Grace Christian Elementary School (Hattiesburg Public Schools) with First Presbyterian Church, Hardy Street Baptist, Community Bank, Councilman Jeffery George, Hattiesburg Fire Department, and The Grace Christian Elementary PTO. The project aimed to help students recognize their strengths, weaknesses, passions, and skill sets through school-wide guidance/career lessons. Stakeholders met, virtually, on various occasions to determine needs, goals, and how each would contribute.

Grace Christian Elementary School’s mission is to educate ALL students to become productive citizens of a dynamic, global community. In doing so, we collaborated with First Presbyterian Church, Community Bank, Grace Christian Elementary PTO, Hardy Street Baptist Church, Councilman Jeffery George, and Hattiesburg
Fire Department. Pre-Covid 19 we were able to make this fun and engaging by ending the year with a Career Carnival for our students, parents, and valued community members. However, in an effort to keep everyone safe in the mist of Covid-19, we had to modify our career and college readiness plans.

In the 2020-2021 school year, we aimed to help students recognize their strengths, weaknesses, passions, and skill sets through school-wide guidance/career lessons. Stakeholders met, virtually, on various occasions to determine needs, goals, and how each would contribute. Next, activities were planned out over a period of time. At the school level (school-wide), students received information and participated in activities across various career clusters to build their awareness and knowledge in those fields. Student leaders were able to read books about careers to their peers and younger students. Next, amazing personnel from Community Bank (including the Bank President) brought “Bankers in the Classroom” to GCE. This program raised students' awareness in the career of banking and the act of saving and spending . Lastly, volunteers from each partnership came to the school and spoke with students in small group settings.

Working with First Presbyterian Church, Hardy Street Baptist, Community Bank, Councilman Jeffery George, Hattiesburg Fire Department, and the Grace Christian Elementary PTO was very beneficial. The partnership helped to meet our district goal of family and community engagement, build college and career awareness
and knowledge, expand students’ knowledge of earning, spending, and saving money, and gave students the opportunity to see people from their community in some of the career fields that they may one day be in themselves!