Middle Georgia Technical College

MGTC Receives Stay-In-School Grant

July 27 , 2007

For the third year in a row, Middle Georgia Technical College in partnership with the Houston County School system and specifically Northside High School, and Northside and Thomson Middle Schools has been awarded a Stay-In-School Grant. The grant comes from the Technical College System of Georgia and its main purpose is to help improve high school graduation rates and increase the percentage of students transitioning to post-secondary education.

“During the past two years, we’ve been able to do a tremendous amount of outreach through the Stay-In-School Initiative with both teachers and students,” said Alicia Long, Education and Career Partnership Manager for MGTC. “Our efforts with teachers have mainly focused on understanding the high school drop-out problem and developing methods and techniques that they can use to help increase high school graduation rates as well as help students understand the importance of continuing their education beyond high school. Our work with students has focused on 8th, 9th, and 10th graders and career development activities including a Summer Enrichment Camp, Career Scavenger Hunt, and an Open House at MGTC.”

Long said that she believes focusing on 8th, 9th, and 10th grade students has enabled educators and parents to get a head start on tackling the drop-out problem. In Georgia, statistics show that only not all 9th graders are likely to graduate from high school in four years or enroll in a postsecondary institution within a year of completing high school.

This year, the Stay-In-School grant will continue to focus on 8th graders completing career surveys and career plans that will help them set goals and investigate their options for study after high school.   The grant will help pay for professional development for teachers including a series of “teacher to teacher” meetings.  Teachers involved with the program will also have the opportunity to experience an “Education In Industry” program in which they will examine local industries and careers that their students may pursue.