FARRAGUTPRESS THURSDAY, JULY 27, 2017 • 1C
New program aims to help adults earn degrees ■
KEN LAY Correspondent
Tennessee governor Bill Haslam recently unveiled a program to allow adults to return to one of the state’s community colleges or technical schools and earn an Associate’s Degree. The governor’s program will be initiated during the 2018-19 academic year. But many in East Tennessee won’t have to wait a year to take advantage of a tuition-free community college education. Pellissippi State Technical Community College will offer the Reconnect Now Program this school year. The school recently announced that its program would begin during the fall semester of 2017, which begins this month.
Pellissippi State is the only Tennessee college that will offer the last-dollar scholarship in 2017-18. The school used surplus funds to implement the program a year before the statewide program goes into effect. “We used funds that we had to pay for the program this year,” said Dr. Leigh Anne Touzdeou, Assistant Vice President of Enrollment Services “We didn’t want our students to have to wait to take advantage of this program. We’ve had a lot of interest and this is exciting. “I think it’s great that our president, Dr. [Anthony] Rice took this risk. “We had two big open houses in April and we have 700 people registered and I think we can have as many as 1000.” See DEGREE on page 4C
A special thank you to our local retailers for providing clothes for the models in the farragutpress photoshoot - JC Penney and Maurices, and the Farragut Library for the location.