By Bart Moss for the FCT

Students from Phil Campbell and Tharptown competed in mid-March in the North District Career Development Conference in Florence.

The conference is part of the statewide JAG program, or Jobs for Alabama Graduates.

The JAG program is designed to help high school students develop career and life skills to compete in today’s workforce. Phil Campbell and Tharptown have the program through a statewide grant. Students are taught life skills like goal setting, time management and motivational skills, as well as career skills like resume writing, interviewing, proper attire and communication.

The competition the students participated in at Florence is the first step to state competition that will be held at the State Career Development Conference in early April at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center.

Phil Campbell senior Will Clark won first place in the job interview competition.

“The JAG conference was a very stressful experience that took lots of hard work and determination but in the end, it paid off,” said Clark. “I met a lot of new people, and I had the experience of a lifetime. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to go to the state competition and compete.”

Phil Campbell’s JAG Bowl team (quiz bowl) won third place. Students on this team were Anthony Marroquin, Skylar King, Cody Cotham and Brooke Harbin.

Phil Campbell also won third place in the Scrapbook competition, which is a review of the program’s activities and accomplishments from the school year. Tharptown’s program finished fourth in Scrapbook.

Tharptown junior Valeria Vela won second place in the Employability Skills competition. Tharptown junior Aaron Creasy finished fourth in the Math Skills competition.

“The event was an exceptional opportunity for JAG students to learn about all the great job opportunities in Alabama,” said Tharptown senior Janet Martinez.

“I learned so many new things about job skills and about being successful,” added Tharptown senior Rachel Love. “Through the stress of graduation and starting a new life, I feel like I gained some valuable knowledge to help me going forward.”

The students also heard from guest speaker Gene Tackett, who spoke to the students about construction jobs and engineering.

“JAG is a great program for young people to be involved in,” said coordinator Tina King. “It teaches students the skills necessary to be productive in life and the workforce. Jobs are competitive, and these students need to learn how to stand out from the competition.”

Other students who participated in the competition were: from Phil Campbell, Abby Mansell, Alli Swinney, Brooke Baker and Blake McAfee, and from Tharptown, Kaylee Whitman, Sierra Robinson, Leah Borden, Joel Mojica, Braden Key, Cara Ergle and Cesar Zatarain.