EMCC All-Mississippi academic team members honored

COLUMBUS — Former and current EMCC students named to the 2020 and 2021 Phi Theta Kappa All-Mississippi Academic Teams were honored Thursday, April 15, during a luncheon at the Lion Hills Center.

The highest scoring nominee from each of the state’s 15 two-year colleges is named to the All-Mississippi First Team. Olivia Newell of Meridian, an EMCC graduate who studied on the Scooba campus, was named to the 2021 All-Mississippi First Team.

The remaining students were named to the Second Team. The 2021 Second Team members are Chasity Martin of Columbus, Celia Peal of Columbus and Theresa Pumphrey of Columbus, who all attended school at the Golden Triangle campus.

The 2020 All-Mississippi Academic Team members from the Scooba campus are Nathanail Shelton of DeKalb and Emma Biddles of Meridian. The 2020 representatives from the Golden Triangle campus are Belle Ferrebee of Columbus (First Team) and Quyen “Peter” Tran of Starkville.

Present at the ceremony were Scooba campus PTK advisors for the Eta Upsilon chapter, Janet Briggs and Derrick Conner, and Golden Triangle campus Beta Iota Zeta chapter PTK advisor Eric Ford.

“As an advisor, responsible students like these three make my job so much easier,” Briggs said of the students from the Scooba campus. “They take the chapter projects and make them work when things are good but more importantly when challenges occur. These three were truly hard to replace as officers of our chapter." 

EMCC President Dr. Scott Alsobrooks and EMCC Vice President of Instruction Dr. James Rush were among the speakers at the luncheon.