Dakota Wimpy leans over as he writes his name on his brown paper bag during the Jobs for Tennessee Graduates class at Marion County High School in Jasper, Tenn. Students were asked to collect items and images that related to their interests and personalities and put them on their bags during class. Afterward they presented the bag to the class.Marion County's Jobs for Tennessee Graduates program was recognized nationally recently for notching high marks in five categories of performance in meeting program goals, officials said.
The county earned the "Five of Five Award," individually at South Pittsburg High School and on average among all three of its high schools. The award refers to performance in the areas of graduation rates, job placement rate, full-time job placement rate, positive outcome rate and employment rate, Marion school officials said.
Marion County High School 2011 graduate Keta Robinette, 18, said the program helped shape her goals and gave her the tools to move confidently toward a career.
Autumn Laws, left, and Makala Vandergriff paste magazine cut-outs onto brown bags during a Jobs for Tennessee Graduates program class at Marion County High School Thursday in Jasper, Tenn. Students assembled images and items on the bag that described their personality and interests. Afterwards, they presented the bags to the class. In doing so, Hope Ellis-Ashburn, the teacher of the class, hoped to learn more about the students and how she could relate the students' interests and personality into potential jobs in the future."I'm now going to school at Young Harris College," Robinette said. "I'm going to play basketball and study to become a veterinarian."
The class was invaluable, she said.
"It will almost guarantee you a great opportunity to get a job," she said. "I'm taking what I learned and moving on to school."
The program is designed to be a mix of students, said Jobs for Tennessee Graduates career specialist and teacher Hope Ellis-Ashburn, who earned the "high performing specialist" award and oversees Marion's 10-year-old program.
About half the students entering the program must be at-risk for not graduating from high school, she said. Administrators recommend other students for the program.
"Eleven times in the past 10 years, either an individual school or an average of the three [high] schools have achieved 'Five of Five' status," Ellis-Ashburn said.
The program progressively takes students from the job idea stage to a formal job search, including how to dress and behave in the interview and, later, on the job. Students learn what employers expect of employees and how to fit the lifestyle they want to have with the job they need to get there, she said.
The Jobs for Tennessee Graduates program was launched in 1980 to help students develop competency in 37 essential job skills.
Marion launched the program during the 2002-03 school year, according to Ellis-Ashburn. Over the past decade, about 450 Marion County students have passed through the class.
Marion's three high school principals like the program.
"It's a rare opportunity for us to get insight into the working world," Marion County High School Principal Sherry Prince said.
"They're suddenly becoming aware of what's about to become prominent in their life -- work," Prince said. "It's a little scary. It's good to have some ammunition."
Whitwell High Principal Josh Holtcamp and South Pittsburg High Principal Alan Pratt said many students see the program as vital for success.
"I'd like to see it expanded," Holtcamp said. "The program is so widely known now, I could sit back and do nothing and the class would fill up."
"For our school, it's a valuable resource to prepare our students to enter the workforce," Pratt said. "It's communication between the employers and the students, and it really builds knowledge on how the process works."