Corsicana — Many of you may wonder what all your Chamber does that you may not know about and some have even said to me “all I see is your picture in the paper doing ribbon cuttings, etc.” Today, I would like to talk about one of our Educational programs. In the future, I will talk more about other things your Chamber is doing to improve the quality of life, business retention, economic development and our responsibility to market and promote tourism and Corsicana.

Your Chamber is engaged in much more and continues to look for ways to improve our member services and benefits. One way is to work with our educational partners at our ISD’s and Navarro College to encourage students to stay in school and to pursue further education via the many Career and Technical Educational programs offered at Navarro College including a number of academic programs that lead to a 4 year degree, plus a Master degree.

A majority of the Chamber members are businesses and the main thing I always hear from them is “we need a trained and qualified workforce”.  When Lee McCleary, Economic Development Director for the City and County, is working to retain our current businesses and recruiting new businesses to our community, the number one thing every business is looking for is a “qualified” workforce. This translates into, ‘give me someone with a high school diploma, good work ethics, shows up for work, etc, etc.”. Well, in today’s economy and the advances of technology, the basic skills sets required for employment also include much more. Therefore, it is imperative that we as parents, a community and educational system prepare our youth for what is required to be successful and productive in their careers.

Have you heard about STAR, Success Through Active Role Modeling?

The Mission of STAR is to support a student's interest and noted aptitude in any field of endeavor by encouraging, through qualified testing and active role modeling, the student's successful navigation of a pre-designed educational plan, the completion of high school, and the pursuit of additional training and/or education to improve and enhance that student's quality of life.

Objectives

To provide Role Models who will exemplify character, credibility, honesty, and integrity of the highest level.

To provide Role Models who can relate their real life experiences to students in a manner those students can understand and learn from them.

To provide Role Models from varied backgrounds, ethnicity and occupations, who have been successful in their lives and in their careers, and who are enthusiastic about helping young people achieve their full potential in life.

To encourage local businesses and industries to actively support STAR with financial resources and volunteers.

Beginning in the spring of 2007, STAR, was created with the intent to recruit and train role models to support local high school students. By tapping into the talents and interests of other local businessmen and women, STAR hopes to recruit role models who will support a student's interest and noted aptitude in any field or endeavor by encouraging them to successfully navigate a pre designed educational plan, the completion of high school, and the pursuit of additional training and/or education to improve and enhance that student's quality of life.

In order to pursue their mission, STAR formed a partnership with Corsicana ISD to test their idea by providing role models for high school students. At this time, a new program was also being implemented at CHS called AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination.

Both STAR board members and CHS administrators see great potential for role models to work with AVID students. There is a great opportunity for STAR to grow alongside of AVID, and eventually, even expand to other school districts within Navarro County. Recently, the program was presented to the Kerens ISD and the program was accepted and started.

CHS has agreed to help with qualified testing to determine each student's aptitude and interest and work in cooperation with STAR, so that role models can be matched to students based on those criteria.

Testing began in the fall of 2007, and STAR began recruiting local role models who exemplified character, credibility, honesty, and integrity of the highest level. They are successful individuals who can relate their real life experiences to students in a manner that students are able to understand and learn from.

Before role models are partnered with students, interviews with STAR officials are done, background checks are completed, and training is provided by STAR and Corsicana ISD on establishing relationships, building self-esteem, and communicating with teenagers.

Role models are not tutors, but men and women who can provide a student positive, factual, and demonstrated experience in an area of the student's aptitude, interest, or both that the student, with parental consent and counsel, wishes to pursue.

Today STAR has 49 trained and assigned Role Models with a goal this year of reaching 75 by the end of the school year. We need your help in reaching this goal. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact me at the Chamber or go to STARNC.ORG to see a list of the current Role Models and more information about STAR and AVID.

Chamber’s each year typically have a new President and a number of new board members who replace those who have served their terms. Each year as part of the Chamber’s strategic plan that is passed from one President to the other, a number of current committees and some new committees are established in order to meet the Mission and Goals established by the Chamber Board of Directors.

Important to Remember!

Our Sales Tax and Hotel Tax continue to fall short of budget projections. So, please Remember to Buy Local because “buying local does matter”!

Please be on the lookout for your 2010 Census form and please take the time to fill it out and return it as you will become part of the solution in changing and improving your community. Remember, “It is in our hands”. Thank you!

What’s Coming Up?

Micronesian Festival will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on the Navarro College campus at the Barrack Bunch Clock Tower Courtyard. There will be free island food to taste along with live entertainment performed by the islanders from Micronesia. The event will be free to the community. For more information, contact Sina Ruiz, director of the Navarro College Career Center and Tech Prep Department, at (903) 875-7481 or sina.ruiz@navarrocollege.edu; or me at the Corsicana/Navarro County Chamber of Commerce.

If you know of any events going on in our community, I invite you to add it to the Chamber’s Events Calendar at www.corsicana.org. The Chamber website averages 40,000 plus visits per month with the Events Calendar being the Number One page viewed every month (approx. 10,000 views). People want to know what is going on and what there is to do here in our community and you can tell from the number of visits to our website that a lot of people look to the Chamber to find information.

If you cannot find an event on the Chamber’s Community Calendar, please take a look at the Corsicana Daily Sun’s Local Beat on their website (www.corsicanadailysun.com) as they have a list of many other events going on throughout our community.

—————

 Paul Hooper is executive director of the Corsicana/Navarro County Chamber of Commerce. He may be reached by e-mail at phooper@corsicana.org. Want to “Soundoff” on this column? E-mail: soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com