Janette Kopp, social studies instructor at MGCCC’s Jefferson Davis Campus, helped develop lecture PowerPoint presentations as an instructor resource in a new college-level textbook “Development of Children and Adolescents.” The book, written by Penny Hauser-Cram, J. Kevin Nugent, Kathleen Thies, and John F. Travers, may be adopted for Child Psychology classes at MGCCC this fall.

Kopp, an MGCCC alumna, began her journey to getting published with an invitation from Wiley Publishers to attend a child development conference, all expenses paid to Hoboken, New Jersey, in the spring of 2013. The publisher wanted Kopp to assist them, along with other instructors from around the nation, in the development of the text.

“They wanted us to provide them with information about what ancillary materials would be beneficial to instructors and students,” Kopp said. “I was then invited back to help them with additional work, which I initially declined, but after they contacted me again in September, I felt more confident to assist them.”

Kopp said the individual first hired to do the instructor lecture PowerPoint presentations for the textbook quit after only writing three chapters. “They were looking for help, so I finished the other 13 chapters myself, and on a very tight schedule I might add!”

She completed the PowerPoint presentations in mid-October 2013, meeting the deadline, and after the book was published, received a paperback copy in the mail. It was then that she realized her name, as well as the college’s name, was published in the book. “I was shocked, surprised and, of course, thrilled, to say the least! It was a very proud moment.”

The textbook provides an integrated view of child development, presenting the most pertinent research for each developmental stage and linking research to practical applications in the areas of parenting, policy, and practice, and emphasizing the relationship between research, theory and applications.

Kopp, who graduated from the Jefferson Davis Campus in 1998, began working at the college as an adjunct instructor at the Keesler Center. She has been a fulltime faculty member at JD for 11 years.

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