BENTONVILLE — A group including the governor honored five high school seniors — in training as a welder, an engineer, a musician, a psychologist and an internet service tech respectively — on Thursday for finding their career paths through a guidance program new to Arkansas.
Those five are among the students helped by the rootEd Arkansas program, which started in September. Heartland Forward, a think tank and strategic planning group based in Bentonville, partnered with the state Department of Education and national nonprofit rootEd Alliance to put college and career advisers in rural high schools.
These advisers work with school guidance counselors as a bridge between schools, businesses and professionals from across the state to make students aware of options and opportunities and to remove any obstacles.
For instance, when she found students at Green Forest High School without driver’s licenses, which would severely limit their future job opportunities, rootEd adviser Tiffany James got permission to drive the students to training on how to drive and get licensed, she said. It was something school staff were willing to do, but work commitments do not allow. At the same time, James and her peers helped students connect with experts in larger cities in professional fields; apply for admissions, grants and scholarships; and rendered whatever other assistance was needed.
“We have to create as many opportunities as possible and make sure our students know about it,” Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said to the 350 people gathered at the Heartland Summit, an annual event held this year in the Momentary event center in Bentonville.
Students Madalyn Arnold and Henry Aguilar-Orellana of Green Forest and Dover High School seniors Xander Hammond, Ty Bates and Bailey Damon received $1,000 grants from the partnership on Thursday also.
“In rural communities across the U.S., students too often face limited access to college and career guidance — a gap that can leave future opportunities out of reach,” the Heartland Forward group said in a statement. “In Arkansas, nearly half of all schools are in rural areas, where high schoolers face unique barriers to accessing opportunities following graduation.”
The think tank’s mission is to revitalize opportunity in the United States between the Atlantic and Pacific coastal areas.
Doug Thompson is a reporter with more than 40 years of experience, including more than a quarter-century in Northwest Arkansas. He covers state politics from a Northwest Arkansas perspective and issues of regional importance for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He previously served as a state Capitol reporter, business and agriculture reporter, editorial writer, columnist and regional reporter for southwestern Arkansas. Before that he covered city government. He moved to Northwest Arkansas in 1998.
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