Charleston Gazette-Mail. April 4, 2024.
Editorial: West Virginians show resiliency through storm
Tuesday morning was frightening for West Virginians across most of the state.
Cellphones blared emergency warnings, as did televisions and radios. Sirens sounded in some towns. This was not a drill. In homes and businesses, power flickered off. Residents and workers headed for basements, bathrooms or the most secure place they could find in a solid structure.
The wall of rain propelled by furious winds of up to 90 miles per hour started in the western part of the state and proceeded to sweep east, hitting one location shortly after another. Trees and windows rattled. Visibility was nil in the gray squall. Then it was over, and everyone emerged to take stock of the damage.
Many were and remain without power, cellphone or internet service. Massive steel structures holding billboards meant to grab the eye of motorists on Interstate 64 snapped in half and collapsed into roadways and parking lots. Debris was everywhere. Trees fell onto cars and into homes. Roofs were torn from buildings. Bricks were ripped from building facades and spilled into city streets. Power lines were down. Traffic lights were out. Some cars and trucks were overturned.
The governor declared a state of emergency. Schools were shut down. City officials and disaster responders across the state scrambled to respond, and are still on the job.
In a word, the whole thing was catastrophic. And yet, it could’ve been worse.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there had been no fatalities reported as a result of the storm. Frankly, that’s amazing, and a tribute to the National Weather Service and media outlets that got those alerts out quickly. It also shows that West Virginians across the state took those warnings seriously and responded appropriately by getting to shelter.
Yes, injuries have been reported. And, as with any disaster that strikes the Mountain State, it will take time for emergency responders and work crews to clear all the debris and restore power. It will take time and money for business and homeowners to rebuild. These tasks are always difficult, especially in such a rural state. Some might be left without a house. Some who lost everything might not have the immediate support network to get through such a terrible event.
This is one of those times when West Virginians need to prove their reputation for looking out for one another is deserved. So far, they’re excelling in that task.
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The Herald-Dispatch. April 6, 2024.
Editorial: New agreement will benefit MCTC and MU students
It took a few years, but Marshall University and Mountwest Community and Technical College have agreed to a program that provides an easier path for MCTC students to transfer their credits to Marshall.
MCTC has had similar agreements with other four-year schools in this region for years, but for whatever reasons, such agreements with Marshall had been out of reach.
The presidents of the two schools signed their new agreement on Monday, April 1. It makes the transition easier for MCTC students wishing to transfer or continue their education at Marshall.
Karen McComas, interim associate vice president for academic affairs, said part of the agreement was making sure that students who want to transfer to Marshall once they have an associate’s degree at MCTC can do so seamlessly. She said the steps for transferring and the credits that may be carried over are now clearly laid out for students, making the process easier, with more credits transferring over, and overall less time-consuming.
“That helps the students, but it also helps our administrative offices at Marshall because we’ve written it down for them. They don’t have to go back and look it up every time,” McComas told The Herald-Dispatch reporter Katelyn Aluise. “I know that in some cases, students couldn’t register until they found out if this class was going to count for something else, and then they lose seats in other classes. So it’s more communication, it’s more documentation and it’s more oversight and assessment.”
Marshall has begun new programs that use what students have learned at MCTC. The agreement should encourage more students with two-year degrees from MCTC to continue their education at Marshall by pursuing four-year degrees or even advanced degrees.
Marshall’s new bachelor of applied science degree is considered a two-year “completer degree,” which adds more skills onto the technical education students at MCTC have already received, said McComas. The idea for the changes partially came from student demand and also from the schools recognizing more jobs are available in West Virginia that require at minimum a bachelor’s degree, she said.
“West Virginia has so many jobs for people with bachelor’s degrees, and they can’t find enough people with them. So really, the time was kind of right to say, how can we get these people into that,” McComas said.
To quote Marshall President Brad D. Smith, “Our purpose is to ensure that we provided affordable and flexible and achievement-oriented education for anyone who has the aspiration and grit to try.”
There may have been good reasons that Marshall and MCTC were slow to cooperate in the past. Times have changed, and to survive — let alone grow — higher education must adapt to the realities of the regional and national economies. State-supported two- and four-year schools need not compete. Their student bodies have different goals and different needs, but the desired outcome is the same: acquiring the knowledge and skills they need to advance in life. The new agreement should be of benefit to students of both schools.
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The Intelligencer. April 10, 2024.
Editorial: W.Va. Students Are Setting the Standard
West Virginia schools have a long way to go to meet the standards we expect for our children. But the reality is, if we want what we should for our future, education officials will never be able to rest on past gains.
Should you need proof we are getting at least some things very right, look to the recent state Science and Engineering Fair in Charleston. Public school students in third through 12th grades showed off science, math and engineering projects that would make many adults’ heads spin.
Sydney Bostic, a junior at Spring Mills High School in Martinsburg, will represent West Virginia at the Regeneron International Science Fair in Los Angeles in May. Bostic’s project was called “Bridging the Gap Using EdTech and Artificial Intelligence.” It hinges on an app she designed that will translate college-level text into other proficiency levels.
“Everybody can use the same materials and learn at the same level at the same time,” Bostic said.
Impressive, right?
Bostic’s bright idea was just one of hundreds from the minds of youngsters.
“They have some pretty amazing science and it’s exciting when they get to explain that to our judges, because again, it’s about learning, we get to see just how much learning those students have done,” said West Virginia Department of Education Director of Pre K-12 Academic Support Erika Klose.
It is good to know our students are learning to think, to ask questions, to explore their world and their own big ideas. Mountain State kids are showing us they’ve got what it takes to lead us into a bright future. Now we just have to let them.
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