Focusing on the future

Every year, the Franklin County Schools put on a College and Career Day, to highlight the opportunities available in the workforce as well as higher education.

This year’s event March 5 25 was especially large and vibrant, no doubt to some extent due to an employee-friendly job market in search of hard-working qualified applicants.

Nearly 50 vendors took part in the event, including a dozen colleges and universities, all four branches of the military, 13 local businesses, plus a host of state and local government entities.

“What a terrific day full of support from all over the county for our Franklin County School College and Career Day,” wrote Superintendent Steve Lanier.

He thanked members of the Beta Club, and their sponsor Candice Sheridan, the school’s culinary class, the Apalachicola Bay Charter School, Franklin County Schools’ students, faculty and staff, and the more than 45 vendors, for their efforts.

“Thank you for being a part of this informative, eventful day,” he wrote. “It was nice seeing everyone as students take home resources to make their future brighter.”

The colleges and universities that participated included Florida State University, in both Tallahassee and Panama City; Gulf Coast State College, and its programs in public safety, Tempest (a training program in disaster recovery using unmanned vehicles), and nursing (at the Gulf/Franklin campus): Florida A&M University; University of West Florida; Tallahassee Community College; Keiser University, and both Lively and Haney technical centers.

Representatives of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines, as well as the Florida National Guard, were on hand to recruit.

The state of Florida was there, as well as the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, 

Florida Department of Health, the Florida Division of Forestry, Florida Correctional Institution, Career Source Gulf Coast and the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Franklin County government was well-represented, with a presence from the departments of solid waste and emergency management, as well as the offices of the property appraiser, sheriff’s department, tax collector and clerk of court. The city of Apalachicola was there as well.

The school board was on hand, along with the Franklin County Schools’ scholarship committee, and representatives of Take Stock in Children and the Susan McClendon Memorial Art Scholarship.

Local businesses included Centennial Bank and Peoples South Bank; Weems Memorial Hospital, St. James Health and Rehabilitation Center, and North Florida Medical Center in Eastpoint; Eastern Shipbuilding, Culpepper Construction and Cates Electric; Water Street Seafood; Carrabelle Custom Canvas; Catering Connections in Port St. Joe;; Duke Energy and Unmanned Systems Institute.