Fast-track semester gives Katrina victims short-term, training options

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College will offer more than a 100 new courses in a “fast-track” accelerated semester beginning Oct. 24.  The class selections include 20 new online courses and some weekend classes.

The college created this expanded second-nine-week course schedule to help students who were not able to return when classes resumed on Sept. 14. Counselors and financial aid advisers are contacting more than 3,000 students who were forced to withdraw after the hurricane.

Lashanda Chamberlain, financial aid director at the Jackson County Campus, says, “Many of our adult students couldn’t return because their children’s schools were not open yet, and they didn’t have child care. They are not happy that they had to withdraw.  They are planning to come back; they just need to know that it is doable.”

These nine-week classes are being offered at the Jackson County, Jefferson Davis and Jackson County campuses and at the George County Center in Lucedale.

Returning students with valid PIN numbers can register for the “fast track” through Web Services on the college website.  New students should contact the admissions office.

With loss of jobs, many students are finding it difficult to stay in school.  Chamberlain says students can still apply for financial aid or ask for their financial aid application to be re-evaluated.  While financial need for the 2005-06 school year is normally based on the 2004 tax year, significant changes in income or status, such as unemployment, a reduction in income, changes in household size, unusual expenses, divorce or loss of spouse or parent, may change a student’s financial-aid eligibility.  Students should make an appointment with the Financial Aid office to begin this process.

Students can also enter career-training programs any Monday to learn skills in areas such as commercial/residential carpentry, welding, industrial maintenance, pipefitting/plumbing, electrical technology, landscape management and industrial drafting.

 “Workers with skills in these areas will be very important to the Coast’s rebuilding efforts,” says Joyce Calcote, Perkinston Campus counselor.  The programs vary in length, but students can exit at different levels depending upon their job opportunities.  Interested students should talk to a career and technical counselor about these programs.

For more information about the “fast-track” schedule, visit www.mgccc.edu, or call any campus or center, 1-866-735-1122.

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