer needs within our community.”

Church Helps Local Students

Petrina Fowler, a social worker for Cobb County Schools, saw a desperate need among local students and their families, and reached out to NorthStar Church for help. The congregation donated $30,000 that will be put to use this school year, for families struggling to pay rent and utilities, laptops for students who can’t afford their own, and scholarships for students who want to go to college or trade schools.

“It is amazing, almost to the point where it brings tears to my eyes, because giving a student a scholarship, even if it’s only a little bit of money, gives them the opportunity to advance,” Fowler said.

“They get that all this is for a bigger purpose,” said Mike Lindeman, NorthStar’s community pastor. “We can’t take any of this with us. So, giving back to the community is a great way that we get to show God’s love.”

School News Students Complete CommUNITY Project

Mount Paran Christian School’s CommUNITY Task Force selected “Love One Another” as the school’s theme for the 2020 school year. The goal of the initiative is to focus on loving all people. The task force leads the charge in teaching and guiding students to love all people, and to learn to celebrate one another’s unique differences.

In keeping with the theme, 10 high school visual artists were asked to create pieces for the school’s Campaign for CommUNITY. The school displayed each of the 10 commissioned works on lightpost banners across the 68-acre campus. The banner designs embody the students’ personal interpretations of a Bible verse that is inclusive of the diverse body of Christ.

“Discussing diversity is never easy, but to remain silent about such issues, especially as a Christian school, would be wrong,” Head of School Tim Wiens said. “I am hopeful that all of us will desire to learn, to understand others’ perspectives, and to better exemplify the kindness of God here on earth. Diversity makes us better. It makes us stronger. It is what God intended for his people, for his church and for our community.”

Student artists designed the banners for Mount Paran’s Campaign for CommUNITY. Each banner represented a different Bible verse that encourages love and acceptance of others. Caroline Pulley (Be One in Christ), Charlie Monroe (Love One Another), Havalynn Abernathy (Have Courage), Mallory Westbrook (Value Others), Claire Finch (Stand Together), Noah Roberts (Seek Justice), and Bailey Hawkins (Live in Harmony). Not pictured: Hensley Meilstrup (Be Compassionate), Carson Kalichack (See As God Sees), and Riley Harvin (Let Your Light Shine).

Britt Cottingham uses innovative teaching techniques, including a history hat collection, to bring lessons to life for his AP world history class at MPCS.

Scholar Awards Go to 73 Students

Mount Paran Christian School(MPCS) recently announced that 73 current students and recent graduates earned Advanced Placement (AP) Scholar Awards for 2020, in recognition of their exceptional achievement on cumulative AP exams. Four students from the class of 2020 earned National AP Scholar recognition — Kristy Moss, Anton Oswald, Emma Kate Tucker and Alison Vaughan — while world history students received an unprecedented 100% pass rate.

There were 180 MPCS students who took 395 AP exams. The total percentage of AP students with scores of 3 or higher was 84%. Mount Paran students outscored the average state and global pass rates on 63% of the exams taken.