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As part of the first-ever Earth Day Celebration on the Rankin Campus, students and faculty highlighted the benefits of recycling and the fact that monies earned from recycling fund student scholarships. Participants included, from left, Jason Pope, director of Sustainability; Leon Jackson, recyclenator; student Zack Gray of Pelahatchie; student Amber Capps-Podemski of Jackson; Joy Rhoads, geography and history instructor and Phi Theta Kappa adviser; student James Weathersby of Mendenhall; Mindy Stevens, Sustainability Projects coordinator; Judy Isonhood, Phi Theta Kappa Faculty adviser and Elizabeth Price, administrative assistant.

Jasmine McGee of Jackson attempts to make the Earth ball into the recycling bin to win candy during Earth Day at the ����԰ Rankin Campus.

����԰ Rankin Campus Phi Theta Kappa adviser Joy Rhoades, from left; student Zack Gray of Pelahatchie, Forrest Gordon, Customer Service Specialist for Mississippi Department of Transportation; student Brandie Welch of Braxton, student Brandon Jenkins of Brandon and ����԰ Rankin Campus Phi Theta Kappa adviserJudith Isonhood.

As part of the first-ever Earth Day Celebration at ����԰’s Rankin Campus, Phi Theta Kappa members, other students and faculty highlighted the benefits of recycling and the fact that monies earned from recycling fund student scholarships.

“We hope to encourage awareness of and a significant increase in recycling to benefit our students, our college and the community,” said Joy Rhoads, geography and history instructor and adviser for the Rankin Campus Phi Theta Kappa.

Jason Pope, director of Sustainability for ����԰, said local businesses and individuals donate their recyclables to ����԰. “The ����԰ County Sheriff’s Department uses our trucks and trailers to pick up and deliver the recyclables to the ����԰ Recycling Facility located near the prison,” Pope said. “The Sheriff’s Department provides free labor throughout the process of picking up, sorting and baling the recyclables in preparation for selling the goods. We then coordinate shipping and selling the recyclables to a recycling facility.”

After all of the expenses from program operations are paid – maintenance on trucks, trailers, baling equipment, etc., the proceeds are then used for scholarships. Those benefiting from the scholarships are ����԰ Honors Students at the Raymond Campus, who volunteer in the program, and the prisoners at the ����԰ County Penal Farm who take GED classes and other vocational classes.

For more on Phi Theta Kappa at ����԰, see /student-life/clubs-groups/ptk.

As Mississippi’s largest community college, ����԰ is a comprehensive institution offering quality, affordable educational opportunities with more than 170 academic, career and technical programs. With six locations in central Mississippi, ����԰ enrolled nearly 12,000 credit students in fall 2014. To learn more, visit or call 1.800.����԰CC.