Tennessee Students Earn National Leadership Awards

Nashville, TN - Three Tennessee high school students brought home national honors from the Jobs for America’s Graduates National Student Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. Samantha Cali, of Fairview High School in Williamson County, won first place in Employability Skills. Lee Ficken, also of Fairview High School, won first place in Public Speaking. Curtis Lapham, of Franklin High School in Williamson County, won third place for program cover design. Jobs for America’s Graduates is a national model to help prepare at-risk students for success after high school.

“The program aims to equip graduating students to start a career path or continue onto higher education,” Jobs for Tennessee Graduates Director Betsy Houston said. “The competition categories target skills employers and universities value in a high school graduate. For these seniors to perform at the top in the nation is a considerable accomplishment.”

JTG teachers of the winning students are Vickie Parsons of Fairview High School and Cathy Dennis of Franklin High School. The trip was sponsored by Workforce Essentials in Clarksville and JAG board member John Steele of HCA in Nashville. Jerry Jones, JTG program manager, coordinated and co-chaperoned the trip.

Jobs for Tennessee Graduates providing special training to high school seniors and ongoing support for the year immediately following graduation. Tennessee’s affiliate program has won the highest performance marks for two years because of the exceptional graduation and success rate of students participating in the program. The 2007 graduation rate for JTG participants was 96.2 percent and 86.9 percent found full-time placement in the workforce, higher education, the military or a combination of these areas. The Tennessee Department of Education partners with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development to operate JTG in 38 schools statewide.

Thirty-two Tennessee students from Davidson, Williamson and Carter counties attended the leadership conference in December. The conference features leadership development workshops, competitions and meetings and tours in the D.C. community. A photo of Tennessee student award winners is available upon request.

For more information, contact Rachel Woods at (615) 253-1960 or Rachel.Woods@state.t.us.