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to work at Parklane Academy, he as the band director and she teaching junior high English (for four years) and Mississippi history (for one year), and serving as the junior high school coordinator and also auxiliary coordi nator (flags, rifles and twirlers) with the band. Four years later, when Tom was named band director at ECCC, Brenda searched for K-8 jobs in the area but there were no openings. College President Dr. Charles Wright and vice president for Instruction Dr. Brad Tucker approached her about taking the publicity director position which had been vacated by the previ ous band director’s wife. That’s how

not knowing what was in store career wise for herself, she said it was a great move for their family. “My children spent lots of time on campus and they spent lots of time in my office or the band hall after hours. Chris was 15 months old when we moved here and we lived in campus housing. Jennifer was born two years later. We walked to work and could walk the campus in evenings and weekends. Campus was home for us. After five years, we bought a home off campus. Jeremy was born several years later. As the years passed, the children grew up and attended the College and joined us as graduates of ECCC.” Carson said she was also fortunate

Kimberly Mott and Brenda Carson

she got her start at East Central. She also assisted with the band, mostly with the Centralettes dance line and the Color Guard, as there was no assistant band director at that time. She recalled having to learn how to take photos with the college camera, which at that time was a Rolleiflex-type twin lens that was held at the waist with the viewfinder mounted on top. She also had to learn to develop film in the dark room on campus. She remembered one of her first assignments was to take photos of the football team for the program and she also wrote articles for the newspaper. It was only a month or so later that Denver Brackeen, who served as Dean of Students at the time, called her in to tell her they were looking for someone to serve as director of a new Financial Aid Department and asked if she was inter ested. After a lengthy discussion with Dean Brackeen about the role of the new director and talking things over with Tom, Brenda Carson became ECCC’s first Director of Financial Aid. Although she knew a little about financial aid and had re ceived financial assistance as a student, there was still much to be learned in her new role. Raymond McMullan, who served as academic counselor Dean Brackeen oversaw state aid which at that time included SSIG, federal loans, federal and institutional work study, and scholarships. When Carson took over, everything was consoli dated into one office and she was the only staff. She began attending with Dean Brackeen meetings of the Mississippi Association of Financial Aid Administrators and other available training sessions through a guarantee agency which had been established by the State of Mississippi. “Those meetings allowed me to make connections through out the state,” she said. “Other community colleges were add ing financial aid offices and we were starting to see growth and change in the area of financial aid. Carson said when she and Tom moved back here it was like coming home. Her parents were in Philadelphia, his in Conehatta, and they had both had fond memories of their time as students at ECCC. Although she was a bit anxious “ and would later go on to serve as Director of Admis sions, Records, and Research, had been handling Fed eral Pell Grants.

that she and Tom were able to work together at the same school. She recalled he was her “bouncer” during the long lines of registration (in the Career-Technical Center before the format was changed to the advance registration model) keeping everyone in line and she was his chaperone on trips with band and Collegians. “Dean Brackeen had told me that he thought I would like financial aid and that it would be a good profession. He was right and I never pursued leaving my job or EC. I had found a job still in education where I could be of service both to the institution and to the students. “In addition, I stayed in financial aid because it was better for us as a family and a great opportunity for us to work together here. I did have the opportunity to teach a section of Child Psychology classes at EC for a couple of semesters in the 1980s when Mrs. Alice Pouncey had an overload of students.” “After I started working here, I developed relationships with people on campus. Some of us will remember the short break times spent taking a walk on campus or in the faculty lounge in the old student grill. We really got to know each other. As campus started growing the amount of time spent together with others outside the office changed a bit as the

” I still love what I do, but I’m going to have some ‘Brenda time’ now, which will include my children and grandchildren.

number of staff, students and re sponsibilities grew. It is my hope that EC will be able to maintain the ‘EC” family atmosphere

for not only students but also employees. Carson has always believed in hard work and she always thought one was to complete the job no matter the time it took. She said if there is a job to do, one should see it through whatever it takes. That sometimes caused her to work late into the evenings and on a few occasions to work all night. When she began her career here, there was already talk of building a student union and moving the Financial Aid and other offices there. It was talked about years before it was planned and then it was several more years before funding was available. “At the time we were planning that building, I had one sec retary, an assistant for loans and an assistant for work-study.

–CARSON continued on page 25

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