Registration for the spring 2012 semester at the Middle Tennessee Education Center in Shelbyville is now open.

The Middle Tennessee Education Center is a partnership involving Middle Tennessee State University and Motlow State Community College with the support of Bedford County government in Shelbyville. It brings undergraduate and graduate education closer to local residents by providing day and night classes as well as distance-learning opportunities.

(Click on the cover to read the 'MTEC Magazine.')

Readers in southern middle Tennessee have been learning about “higher education in your own backyard” through a full-color eight-page insert about the MTEC recently included in their local newspapers.

The MTEC Messenger, a new publication about the Shelbyville-based center, was distributed inside the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, Columbia Daily Herald, Moore County News, Elk Valley Times,Tullahoma News and the Winchester Herald Chronicle.

The new director at MTEC, Lisa D. Moore, says her mission is to expand the center by recruiting more adult learners and developing a presence in area high schools.

“We’re working with the school systems to understand what the high-school students need, either to prepare them for graduation or dual-enrollment opportunities,” says Moore.

Two new MTEC offerings for the spring semester, which will begin Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012, are General Psychology and Fundamentals of Speech. Both are Motlow general-education courses.

Lisa D. Moore

Moore, who assumed leadership of the center in August 2011, has been an instructor in MTSU’s Department of Speech and Theatre for the past 14 years. Her resume also includes stints in human resources with Monsanto Company in Greenwood, S.C., and Quantum Corporation in Colorado Springs, Col.

Moore says she intends to use this experience to help MTEC fill the need for a more highly qualified regional workforce.

“Because of my background in both human resources and teaching, students can talk to me about whether their choice of major and choice of career match,” Moore says. “I also can help (students) understand how to go about a job search and what prospective employers need.

“There is a need to have a major educational presence (in the region),” Moore adds, “because that is one of the attractions for new businesses to come in.”

For more information, visit www.mteducationcenter.com or call 931-685-4444.

— Gina K. Logue (Gina.Logue@mtsu.edu)