By Kenney Kost/reporter

Seven TCC students will tweet the dream at a national conference starting Feb. 26.

The students have been chosen to give others nationwide an inside look at the five-day Achieving the Dream 2012 Annual Meeting on Student Success in Dallas.

The TCC tweeters are Britni Horner and Dolline Men, NE Campus; Benjamin Cope and Jordan Earls, TR Campus; Florisa Esquivel and Dietra Taylor, SE Campus; and Channora Trieu, NW Campus.

They have access to all events and full license to tweet on any aspect of the conference.

They were selected based on recommendations from faculty and student activities staff members on each campus.

“The students selected are top-notch, students who go above and beyond for TCC,” said Sherri Mata, TCC’s Achieving the Dream director.

Achieving the Dream is a network of community colleges, policymakers and higher education researchers who understand the importance of data-informed decision-making in fostering student success. TCC is one of more than 150 Achieving the Dream colleges nationwide.

Many of those schools will have representatives on hand to share their ideas, various strategies being implemented and data based on the results.

Among the many topics are TCC’s priorities and various interventions designed to increase student success. Topics include establishing a collegewide mandatory New Student Orientation, reviewing and strengthening the Transition to College Success course and developing an early academic alert system.

In addition to tweeting, the students will interact with Achieving the Dream representatives and faculty, staff and students from other colleges.

“Networking is so important to students looking to transfer to a four-year,” Mata said, “and this conference gives them that opportunity along with professional development and career networking opportunities.”