D’Quaylom Brown graduated high school Saturday, and he knows exactly what’s coming next.
Brown is in for a short summer. He leaves for basic training with the U.S. Army on June 9.
“I just had a feeling that I wanted to go into the military,” he said.
He attended West Lowndes High School, where he participated in the JROTC program. He and five of his classmates are enlisting in the armed forces, in a class size of 46.
Brown, a tall, lean young man with big hands and soft voice, plans on attending college after his time in the service. But the Army, he said, is the best place for him to start.
“I was thinking about going to school, but if you join the Army first, they will pay for your college,” he said.
For approximately 1,500 students graduating from Golden Triangle high schools this month, the decision of where to go next and how to get there comes down to numbers.
What’s the price? What are the academic requirements? How many steps will it take to reach the goal?
The changing post-high school landscape
The way to attain the American Dream constantly changes.
Up through the 1960s, someone could graduate high school, enter the workforce and live comfortably. Then came a push for college. It was viewed not only as a way to enter your chosen profession, but as a place to find yourself.
The 2008 economic crash ripped the American middle class back into reality: College is expensive; student debt is skyrocketing; Baby Boomers who thought they could retire early remain in the workforce and younger generations find themselves competing for a smaller share of jobs.
Now, the message is shifting again. Maybe everyone should not go to college. Maybe we should prepare high school students for the jobs they are likely to fill, which may require specific skills, and less abstract thinking.
Guiding students
For high school counselors in the Golden Triangle, it’s all about being realistic when it comes to going to college.
The key is to find out what a students wants and comparing it to where they are at academically and financially, said Holly McBrayer, assistant principal and longtime counselor at New Hope High School.
Planning for the future starts early.
In middle school, Lowndes County School District students take an interest inventory to narrow down fields in which they are best suited.
“In between their eighth-grade year until the year they graduate, they work in our career center and they work on knowing what they have to have to do that major, and seeing where that pay is,” McBrayer said. “Even to know, ‘Is this going to be a need in six years when I get out? Is it going to be highly recruited? Do I have to go to a big city?’ All that job stuff, they go over at the career center and that starts in the eighth grade.”
McBrayer and fellow New Hope High School counselor Billy Ray credit the science, technology, engineering and mathematics teachers with inspiring students to pursue practical applications of their own interests.
Local schools also offer career and interview days, where local employers offer an opportunity for students to learn about employment fields and prepare for professional interaction.
Juniors and seniors are also offered college fairs where they can ask schools about programs they have interest in. Once an ideal college presents itself, price is often considered.
“I say, ‘Look at what it’s going to cost you to go to that school, whereas you could go to East Mississippi (Community College) for two years for a few thousand dollars, or free if you graduate from a Lowndes County school,'” Ray said. “There’s a whole lot of things you can do to get those first two years in, then you go to that big school. You get your credits, you get your grade average up, then you can go further.”
Cutting costs
Golden Triangle students have a large incentive to attend East Mississippi Community College.
In response to the 2008 recession, EMCC president Dr. Rick Young announced in April 2009 that tuition to his college would be guaranteed for students from Clay, Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Noxubee, Kemper and Lauderdale counties who graduated from an accredited school in the district, apply for all state and federal financial aid and possible EMCC scholarships, register for 15 credit hours the semester following their graduation and remain a full time student with a minimum 2.0 grade point average. All costs not covered by financial aid, the college will cover itself.
“At EMCC, we’re all about knocking down the barriers that stand between people and opportunity,” Young said. “The tuition guarantee program is removing some of the barriers that have prevented people from pursuing higher education.”
Many students go to EMCC to take advantage of the economic opportunity, several continue their education after earning an associates degree or a year’s worth of credits.
That’s the plan for Caledonia High School class of 2015 graduate Christian Gray. He told The Dispatch he wants to ultimately get a bachelor’s degree in forensics, but plans to start his studies at EMCC by earning an associates degree in criminal justice.
“It’s something you see on T.V. in CSI and shows like that, I think that it’s really interesting, and I just want to see how that is,” Gray said.
The middle child of three brothers raised by a single mom, Gray wants to earn as many credits at a lower price as possible.
Lowndes County students who take advantage of the tuition guarantee at EMCC can continue their education at the Mississippi University for Women with the same tuition guarantee provided they maintain at 2.5 GPA and apply for all student aid.
The University of Mississippi estimates it costs an in-state student $23,372 per year. That’s about $94,000 for a four-year degree.
Building a workforce
Juniors in high school have long taken an exam that analyzes their ability to succeed in college.
Be it the SAT or the ACT, the exams are a key factor for determining where a student can go to college and how much scholarship money they can get. In Mississippi, the average composite ACT score is 18.7 out of a possible 36. The national average is 21.1.
Now, a new test from the creators of the ACT is being used to assess a students ability to learn and preform manufacturing tasks. It’s called the WorkKeys test.
This winter, the Golden Triangle Development LINK approached all the public school boards in the Golden Triangle and asked them to adopt the WorkKeys test and offer it to high school juniors. All local schools accepted, and all except Starkville High School began offering the test this spring.
WorkKeys is scored a on metal ranking.
“Platinum” is the highest score possible, while “silver” is what’s required for anyone seeking a job at the Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mississippi Plant, set to open in Clay County on October 5.
McBrayer and Lee said having the WorkKeys test offered is good for some students, but they will continue to prioritize the ACT.
“There’s kids who are driven that way, but you have kids who know they want to be doctors, lawyers or teachers and that’s not something they have to take,” McBrayer said of the WorkKeys test. “But then you have others for whom that’s exactly what they need … the kids need to know it’s out there to, but it’s not something they all need to do.”
This spring, West Point High School led the Golden Triangle in students taking the WorkKeys test. Seventy-two kids took the test, with 71 percent earning a “silver’ or higher.
LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins told attendees at a community development update event recently that companies interested in coming to the Golden Triangle are no longer asking what the population is, but instead what the WorkKeys scores in the area are.
In the coming years, WorkKeys participation at schools will grow and more students will be looked at once again as candidates to fill America’s manufacturing jobs, and a smaller percentage will pursue a four-year liberal arts education.
Mississippi job prospects
Last year, 28,317 students graduated from public high schools across Mississippi.
Through 2020, there will be 57,000 jobs for people who do not have a high school diploma, according to the Mississippi Department of Education. During the same time period, there will be 308,000 jobs for people with high school diplomas and some college; 73,000 jobs for people with a bachelor’s degree; and 34,000 jobs for people with a masters degree or higher, according to MDE.
The average bachelor’s degree holder in the U.S. earned $1,101 a week last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median weekly income for someone with an associates degree was $792; those with some college but no degree had a median of $741 per week; and those with high school diplomas earned a median of $688 per week, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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