JAG leader hopes for success
Published 12:00 am Friday, July 23, 2004
Dorothy Adams is one Southside High teacher who is eager to get back to work. As the Jobs for America’s Graduates instructor, Adams had a lot of success with her students last year and is hoping for a repeat this time around.
Adams has been a JAG instructor at Southside for the past eight years, and praises the program’s comprehensive set of services designed to help teen-agers graduate and get a job.
“It’s a program that students are selected to participate in,” Adams said. “It’s not an honors class, but my students treat it as if it were. They have to maintain at least a 70 percent on their competency testing.”
JAG students must take at least 30 competency tests to show they have basic knowledge to obtain a quality job or attend college.
Earlier this month, Adams attended a JAG seminar in Chicago where she was presented with a certificate of appreciation for completing 1,680 hours of community service during the 2003-04 school year.
“All of this work was really done by me and my students,” Adams said. “We did a number of service projects around the community and in-house at the school.”
Some of these projects included hosting Christmas programs and presenting gifts to area nursing homes, becoming reading mentors to students at B.K. Craig Elementary School, holding three blood drives at Southside, and being winners of a canned food drive.
JAG also does career association activities that include job shadowing and participation in job fairs and conferences.
One JAG student, Darlene Atkins, even won a contest last year to become the top high school speaker in the state.
“I really enjoy being involved in this program,” Adams said. “It gives students an opportunity to develop leadership and team skills. It also provides counseling for students as well as give them community service credit.”
Adams said each year there are around 45 students selected to be in the JAG program. They receive classroom instruction, employability skills training, summer employment placement and job and postsecondary education placement after graduation.
“I also follow up on former students for a year after they have graduated,” Adams said. “Most of them have gone on to college.”
Adams said she is looking forward to school starting back in August and believes the upcoming group of JAG students will have an equally successful year as their predecessors.