Through its new English bridge program, Meridian Community College is helping first-year students bypass remedial English classes.
“We’ve found over the years that there’s just so many students who don’t need to be there. They either don’t test well or some reason or other. We thought that this would be a nice writing intensive program over a 2-week period,” said Robert Fowler, one of the program’s two instructors.
Over 30 students received certificates yesterday for completing the program this summer.
“Oh, I loved it. Of course I’m an old dog, so it taught me a lot of new tricks. Things I thought I knew,
I did not know. It was a real eye-opener,” said MCC student Sandra Killen.
After much coaching and hard work, students are now headed to class this fall prepared for college-level writing.
“Mr. Fowler concentrated on grammar, so of course he did all of the typical grammatical exercises with comma rules and complete sentences. I did essays mainly,” said Lisa Rhodes, the program’s other instructor.
The program helped students save not only time…but money. Funded through the David Quave grant, the program was entirely free, everything from books to pens. MCC student Dylan Belk said the program helped put his dreams within reach.
“I’m trying to go into criminal justice, so I can go into law enforcement and get a bachelor’s degree. I thought that this would be the best place to start because I kind of wanted a challenge.”
This was the first year that MCC offered the program. The college plans to offer it in the future.
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