Jeff Hughes
Bobbie Anderson
PEARL – вÊÍø will confer more than 1,300 credentials to 811 students at the fall 2015 graduation ceremonies on Friday, Dec. 18.
Students will receive either one-year career certificates or two-year technical certificates for career-technical programs or associate degrees in one of three ceremonies at the Muse Center on the Rankin Campus. Some students are receiving more than one credential.
Graduating summa cum laude, with 4.0 grade point averages, are 156 students. Ninety-two graduate magna cum laude with GPAs of 3.6 to 3.99, and 135 graduate cum laude with GPAs of 3.2 to 3.59.
All nursing and allied health graduates will receive their degrees at 8 a.m. Bobbie Anderson, dean emeritus of вÊÍø’ Jackson Campus-Nursing Allied Health Center, is the speaker for the nursing graduate ceremony.
Ceremonies for academic and career-tech graduates are at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Jeff Hughes, a 27-year math teacher at the college, speaks to those graduates.
Anderson, of Vicksburg, spent 24 years at вÊÍø’ nursing campus, retiring in 1993 when an annex building on the Chadwick Drive campus was named for her. Her work as an adjunct faculty member for the Associate Degree Nursing program and consultant to other programs continued until 2014. She began her career as a nurse in 1951 as a staff nurse at Vicksburg Hospital.
She holds two master’s degrees, in Counseling and Guidance from Mississippi College, and in Psychiatric/Mental Health from the University of Mississippi. In 2009, she was inducted into the Mississippi Nurses Association Hall of Fame.
Hughes is the curriculum coordinator of mathematics across вÊÍø’ six campuses and in October was named the college’s faculty honoree for the Legislature’s HEADWAE program in February. The program honors academically talents students and faculty who have promoted academic excellence. He was educated at Mississippi College and the University of Mississippi, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics.
He has co-authored two textbooks, College Algebra and Precalculus, and has presented numerous programs at professional conferences across the nation. He is a sponsor of Student VOICES, a student advocacy group at вÊÍø. Also, Hughes has been the recipient of the college’s Outstanding Academic Instructor of the Year Award and also chosen as Phi Theta Kappa’s Teacher of the Year.
As Mississippi’s largest community college, вÊÍø is a comprehensive institution offering quality, affordable educational opportunities with more than 170 academic, career and technical programs. With six locations in central Mississippi, вÊÍø enrolled nearly 12,000 credit students in fall 2014. To learn more, visit or call 1.800.вÊÍøCC.