Clarksville Living Magazine — August 2016
The August 2016 Clarksville Living Magazine arrives at the tail end of a punishing summer, with a reader-submitted photograph of the Cumberland River on the cover and a long look at how Tennessee was trying to send its adults back to college.
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Publisher Carla Lavergne opens on the weather and the calendar — another summer flown by, a scorcher that took its time arriving and then dug in, and a son who wanted it to move as slowly as possible because school was about to start. She also breaks the magazine's own rule this month: the cover is a reader-submitted photograph of the Cumberland River, which she calls breathtaking, noting that reader photos don't usually make the cover.
The cover story, by staff writer Pamela Roddy Magrans, examines the Tennessee Reconnect and Reverse Transfer Initiative and the wider Drive to 55 — Governor Bill Haslam's push to get 55 percent of Tennessee adults holding a degree or certificate by 2025. The local numbers frame the problem plainly: 25 percent of Montgomery County residents hold an associate or bachelor's degree, and while the county's high school graduation rate of 93.4 percent runs well ahead of the state's 87.2 percent, its college attendance rate lags the Tennessee average. The piece walks through Tennessee Reconnect, which opens the Colleges of Applied Technology to returning adults, and Reverse Transfer, which lets students who completed at least 15 hours before transferring have those credits evaluated toward an associate degree they may already have earned without knowing it.
It is candid about what stands in the way. Finance is the biggest statistical barrier; the other is family strain — most adult students are also parents and also working. “It is important for students to take the long view and know that the sacrifice the family is making now leads to many advantages in the future,” Martha Harper told the magazine.
Back-to-school coverage runs through the rest of the issue, from “Back to School 101: A Prep Class for Parents” to a health and safety checklist. Around town, Riverfest 2016 previews the city's riverside festival, and a feature on Pokémon Go catches Clarksville in the summer everyone was suddenly walking downtown staring at their phones, alongside the regular departments — Pet Pix, Candid Clarksville, the Calendar, Network and the Fridge.
Table of Contents
- Tennessee Reconnect and Reverse Transfer Initiative (p. 6)
- Back to School 101: A Prep Class for Parents (p. 12)
- Travel Day (p. 16)
- Riverfest 2016 (p. 24)
- Pokémon Go (p. 26)
- Back to School: A Handy Health & Safety Checklist (p. 28)
- Dental Implants—The Best Option to Replace Missing Teeth (p. 30)
- 5 Simple Changes for Weight Loss (p. 32)
Regular Departments
- Faith & Family (p. 22)
- Candid Clarksville (p. 34)
- FT CAMPBELL Families (p. 35)
- Network (p. 36)
- Fridge (p. 46)
