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Dr. Steven Jones selected for Prestigious Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship
MOORHEAD, Miss. (April 5, 2023) – Mississippi Delta Community College (MDCC) Vice President of Administrative and Student Services Dr. Steven Jones was recently selected for the Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship.
Nationwide, only 35 individuals were selected for the 2023-2024 class, and Jones is only the third person ever to be chosen for this fellowship from the state of Mississippi and the first from MDCC.
"I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity to participate in the prestigious Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship. It is truly an honor," said Jones. "I look forward to collaborating with other community college leaders as we explore creative and innovative ways to enhancing student access and success and improving the overall quality of higher education for the students we serve."
MDCC President Dr. Tyrone Jackson is similarly honored to have a member of his team take part in the Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship.
“On behalf of the MDCC team, I am honored to congratulate Dr. Steven Jones for his acceptance into the Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship program. Dr. Jones is one of the few higher education administrators in the State of Mississippi ever selected for such a prestigious program through a very competitive admissions process,” said Jackson. “Kudos to Dr. Jones on this noteworthy accomplishment! This recognition is momentous for his professional development coupled with a prominent acknowledgement of him as an outstanding leader for MDCC while representing our college and the state on the national level.”
As part of the fellowship, Jones will participate in seminars led by Aspen Institute and Stanford University faculty, as well as some of the nation's top community college professionals and higher education experts.
The conclusion of the fellowship will include a capstone project that offers participants a structured process, with feedback from peers and mentors, for crafting and extending their distinct presidential perspective on community college student success.
The capstone project will culminate in a presentation to peers and mentors. The project leads participants through rigorous analysis of data and inquiry into the student experience, developing and refining of a vision for community college excellence, and advancing of their ability to communicate and build urgency around a vision for transformational change.
During the fellowship, Jones and his fellow participants will have access to mentorship by an exceptional, nationally recognized current or former community college president who engages them in a dynamic exchange of ideas and helps to draw connections across the seminars, portfolios, and participants' own professional experiences.
The Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship aims to address the dramatic turnover in the community college presidency by recruiting and developing exceptional leaders—a cadre of diverse reformers who can push the field forward and advance student success.
Many sitting community college presidents plan to retire in the next decade, creating vacancies and an opportunity to diversify college leadership. Aspen Presidential Fellows represent the next generation of college leadership: this incoming class of Aspen Rising Presidents Fellows is 74 percent women, and 60 percent are people of color. The institutions they represent are also diverse, located in 18 states, from small rural colleges to large urban campuses. The fellows, selected through a competitive process, will work closely with highly accomplished community college presidents, Aspen leaders, and Stanford University faculty over ten months to learn from field-leading research, define and assess student success at their colleges, and clarify their visions for excellent and equitable outcomes for students while in college and after they graduate.
“Each cohort of the Rising Presidents Fellowship is different,” said Josh Wyner, executive director of the College Excellence Program. “And what they all share is a passion to advance excellence and equity in student outcomes and the commitment to ensure that the colleges they lead continuously improve.”
Rising Presidents Fellows aspire to enter a college presidency within five years of completing the fellowship. As fellows, they join a network of over 300 forward-thinking peers—155 of whom are sitting college presidents—who are applying grounded and innovative strategies to meet student success challenges in their colleges.
The Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship is made possible by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, College Futures Foundation, and JPMorgan Chase.