From left: Grandparents Martha and Buddy Davis, father Russell Davis, scholarship recipient Parker Davis, grandparents Billy and Margie Parker and mother Larissa Davis.
From left: Father Gregory Carr Sr., brother Gregory Carr Jr., mother Gillian Carr, scholarship recipient Allayah Carr and sister Rayah Henderson. Back row/standing, Calhoun City Schools staff.
From left: Mother Tammye Johnson, scholarship recipient Seth Johnson, father Mike Johnson, (standing) grandparents Thomas and Gail Pierce.
“This is our first Academic and Arts Signing Day. We will recognize those students that have signed academic and arts scholarships in the same fashion as we recognize those that sign athletic scholarships,” said Calhoun High School Principal Greg Green.
CHS senior’s Allayah Carr, Parker Davis, and Seth Johnson, accompanied by each their parents, all participated in CHS’ first academic and arts signing day
Allayah Carr received the Emerging Leaders Scholarship from the University of West Georgia where she will pursue a degree in Political Science.
Parker Davis was awarded with a scholarship to Georgia Tech where he plans to major in Chemistry.
Seth Johnson will be attending Duke University in the fall on an academic scholarship where he plans to double major in Political Science and Philosophy.
“We’re extremely proud of these students and wish them great success as they further their academic journey,” said Dr. Michele Taylor, superintendent of Calhoun City Schools.
Green hopes to see more students signing academic and arts scholarships in the future, “to schools of their choice,” he said.
Not everyone needs to go to college. in fact most of the students who leave Calhoun for college do not graduate. that is not knocking Calhoun. That is true for all places. Calhoun has an inordinate number of students, percentage wise that go to college. There is a lot of pressure from the parents to go to college..not saying it is bad..it just is that way. What is bad is that when they leave college, either for financial, academic, or whatever reasons, without graduating, they have nothing to fall back on in the area of skills. They are back at square one with nothing that can give them leverage in the job market, sometimes with the burden of college loans. Ten years ago the difficulty of getting a job when you had no skills was difficult. Today it is almost impossible. What about kids who don't go to college. When they leave high school, they have nothing in their suitcases but a diploma. Sometimes they may have some office skills or business skills,and they get good training in the wonderful Health Services program as these programs really try to prepare students, but what about all those who want other types of jobs? Calhoun really needs to jump on the career wagon and help students who want to become plumbers, electricians, mechanics, landscapers, computer programmers and repair people. At this point, one high school student gets to be apprenticed to the school computer repair group. And that student really gets no special training. He is chosen based upon what he has already learned on his own. We should offer computer repair and programming to ALL students who desire this. Calhoun offers tons of AP classes and Calculus to college bound, getting them ready for college. Why not offer career training to those who are just going out to get a job? Calhoun, if you cannot afford the classes, team up in a BIG way with some institute who can. Georgia Northwestern Technical program is right down the road from you. You have the kids eight hours a day. In this amount of time, some great things could be accomplished toward preparing them for work. Instead of wasting students' time with meaningless electives, build a career program so students can graduate job ready. And let them have their signings when they are hired. It is a big deal to them too.