I am blessed to have opportunities to serve two of our denominational entities here in Georgia. God has been using those places of service to stretch me and grow me in ways I hadn’t imagined as recently as a year ago and I am grateful. As it happens, both of them have meetings this week that have me doing a little travelling to the Atlanta area and a bit north into the Georgia mountains. It’s pretty this time of year as the temps in this part of the state have begun to moderate as we move into fall (still nice and hot in South Georgia where we now live).
With some vacation time that is unused on my hands, I decided to take a couple of extra days this week and spend time on the campus of Truett McConnell University (TMU). Readers with kids in college can probably relate to this: any excuse to go see my son in person is a good excuse to make that drive! So, with the help of the amazing folks at TMU, I made my plans and waited for this week to arrive. Since I would be on campus, I thought it would be fun to survey a few classes (yep…I’m that guy) and see firsthand what happens in the classrooms on the campus where my son is now residing.
Let me say, I was not disappointed with those visits and what I observed. There are numerous things I could write about and probably will in future posts but the thing that kept coming back to the forefront of my observations from this visit was just how much everyone, and I do mean everyone, on campus cares about their students, their education, and preparing them for life after college.
I am grateful to the professors who were so gracious in allowing me to survey their classes. I am grateful to the kindness I was shown by the students across the campus. A few know my son and that I was there mostly to see him but most didn’t and it speaks well of them, their families, and the school that they were so kind to a visitor. I am especially indebted to Cindy Erbele for all she did to make this week a special visit. So, let me tell you a bit more about this caring that I observed.
They Care About Their Students
No professional educator I have met becomes an educator unless they care about students and they sure don’t do so because of the riches to be made in academia. Anyway, while this should go without say in the most basic of terms, I mean this in a much deeper way that the most basic of terms. When I talk about these professors, administrators, and staff caring about their students, I mean that they care about their physical AND their spiritual wellbeing.
My son’s physical needs are well cared for. The dining facilities on campus are simply outstanding! I saw many students called by name by members of the team serving meals to them in the café. With hundreds of students coming in and out of such a busy facility, team members have obviously taken the time to get to know students by name and build a relationship with them. My son told me about one of those team members who hadn’t been feeling well recently and he was going to check to see how he was doing. That really stuck with me as I left to make my way home this past Thursday afternoon.
They Care About Student’s Education
Instruction,schooling,teaching,training,tuition,tutelage,tutoring; these are all synonyms for education. Merriam-Webster defines education as the action or process of educating or being educated. They also define education as the knowledge and development resulting from the process of being educated. The faculty at TMU are definitely educators deeply concerned with the pedagogy of teaching and learning.
Having surveyed three classes in the Christian Studies undergraduate program during this visit, I can tell you I was impressed! The material covered in each of those classes was thorough, clear, concise, and easily understood. I was particularly impressed with the engaging delivery of the lectures and the interactive nature of the classes. Students had plenty of opportunities to ask questions and in one class we actually giving short, three-minute presentations. All of it was good, very good!
Conversation after conversation with professors and administrators points to the fact that students receive a quality education at TMU but those educators want it to be even better. Like all schools, there are challenges in raising the bar but a brief review of the faculty pages on the TMU website is very telling. There you’ll find the profiles of professional educators who received their credentials from top universities across the nation.
In my post titled “My Son is Off to College” I said:
We know the quality of the education our son will receive will be excellent. How do we know? the quality of the faculty is outstanding! Most of our Southern Baptist seminaries, College of William & Mary, Florida State University, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Harvard University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Liberty University, Mercer University, Nova Southeastern University, Universities of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Southern Mississippi, Texas at Arlington, Texas at Austin, and Valdosta State University near my home are all schools that are represented by the faculty!
We did our homework when we were checking out TMU because education is so important to my wife and I. We want our kids to be prepared to face the world as it is, not as we would like it to be or as we may nostalgically remember it from our own youth. TMU is delivering a high-quality education but wants the education students receive to be even better. That matters to me! I also believe this is one of the key drivers in the continued growth of the university over the last decade.
They Care About Preparing Students for Life
I am in a particularly good position to evaluate the results of a TMU education. In the church I serve, two of the members of our staff are TMU graduates. They are both highly skilled ministers of the gospel who were well-prepared for vocational ministry. That’s not to say they haven’t learned a lot since leaving school and beginning their respective ministries (Lord know I sure have learned a lot since joining the staff myself!) but they came into their roles with the tools necessary to grow into the gospel ministers they are today.
That would be enough right there to make an argument but there’s more to that story. You see they both married TMU alumnae who are now working in the healthcare industry. Those ladies are also impressive representatives of the quality of the education they received. TMU provided them with the foundation necessary for successful studies after graduation that have led them to their current roles. That’s good stuff!
Those conversations I mentioned earlier with faculty and administrators also included a universal concern for the future of their students. Ensuring students graduate from TMU prepared for the calling God places on each of their lives is of paramount concern and it shows at every level of the institution. Folks, caring like that is not something that can be phoned in.
I have been blessed to serve TMU on their Board of Visitors and already knew it was a good school. The more I get to know about the school, the way they care of students, and the vision for the future of the institution, the easier it is to recommend TMU to prospective students and their families. There are about 85 colleges and universities here in Georgia (to the best of my knowledge) for students and families to choose from. Let me just say you’re doing yourself a disservice if TMU isn’t one of the Preview Days you’re planning on attending.
October 11, November 1, and November 16 are the next ones on the calendar and it is not too soon to visit campus if you’re making plans for the 2020-2021 school year. It will be here before you know it!
Blessings,
Chris