Ashley Weaver, 49, isn’t new to Mississippi State. In fact, she first enrolled as a transfer student in the fall of 1992. In 1995, the fifth-year senior was burned out on her studies, about to get married and ready to head west for a new adventure.

Courtney E. Thompson, an assistant professor in Mississippi State’s history department, went to Harvard University with intentions of becoming a medical doctor. However, a core curriculum history class “blew my mind,” said the Toms River, New Jersey, native, and changed the trajectory of her career.