You may have caught a glimpse of sophomore Zeilon Chestnut recently on a curated video of testimonials on the College's Facebook. It turns out that the sophomore defensive end has dreams of playing in the NFL.
Chestnut is wrapping up Summer II Term courses to help bring his Tiger days to a strong close. The COVID-19 shutdown kept students lodged at home taking classes last summer. This year, however, Chestnut has been able to join other summer school students in residing on campus.
He says that he has seen substantial growth in himself since he stepped foot on the Coahoma Community College campus.
"The campus and the faculty and staff are just like almost another family for me and other people," said Chestnut. "They know you. It's all smiles and hugs."
But what has led Chestnut to the Tiger terrace? Simply put, he couldn't resist having a spot on the Coahoma Football team.
"Coming out of high school, my main factor for choosing a school was based on where I was able to play football. So, when the football program changed its coaching staff, and the culture of the school changed, it made me even more interested in the school as a whole," Chestnut detailed.
"And my mom is a teacher, so she made sure that I looked at the academic part of it. She was always informing me on changes to CCC and what they were doing. So, everything went hand-in-hand."
Upon the College's resumed summer activities, students were met with a new food service, Thompson Hospitality, which offers students an impressive dining experience. Chestnut says the cafeteria's change-up is a "definite upgrade" and describes the new service as clear-cut, providing quality and variety.
Moreover, he can't wait for new and returning Tigers to be initiated into the improved campus culture in the fall.
"I'm looking forward to a lot more people coming to campus and experiencing the new culture that we have," Chestnut shared. "Covid was very unfortunate and was detrimental nationally. It kept people out of the loop when it came to the changes and stuff, so if you're not here, you don't actually feel the change."