Video: Lee County Scholar Programs in Full Swing

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) — Tupelo’s Community Development Foundation is encouraging eighth graders to start thinking about high school and beyond. On this Friday, all eighth grade students at Plantersville Middle School are getting a look at life after high school and the importance of education and technical training beyond the 12th grade.

It’s part of the Mississippi Scholars and Techmasters initiative.

“The program is a four year high school program, begins the first day of ninth grade, ends when they graduate,” says Gina Black with CDF.

By the end of this semester, all eighth graders in Tupelo and Lee County schools will have seen this presentation.

Eighth graders see the benefits of some having some sort of higher education.

“We do some fun exercises with them, where we offer them a job for $13.50 an hour, which is about the average wage for a Mississippian and we let them know what kind of quality of life they would get with that wage.”

Those students who enroll in the program will take higher level courses, along with completing community or volunteer service, and they must maintain at least a C average and display good behavior.

Eighth graders say the program makes sense.

“I think it gives a lot of students, who don’t know what they want to do, puts them on the right path, makes it easier where they can find something they’re good at or they want to do,” says student Mecca Muhammed.

Typically, about sixty students take part in the program every year. Organizers want to boost those numbers, so in the long run, more Lee County and Tupelo students will be better prepared for whatever track they choose after high school.

Students who complete the program get medallions from the Mississippi Economic Council.