James Jackson

JRNL 3125
Grant
2/24/2015
Mackenzie Sirmans

What Does Rural Studies mean to me? To me, its the uniqueness. It means that I can make
myself unique and can market myself in a special way compared to anyone else. Mackenzie
Sirmans

The Rural Studies program has allowed Mackenzie to diversify her education forward to
what she wanted to do. She loves how intimate the class is where she could receive hands on
experience and be known as herself and not as another number. She originally wanted to
change her major and wasnt sure of what she wanted to do in life, so she was directed to Dean
Darby Sol. After giving Dean Sol a general idea of what she wanted to do, Dean Sol encouraged
her to try the Social and Community Development focus of the Rural Studies program.

Mackenzie was also told that unlike other Bachelor programs that had specific courses,
such as the math and sciences, the Rural Studies program had basic requirements that are needed
but also that had the ability to allow her to choose electives that would provide her with different
experiences that would all benefit her degree.

James Jackson
JRNL 3125
Grant
2/24/2015
Mackenzie Sirmans

Rural Studies in general is a completely different program compared to any other on the
ABAC campus. In the program you are able to take focuses of what youre learning or their
concepts and apply them to the rural area. Specifically, the Social and Community Development
focus is where the students look at both social and policy issues and apply them to rural areas
where we learn how to take those issues and focus on how to improve them. Literally in the title,
we develop the social aspect of different communities through different means, Policy based,
social based, business based, etc.

She recently had an internship with Behavioral Health Services of South Georgia at the
Turner County Developmental Disabilities Center. This is partly due to having psychology as her
minor, which helped specify where exactly she wanted to direct her focus in rural studies. During
her internship, Mackenzie was working with the developmentally disabled adults and brought
them out to the community. The Rural Studies helped her understand how to apply the
knowledge she had of psychology with the background of the people that she worked with to
help relate to them on a different level.

James Jackson
JRNL 3125
Grant
2/24/2015
Mackenzie Sirmans

When she left the disabilities center, it left her with a good experience in that field. I
loved it, if I could go back and work there full time then I would love that. Not only did she
enjoy the atmosphere and people, but also learned important job qualities that employees look
for; professionalism, experience, and also what to look for in a companys policy and how it feels
to be driven by it.

After her internship, she also became employed at ABAC as the head Community
Assistant (CA) at Lakeside. She is currently seeking a Masters Degree in Higher Education
Administration, specifically student affairs, at Valdosta State University in the fall of 2015 and
she feels that becoming the Head CA will give her the experience not only to work with student
but also as the boss. She also notes that thanks to the Rural Studies program, she did gain the
professionalism, public speaking, and communication abilities to help succeed in her job.

Her degree in Rural Studies has allowed her to be able to set herself apart as she gets
ready to move on to graduate school. Also, based on diversified education, she feels that the
program has prepared her for numerous job opportunities in the future.