McCollum, McElveen, and Yaws named Outstanding Students in History

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Raven McCollum, of Mount Pleasant, Jacey McElveen, of Chapel Hill, and Rebecca Yaws of Harleton have been named the 2019-2020 Outstanding Students in History. The Social Sciences Division is pleased to celebrate these outstanding students and let you know a little more about them.

When asked to share a little about herself and her reaction to being named an Outstanding Student, Raven had this to say: “I began homeschooling in the Eighth grade and graduated from Penn Foster Online High School at 15. I then attended my first semester of college in 2019 at my current age, 16 years old. I am the oldest of four, soon to be five, sisters. As a kid, my older cousin would pretend to be a teacher and have her two sisters and myself be her students. I continued this game with my own sisters and grew to really enjoy the instructor role. This has led me to consider a career in teaching. Although, I still keep an open mind to other possibilities. 

I was very nervous about starting my first semester at NTCC. I was accustomed to my online way of schooling and changing that was quite nerve racking. Fortunately, I started off with great teachers! Dr. Fulgham and Mrs. Ingram began the semester with a warm introduction and fun interactive activities. Their unique way of teaching has been a great experience, especially for my first year of college. I am grateful to them for teaching me in such an amazing way. I thoroughly enjoyed Mrs. Ingram’s helpfulness and Dr. Fulgham’s lively lectures. I definitely could not have done this without such outstanding teachers helping me throughout the two semesters. They have taught me many things and have helped my essays expand so much. I was able to learn a lot about history, much more than I had known before entering their class and much more than I would have ever known without this class. I also went from struggling to write an 800-word essay to finishing a 1500-word essay with ease. I am very grateful to have been selected as an outstanding student in the social sciences division and happy that my hard work paid off. “

Jacy McElveen shared the following when learning she had been selected: “I am so honored to be named an outstanding student for history this year! I have enjoyed being in Mr. McGregor's class the past two semesters. He is a great professor, and I appreciate his dedication to making history interesting and interactive. I am a duel credit student and graduating senior from Chapel Hill High School. I've been heavily involved in volleyball, UIL, and First Baptist Church Youth Group over the years and I am the Salutatorian of my class. I will be attending Texas A&M University in the fall to pursue a degree in Kinesiology. My ultimate goal is to go to Physical Therapy school afterwards to achieve my doctorate. Once again I feel very blessed to have been chosen as an outstanding student! Thank you and stay safe!”

Rebecca Yaws shared this about herself when learning of being named an Outstanding Student in History: “This is my second year at NTCC and this Fall I will be completing my General Studies degree. I am also a member of the Psi Beta honor society. This Fall I plan to apply to Texas A&M and join their Archeology program in my pursuit of becoming a museum conservator. Once I read the email that I had been selected as an Outstanding Student, I was extremely excited to receive this honor and I thought it was too good to be true! “

Full and Associate Faculty who teach history are Austin Baxley, Melissa Fulgham, Sid Hicks, James McGregor, Kim Nichols, Kayla Reno, John Russo, Stanley Statser, Crystal Tafuro, and Andrew Yox. For more information about history at NTCC, contact Dr. Melissa Fulgham at mfulgham@ntcc.edu, James McGregor at jmcgregor@ntcc.edu or Dr. Andrew Yox at ayox@ntcc.edu