Seventy high school students have spent part of their school year working with industry partners through the Future 42 Mentors program, gaining valuable experience and insight into potential future careers.
“We are so fortunate to have our industry partners. This program is a testament of how they’re investing in you,” Heather Yocum, Carrollton Campus Director at JCTC told the students who were gathered for the annual end of program banquet.
Yocum, Chad Rose, counselor at the Carroll County Area Technology Center, and Jenna Gray, director of iLEAD Academy, are the core facilitators of the Future 42 Mentor program. They reached out to industry leaders, forging partnerships with titans like Dow, Kentucky Utilities, NUCOR, North American Stainless, and PMC Organo-Metallix. Together, they envisioned a program that would bridge the gap between high school education and the professional world, offering students from Carroll, Trimble, Henry, Gallatin, and Owen counties a chance to explore potential career paths firsthand.
“Students, these are real opportunities,” Rose said. “It’s really, really cool to be part of something having an impact in individual lives and in our regional community.”
The students also heard from two of their own - Gabe Carter, who is an Owen County student at the Carroll County ATC, and Melesa Herzet, a Carroll County High School student at iLEAD Academy.
“It has been a gift and an opportunity most people don’t get,” Carter said. He is studying electrical technology and said this experience has helped him determine what he would like to do with his life.
Herzet, who has been in the program for two years, said she worked one year with Kentucky Utilities and this year with NUCOR. “My experience in the Future 42 has been very beneficial,” she said. “I am excited to see how this benefits our area in the future.”
The bulk of the students in the Future 42 program are juniors and seniors. “You should know a new world will open up to you after high school,” Dow’s Early Career & Apprentice Program Leader Joey Martin said. He encouraged all the students to stand on their own merits of hard work, how they treat others and the skills they have learned.
“I believe in you, your mentors believe in you, your school faculty believe in you, so believe in yourself,” Martin told the students.
Each participant in the program received a certificate. A Future 42 emblem crafted by iLEAD Academy/Owen County High School student Blake Gaines and gifted to representatives from the Kentucky Career Center, Dow, Kentucky Utilities, NUCOR, North American Stainless and PMC Organo-Metallix.
The following Carroll County students participate in Future 42 Mentors: Logan Baxter, Aidan Cox, Dakota Green, Dillan Human, Lyric McKinney, Ross Crawford, Dalton Crawford, Landon Supplee, Dustin Battaglia, Dylan Marsh, Cristian Roque, Jonathan Abrams, Rakem Patrick, Eliza Coulter, Caleb Smith, Evan Alsup, Jerek Garrett, Melesa Herzet, Elijah Watson, Isaiah Watson, Edwin Rodriguez, Christopher Perez, Jack Chowning, Jose Gomez, Gavin Pella and Celia Tuttle.
