MTSU, WKRN News 2 partner to showcase student, alumni success

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University will partner this summer and fall with WKRN News 2, Nashville’s ABC television affiliate, to showcase the success of students and graduates from its MTSU Online programs and College of Education.

MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee, along with WKRN Vice President and General Manager Tracey Rogers, an alumna of the university, appeared Wednesday on the station’s Local on 2 program to announce the collaboration.

MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee, left, and WKRN Vice President and General Manager Tracey Rogers, an alumna of the university, appeared Wednesday, May 10, on the station’s Local on 2 program to announce a collaboration in which the program will periodically showcase the success of students and graduates from MTSU Online programs and College of Education. (MTSU photo by James Cessna)

In May and June, Local on 2 will feature live on-air interviews with MTSU students who have reached their educational goals through programs offered by MTSU Online, including the Adult Degree Completion Program; the flexible integrated studies degree; various online specialty concentrations, including the new public safety program; and graduate credentials.

One segment will be devoted to the work by the MTSU Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center in serving student-veterans.

Then, starting in September and until December, MTSU’s College of Education will join the station’s popular “Take a Titan 2 School” feature, in which a Tennessee Titan football player will visit an area school each week selected from submitted student requests. WKRN will invite students to apply for visits starting in August.

Titans wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine visited Norman Binkley Elementary School in Nashville, Tenn., last year as part of WKRN News 2’s weekly “Take a Titan 2 School” feature. The College of Education at Middle Tennessee State University will join this year’s school visits. (Photo provided by WKRN)

Dr. Neporcha Cone, dean, College of Education (Submitted photo) — Dr. Neporcha Cone

New MTSU Education Dean Neporcha Cone, along with other faculty members, will accompany the Titan to each school and present selected teachers with its Difference Maker Award, recognizing service to students.

“The family at MTSU embraced me immediately, prepared me and gave me the most well-rounded experience I could have imagined,” Rogers, a graduate of MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment, said of her student experience.

“I am elated to now have a partnership between two of my life’s loves, MTSU and News 2.”

McPhee, in his Local on 2 appearance Wednesday, highlighted MTSU’s public safety concentrationwithin its popular integrated studies major, recalling the university’s recent awarding of honorary professorships in the program to five officers of the Metro Nashville Police Department for their “precision, duty and selflessness” in response to the deadly Covenant School shootings in late March.

From left, WKRN Vice President and General Manager Tracey Rogers, MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee and WKRN Local on 2 program hosts Larissa Wohl and Laura Schweizer discuss the new partnership between the university and the television station Wednesday, May 10, on the set of the program in Nashville, Tenn. (MTSU photo by James Cessna)

“They represent the principles of duty and service that our public safety program works to instill in our students,” McPhee said of detective Ryan Cagle, detective Michael Collazo, officer Rex Engelbert, Sgt. Jeffrey Mathes and detective Zachary Plese. “I’m pleased that WKRN will help us tell these and many other stories.”

In fall 2022, University College launched the public safety concentration, offered by MTSU Online, as an option for those already working in the profession to earn a bachelor’s degree. Metro Nashville Police Department is a partner in the program and several of its officers have enrolled as students.

The program features courses in management, sociology, communications and health. The public safety concentration is designed for those in law enforcement, public safety, first responders and other service professionals at the local, state and federal levels. Learn more about the program at www.mtsu.edu/programs/public-safety/.

— Andrew Oppmann (Andrew.Oppmann@mtsu.edu)