The connection between agriculture and West Tennessee is as old as the last ice age. When the glaciers retreated and the sea whose northern reaches brushed the southern edge of our state dried, what remained in the land between two of the great rivers of our nation was a fertile alluvial plain that stretches from the line of hills bordering the Tennessee River all the way to the Mississippi River.
Read MoreFor more than ten years, Jennifer Hooper taught music to K-12 students and directed choirs at various Jackson schools. But about a year ago, she left that position. After graduating from Union University, Jennifer got pregnant with her first son, Riley, during her first year of teaching. Having always been a full-time working mother, she struggled balancing her work and home life for years.
Read MoreSummertime means that bees are out and about pollinating our crops and private gardens and the untamed lots where wildflowers grow. They work hard to collect pollen and nectar, they communicate by dance, and they feed from the honey stored in their delicately crafted honeycomb. As they go about this routine, they can provoke a variety of reactions from people.
Read MoreThe summer before my junior year of high school I had the amazing opportunity to travel to the island of Antigua on a mission trip. The majority of our trip was spent inland where we were able to see the heart, soul, and reality of this beautiful paradise. Tourism drove the economy of this small island, but the people drove the tourism. I witnessed a unity within the individuals of this community that far surpassed anything I had experienced in my young life.
Read MoreWe have all heard the adage that it takes a village to raise a child. The vision of JMCSS Strong, a newly formed public school advocacy group in Jackson-Madison County, is for each child in our school system to have a village to help him/her succeed. Since we know that villages are formed by connecting people to one another, we want to make sure that children, along with their parents and teachers, are not disconnected from the larger system.
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