Published: August 01, 2009 11:34 pm      

Graduates head for new phase

from staff reports



Meridian Community College held its summer commencement ceremony at downtown's Temple Theater Saturday, sending students from a variety of fields on to a new phase of life. 

For some of the graduates, college education has paid off already in form of jobs. Dena McLain, 38, a Medical Laboratory Technology graduate, and Shaun Toney, 30, a Radiologic Technology grad, already had jobs lined up even before the graduation ceremony.

McLain, a Philadelphia resident and mother of two, starts her new job at Airpark Family Medical Clinic next week. 

As an MCC student, McLain did her clinical student work at Neshoba County General Hospital. Because the hospital owns the clinic where she works, she said she feels like studying at the hospital helped her get her foot in the door and prepared her to jump into her new job from day 1. 

McLain said she was excited about graduation and is glad that she made the decision to go to school. "Being older and going back to school, I knew what I needed to do," she said. 

Toney, who lives in Shubuta, has a job lined up with Rush hospital. Like McLain, he did his clinicals in the same place where he will work. 

"I believe they (employers) look at the work you do as a student and kind of weigh that on whether they want you to work for them," he said. 

Toney previously did electrical work at nuclear power houses, and said he is excited to move on to work as an x-ray tech. 

"I was trying to get out of outside work into a more climate controlled environment," he said. "I had always been interested in x-ray tech. It's kind of the unknown. You never know what the x-ray will show you." 

Toney said he is considering going back to school again to advance in his field, possibly learning to work with MRIs or CAT scans.  

Along with six other top graduates, Toney and McLain were both given special recognition at the commencement. They were tapped for the Circle of Excellence award, which recognizes scholarship, leadership, spirit, and service. Along with McLain and Toney, honorees were Alicia M. Hull of DeKalb; Lora Ann Hoadley, Angela H. Tharp, and Melissa Lucinda Grant, all of Meridian; Holly Herrington Rodgers of Collinsville; and Adriana Patrice Quinney of Demoplis, Ala. 

MCC's Medical Laboratory Technology program graduated 15 students - its largest class since the program began in 1975. 

The maximum number of graduates for the program is 16 students per year. 

The MLT program serves as a source of local technicians working in area hospitals and clinical laboratories in Meridian and the surrounding areas. On average, the technical staff in the Meridian community hospitals that graduated from the program are 60 percent at Jeff Anderson Regional Medical Center, 73 percent at Riley Hospital, and 66 percent at Rush Foundation Hospital.