Lauderdale County School District: Career & Technical Education Initiative

The Lauderdale County School District has partnered with the Mississippi Business Development Corporation for their Empow(Her) project which is a Career and technical initiative targeting their female students. We hear more from the Assistant Principal about the program.

"We have an opportunity to partner with a nonprofit in meridian. It's called sleep in heavenly peace. So we're having Empowher, which is Empow(Her). It's a program where we're actually allowing 20 students from each of our Lauderdale County Schools to come in and create bunk beds. And the joy is that Northeast Lauderdale High school has an opportunity to actually host this event. So we're looking forward to having students from the various Lauderdale Campuses on our campus on May 20," stated Shacora Moore.

A unique touch to the program is that it is geared towards young women who have an interest in construction work.

"The goal is to expose young ladies to other opportunities, other careers, just to make them aware of the things that are available for them and then also to expose them to other women that are working in these professions," stated Moore.

The student services coordinator says this program will have a positive effect on the students and give them a broader view of jobs that may be available to them.

"When we say opportunities like this have the ability to make a huge impact, especially for women who are otherwise considered, you know, nontraditional in these fields. So there's an opportunity for these young ladies to make really wonderful salaries and be able to provide for their families one day," said Heather Lacoste.

We hear from some students about what they are looking forward to and what they enjoy about construction.

11th Grader Lindy Williams said "I'm a part of the north face shop class here and we're glad to host our girls coming up. And I'm glad to be a part of this program and have the boys welcome in to have girls in their class and excited for girls coming up in the year."

"We get to use our hands, which is always fun. Instead of sitting at a desk all day and we get to be creative and do our own things," said 10th Grader Macey Irby.

9th Grader Semya Bruster said, "So I've never really had an art class, so it gives me an opportunity to use my hands and create projects."

The project is due to begin on May 20th when the students will be building twin bed frames for those in need.