People may not associate community college students with scientific research. However, Volunteer State Community College students may be changing that perception.
Bonnie Breland listens to her Volunteer State Community College instructor talk about an upcoming class assignment for the course, Experience Literature. It’s a college class, but Breland, of Gallatin, is not just a college student, she’s a Sumner County Middle College High School student. Her fellow classmates might not even notice. But Breland is earning college and high school credit at the same time. And she’s doing it on the Vol State campus in Gallatin. “I’m very independent as it is,” Breland said. “This allows me to do my own thing. I can do it myself.
Scientific research isn’t just a passion for professors and graduate students. Increasingly, undergraduates are getting in on the action. Educators say it can be a creative hook to get students interested in the sciences. Two Volunteer State Community College students will show off their undergraduate research to lawmakers in Washington at the end of September. It’s hoped that by seeing the work of undergrads from across the country, members of Congress will get a better idea of the importance of research in teaching science.
Joe Spann is a genealogist and on this day he’s explaining emigration to the American Colonies. “Most of you will have ancestors in one of these groups,” he said, pointing to a projection that lists Scots-Irish, Quaker, English Elite and Puritans. If it sounds like a history class, it is, of sorts. But it’s for a different group of students than you might normally expect at Volunteer State Community College. These are Lifelong Learners, many of them retirees, looking for some intellectual fun. The group is attending one in a series of lectures called KEY Lifelong Learning at Vol State.
