Jackson County High School STEM Students put together and presented a community improvement plan to the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce.
The consists of a community swimming pool and a community garden. Student Emmanuel Stewart said students developed the plan after surveying fellow students, conducting research, and communicating with property owners. Stewart said he and his classmates enjoyed coming up with ways to improve the community.
“Our group has benefited a lot from this,” Stewart said. “We know what it means to do research and how to look at, not just read everything the internet tells you, but how to really dig and see what the grants and all are actually seeing.”
Stewart said the chamber was so impressed with the community improvement plan that the chamber is exploring locations to bring the community garden to life. Stewart said it was an exciting experience to learn that their work will now come to fruition.
“Afterwards, we talked about it, and we were so nervous that they wouldn’t like it and would think that it was a project made by high schoolers that they were just fooling around, but we were very excited, and we threw a party actually after we presented.”
STEM Teacher Terri Collins said she has been doing the community improvement plan with students for several years and that this is one of the few times that an idea from the students will be pursued by the chamber.
Collins said the swimming pool idea was not as well-received due to previous experiences the community has had with community swimming pools and funding.
Collins said she has the class put together a community improvement plan to help the students become community-minded.
“The majority of the ones that I have are seniors, so they only have a few months, and then they are going to be out in the communities,” Collins said. ” And I’m just trying to make good citizens and to teach them all of these things that go along with it, and how to work together, and how to make where you are better.”
Collins said she plans to keep doing the community improvement plan in the future as it also helps students understand that bringing things to do in Gainesboro is not a simple as it seems.
