Jackson Free Press

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that the Mississippi Mass Choir would perform during the Tougaloo Gospel Explosion Musical. The group will not be performing during the event. We apologize for the error.

Hinds Community College's Utica campus hosted its Vice President's Scholarship and Hall of Honors Gala on Friday, March 29, at 7 p.m. at the Clyde Muse Center (515 Country Place Pkwy., Pearl) Among the 12 individuals Hinds honored during the event were Jackson State University Vice President and Chief of Staff Debra Mays-Jackson.

Mays-Jackson is an alumna of the Hinds Utica Campus, where she served as the college's first female vice president and was the first African American woman on the HCC President's Cabinet. She also established the Scholarship and Hall of Honors Gala in 2016 through the Hinds Community College Foundation. The inaugural event took place during HCC's Founder's Week in March 2016.

Each year during the gala, the HCC District Scholarship Committee selects two students with financial needs to receive scholarships during the event. The recipients retain the funding for up to four consecutive fall and spring semesters.

Mays-Jackson, a 1989 graduate of the Utica campus, also supervised operations for the Utica and Vicksburg-Warren campuses for four years and was responsible for the administrative services at all six Hinds campuses. While at the school, she also re-established the college's agriculture program, oversaw an $8-million renovation of the student center at Utica and worked to increase that campus' enrollment by 37 percent from 2016 to 2017.

In addition to her role as vice president and chief of staff at JSU, Mays-Jackson is also a board member with the Mississippi Department of Education Teacher Licensure Commission and United Way of the Capital Area.

For more information about the Vice President's Scholarship and Hall of Honors Gala, visit hindscc.edu or find the event on Facebook.

Tougaloo Gospel Explosion Musical

The Jackson Tougaloo Alumni Chapter will host a fundraising event called "Gospel Explosion Musical" at Greater Fairview Baptist Church (2545 Newport St.) on Friday, April 26. The event begins at 7 p.m. and will include performances from the General Mississippi Baptist Adult State Choir and several guest gospel artists, including Rhonda Chambers Davis, Taryn Johnson, Kelly Young Hart, Jacqueline Spann, Stephen Johnson and Elder Sylvester Spann Jr.

The event is free to attend, and the Jackson Tougaloo Alumni Chapter will hold a public offering in which guests can choose to donate any amount they wish toward the college's scholarship program. All donations from guests will fund scholarships for Tougaloo students.

For more information, call Minnie Clincy at 601-366-6553 or Lannie Spann McBride at 601-260-9705.

MSU 2019 International Film Festival

Mississippi State University will hold its 2019 International Film Festival from Saturday, March 30, to Friday, April 5.

MSU's Institute for the Humanities is hosting the second annual event in partnership with the Holmes Cultural Diversity Center. Visitors to the film festival will also be able to enter a raffle for a free meal during the 29th annual International Fiesta, a cultural exchange event that MSU is hosting on April 6.

"Call Me by Your Name," an Oscar-winning coming-of-age drama from director Luca Guadagnino, will air at 4 p.m. on March 30 in McCool Hall in MSU's Taylor Auditorium. The showing of this film is also part of Starkville Pride and the MSU LGBTQ+ Union's Pride Week event.

"102 and Not Out," a family comedy from director Umesh Shulka, will air at 5 p.m. on April 4 in MSU's Old Main Auditorium. The film is in Hindi with English subtitles.

"Wadjda," a comedy and drama from director Haifaa Al Mansour, will air at 5 p.m. on April 5 in the Old Main Auditorium. The film is in Arabic with English subtitles.

For more information on the 2019 International Film Festival and the International Fiesta, visit msstate.edu/events.