Seniors in the Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) class recently took a trip downtown to attend a business meeting being held by a board of influential community members. The JAG trip, while the meeting was only an hour long, the students gained knowledge they can use in the future.
The beginning of the meeting had JAG specialist Mindy McCormick, show community leaders why JAG is important.
“We want them to know what JAG is,” McCormick said. “We have students that are looking for jobs; that are looking to explore different career opportunities and to find out what we have locally.”
Prior to the trip, the class had never seen a business meeting in action.
“This was the first time that the class really saw how a business meeting was run, and it was the first time that they got to meet a lot of community leaders,” McCormick said. “It was an opportunity for the community leaders and businesses to inform all of our students.”
Among the seniors attending, Madison Williams learned more about the community leaders and what they do.
“I learned that there are a lot of numbers included in the chamber,” Williams said. “They also just live their day-to-day lives, just normal people that just want to create a good environment for the community.”
Another senior, Isaac Firestine, found the meeting process interesting, and liked how city events were planned out in advance.
“I didn’t know that there was a community inside of a community that organizes big fundraisers and events that happen in town,” Firestine said.
McCormick hopes this trip will bring in more community leaders to come into her JAG classes to bring more knowledge to future JAG students
“Hopefully, from this, we will get more community leaders to come into class as guest speakers, to talk about opportunities, or just talk about their own career path where they landed,” McCormick said.
McCormick also hopes to have more future field trips for her JAG classes as a result of this trip.
“If we could get business tours with different companies, that would also be fantastic, especially because it’s right here,” McCormick said.
