Mississippi Scholars Program Prepares Students to Succeed
community development foundation, education, higher education, mississippi scholars, tupelo,
When you’re 13 years old, the prospect of earning $13 an hour is exciting. Think of the flat-screen televisions, hot cars and cool clothes that kind of money can buy. Or maybe not.
Courtesy of the Mississippi Scholars Program, Tupelo eighth-graders are learning that money may not go as far as they think – all the more reason to stay in school, take tougher courses and prepare for a more lucrative work life.
“We want to make children aware of the different opportunities that await them if they complete higher-rigor courses and not just the minimum to get out of high school,” says Todd Beadles, director of workforce development at the Community Development Foundation in Tupelo, which shepherds the Mississippi Scholars program locally.
The state program, part of a national State Scholars Initiative, was launched in 2003. Since then, more than 5,000 Mississippi high school students have earned the Mississippi Scholars distinction by successfully completing a beefed-up course of study.
In Lee County, Beadles says, more than 200 students in the past three years have graduated with the distinction, earning special medallions and certificates, recognition on their transcripts and, in 2007, Best Buy gift cards.
Beadles and other business professionals in the area present special PowerPoint programs in local schools, demonstrating how better education boosts earnings. Students learn what employers expect from them, what a transcript looks like and how more difficult coursework pays off.
Looking at a line-by-line budget that includes rent, taxes, food, auto expenses, clothing, etc., the students soon learn that getting rich on $13 an hour is a fantasy.
“Kids think it’s a fortune, and that they could have everything they want,” Beadles adds. “They are flabbergasted, to be honest, to see how little money that is and how quickly it goes.”
In Tupelo, members of the Community Development Foundation’s Tupelo Young Professionals group have been important volunteers in the program, sharing the scholars’ presentation and their own experiences.
While the Mississippi Scholars program is primarily aimed at college-bound students, Beadles casts his net a bit wider in Tupelo, encouraging those who will join the working world right after high school to stay in school and work harder while they’re there.
“We want to reach out to a broader variety of students,” he says. “We’ve gotten to a point, with Toyota coming into the region, for example, where we need to advocate skilled trades, jobs that make good money and very good careers for people.”
Curbing the state’s 26.6 percent high school dropout rate was the subject of two Graduation Destination summits in January and February 2008, hosted by America’s Promise Alliance.
Held in Jackson, Miss., high school students and then adults discussed how to cut the dropout rate in half in the next seven years.
Mississippi Superintendent of Education Hank Bounds says there’s no doubt that high school dropouts suffer economically, but the state suffers, too.
“As a state, we pay a heavy price in terms of lost tax revenue, lost economic development and increased dependence on social services,” he says.
Story by Laura Hill
Comments
Leave your own comment:
