Click to watch a short video entitled “WHAT KEEPS MISSISSIPPI STUDENTS FROM PURSUING HIGH TECH CAREERS?”
Kat Adcox, a junior at Poplarville High School, has been busy representing our school and our town on a state level this year. As previously mentioned, she was chosen as a member of the State Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, serving a two-year term under Dr. Carey Wright. She has been attending meetings in Jackson where she is able to meet with Dr. Wright and give her perspective on different subject matters affecting students today. The most recent meeting was on topics such as school safety, students serving as representatives on local school boards and increasing access to advanced courses and internships.
Through this opportunity, Kat was also invited to serve as one of twelve student ambassadors for The Skills Foundation of Mississippi, who has partnered with the Mississippi Department of Education. These student ambassadors work on projects and focus groups about career and technical education, high demand training pathways and how students are introduced to career options. Kat states, “Being a part of the CTE programs here at Poplarville, I feel like I have a lot of insight to offer regarding how to make other CTE programs throughout the state more appealing to students. Students from other schools have lots of reservations about CTE programs for reasons ranging from location of facilities to the fact that at some schools, students feel that they can’t participate in these programs and still fit sports and other activities into their schedules. I feel that Poplarville has done an amazing job making these classes attainable and also promoting the importance and positive outcome of learning skilled trades.”
Apart from serving on these state committees, Kat has also been preparing to compete for Miss Mississippi’s Outstanding Teen in April. This is the teen division of Miss America, which is a huge scholarship program for young women ages 13-17. Her platform for the program is Dyslexia Awareness + Crushing the Labels. Kat has had the opportunity to promote her platform across the state as well as locally. She recently received a proclamation from the Mayor of Poplarville and Board of Aldermen designating the week of March 1-7 as Dyslexia Awareness week in the city of Poplarville. This will coincide with Read Across America week each year and help bring awareness to the 1 in 5 children who battle this reading disorder. In her quest to bring awareness to the disorder she was diagnosed with in the third grade, Kat has recently written an article which was published by Susan Barton, a world-renowned expert on dyslexia. The article was published in both written and audio form and has since been shared worldwide! Kat began her battle with dyslexia and dysgraphia at PUE where she was taught The Barton Method to help her learn to read and write. Kat says, “Without the teachers and staff at Poplarville schools who came to my rescue, I feel I might have ended up a statistic. But instead, I have learned to overcome, and I am an A student with membership to both National Honor Society and BETA club!” Her hope is to educate and advocate for students, both diagnosed and undiagnosed, who are struggling to keep up in school.