January 27, 2016 Campus News mcccagora.com • The Agora | 3

Emily LortonAgora Staff

The Monroe County Middle College may be the first early mid-dle college to be recommended for accreditation by AdvancED, the largest school accreditation agency in the U.S.

“The label of being accredited means that as a school we are functioning effectively, that we regularly review our practices, and are planning for the future,” said Robert Krueger, principal of Monroe County Middle College.

Krueger said he knows of no other middle colleges that have been accredited by AdvancED.

The process takes about a year to complete, Krueger said.

“At a macro level, when people hear the term ‘accredited’, they think it must be a good program. But at a micro level, it just means that our program is making con-stant improvements,” Krueger said.

The main topics AdvancED evaluated are leadership, instruc-tion, teaching and learning, re-sources, and continuous improve-ments.

“It was a very reflective pro-cess,” Krueger said.

The middle college had to show evidence as to what it is doing to make changes and what it can do to get better.

Eight members of AdvancED visited the middle college on Oct. 5 and 6.

He said the first day they came to ask Krueger questions and to see evidence of the program. The second day, two members returned and did classroom ob-servations, along with student and teacher interviews.

After the visit, the only sugges-tion from AdvancED were for the administration to better communi-cate with parents.

Krueger said the school has set up its own Facebook and Twitter pages to help get information out to students and parents faster.

Emails are constantly sent with updates regarding upcoming events or news. Krueger also has created a newsletter template to help circulate information.

“The middle college will be ac-credited once the AdvancED has

its next board meeting,” Krueger said.

The Monroe County Middle College is currently in its seventh year.

The enrollment when the school opened in 2009 was 38 students. As of 2016, the school has 270 students, Krueger reported.

The initial reception from MCCC professors was not very welcoming, Krueger said.

“Now, the reaction is quite the opposite,” Krueger said.

Krueger said he receives posi-tive feedback from professors; they even contact him with infor-mation about a class his students

might be interested in. The overall acceptance rate of

professors has improved. “Our college readiness has got-

ten so much better over the last two to three years,” Krueger said.

“The freshman and sophomores learn how to read the college cata-log and learn the resources avail-

able to them around the campus,” he said.

Krueger said he is proud of the gradual college load and the suc-cess of his students.

The students take one college class their sophomore year and gradually increase the number of classes he or she takes as the years

go on. He said middle college teachers

take a syllabus from a particular college class and structure their class accordingly.

“This is so the students are pre-pared and know or at least have had an introduction to the course work they will be doing in later years,” he said.

A new edition to the middle col-lege is the STEM (Science, Tech-nology, Engineering, and Math) program.

Students can choose between taking Introduction to STEM or Anatomy and Physiology.

Amanda Himes, STEM teacher at Monroe County Middle Col-lege, said this is a problem-based class in which the students are given a real world problem and need to work together to solve it.

“The kids are always so excited and engaged during class,” Himes said.

“I like being actively involved with the students to help them solve problems.”

Krueger added the middle col-lege is in the works of creating a second year program for STEM, Krueger said.

“I’m glad they put an alterna-tive method to the medical field,” said Austin Kiphmiller, first year student of the Monroe County Middle College STEM program.

The students really enjoy the hands-on aspect of STEM and how much fun it is.

“My favorite part is having tons of fun while learning how to be creative,” Julia Hatfield, 14, said. “I love the teacher; love the class, what’s not to love?”

“All the students take responsi-bly and this class is a way to teach responsibility to the students be-cause they have to be indepen-dent,” Himes said.

“I would much rather come to school now,” said Kennedy Or-landi, first year student of the Monroe County Middle College STEM program.

Information nights for the up-coming 2016-2017 school year will be held on Jan. 27 in Z257 at the La-Z-Boy Center.

The other information night will be held Jan. 20 in the Bedford community library.

Julia TonioloAgora Staff

About 15 people walked from the Career Technolgy Cen-ter to the Administration building Monday, Jan. 18, in a Peace March to honor the memory of Martin Luther King.

Temperatures hovered around 15 degrees, with the wind chill about zero, when the marchers left the warmth of the Careet Technology Center.

MCCC celebrated with the Peace March as well as a Di-versity Fair located in the Administration building.

After the march, college President Kojo Quartey talked about the importance of celebrating Martin Luther King Day and the Diversity Fair at MCCC.

“This nation is as great as it is because of our diversity, because people came from all parts of the world to become part of this great nation. And through diversity, we bring about unity,” Quartey said.

“This is an event where we have the Muslims here, we have the Native Americans, we have African American cul-ture, we have the Gay Straight Alliance here, so this is a way of showing that we are all one.”

Middle College gaining accreditation

Photos by Emily Lorton

STEM students work together to create the winning mousetrap car out of Legos.

Group members wondering they could do to improve their car. Students construct mousetrap car.

Marching for PeaceCollege celebrates MLK with march, diversity fair

Julia TonioloAgora Staff

The 2015 Monroe County Community Col-lege Student Profile reveals enrollment at MCCC continued to decline for a fifth year.

The Fall 2015 headcount was 3,482 which is 8.3 percent less than Fall 2014. Credit hours also decreased by 8.7 percent.

Data from the Michigan Association of Col-legiate Registrars and Admissions Officers showed that compared to the other Michigan community colleges MCCC’s enrollment de-cline was slightly higher than the average 5.2 percent.

Most of the students enrolled at MCCC are part-time students.

Part-Time students make up 67.6 percent of the population and the other 32.4 percent is full-time students.

The Student Profile also shows the demo-graphics of students such as age.

Students under the age of 20 make up 43.3

percent of students enrolled at MCCC. Students 20-24 make up another 30 percent and ages 25-29 make up 10.1 percent. Students ages 30 and up make up 16 percent.

In the same section the profile includes infor-mation on ethnicity.

According the the information provided 84.5 percent of the schools population is caucasian. Hispanics and African Americans are tied at 2.7 percent. All other reported ethnicities make up less than one percent of the colleges popula-tion. The last 8.4 percent is not reported.

The last page of the Student Profile contains information of the cities with enrollment of 9 or more students.

Monroe leads with 37.7 percent of enroll-ment. Next is Temperance with 9.4 percent, fol-lowed by Newport with 6.8 percent. Carleton with 5.4 percent

Profile shows mix of students who attended MCCC in 2015

President Quartey leads marchers to the diversity fair from the Computer Technology Center.

Workers at the diversity fair show off their items.

61

82

301

113

55

216

1203

54

101

70

114

49

70

129

172

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Trenton

Toledo

Temperance

Petersburg

Ottawa Lake

Newport

Monroe

Maybee

Lambertville

La Salle

Ida

Flat Rock

Erie

Dundee

Carleton

Chart shows which high schools students attending MCCC come from.