Mena High School JAG

This year, nine MHS students had the opportunity to attend the Jobs for Americas Graduates Career Association's National Career Development Conference in St. Louis, competing alongside over 650 students from across the nation. They enjoyed a fun-filled and jam-packed weekend, attending workshops focused on personal and professional development and community service along with competing in career development competitions. We also had a few fun moments sprinkled in!

Thank you to our MHS community and the Jobs for Arkansas’s Graduates program leads for supporting our students and encouraging their growth!

Students and parents attending the April 1st SSP conference can also take part in the MHS recruitment fair! After planning for your future, take some time to connect with some of the colleges, trade schools, and military branches that want to partner with you for your post-secondary journey!

The last month has been busy and we need to shout out and highlight our community partners!

Repops & Happy Tails Pet Services came and spoke to our seniors prior to their career connection events about their work journeys, interview etiquette, & workplace expectations!

Nidec Motor Corp-Mena gave some of our students a peak behind the curtain by letting them spend the day helping update inventory reports!

We also had a group of students participate in Be Pro Be Proud’s Draft Day event. Those students got to interview with Arkansas businesses looking to hire Arkansas seniors for skilled and technical positions. We hope to see more participation in the future.

JAG students have the opportunity to compete in skills based leadership events at the Student Leadership Conference in fall of every school year. We are proud of all of our sharp dressed competitors and excited to share that we had two teams and two individuals qualify for Nationals in Spring!

NCA Knowledgeable Bowl: 1st Place
Joseph Cude, R. Cash Smith, Annalise Hughes, and Rachel Williamson

Business Plan: 3rd Place
Hailey Emerson, Brinley Blake, Bryden Fields, and Ty Thacker

Financial Literacy: 2nd
Gracie Nash

Prepared Speaking: 3rd
Brooklyn Landrum

Thank you to the school and the community for supporting our students in all their efforts!

This week JAG students had the opportunity to serve one our communities non-profit organizations!

Act 687 of 2023 will be enforced as of August 1, 2023. There will no longer be a need to have a work permit issued by our office for minor employees 14-15 years old. Please note that fines and penalties are greatly increased.

Other Important Considerations:
A child under sixteen (16) cannot be employed:
-More than six days in any week
-More than forty-eight hours in any week
-More than eight hours on any day
-Before 6:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m., except that on nights preceding non-school days, they may work until 9:00 p.m.

No child under the age of seventeen (17) shall be employed, permitted, or suffered to work:
-more than six (6) days in any week;
-more than fifty-four (54) hours in any week;
-more than ten (10) consecutive hours in any day;
-more than ten (10) hours in a twenty-four hour period; or
-before 6:00 a.m. or after 11:00 p.m., except that -children ages sixteen (16) years may be employed until 12:00 midnight on nights preceding non-school days.

The MHS JAG program is always looking for new community partners to help our students be prepared to meet the needs of the workforce!

If you are interested in speaking at the school, opening up your business for school visits, opening up an internship, or hiring one of our students, please reach out to Ms. Catlett at [email protected]

Last week MHS seniors Aiden, Jayden, & Nathan attended the second annual National Career Development Conference in Orlando, FL. They competed in NCA knowledge bowl, attended professional development sessions on financial awareness and entrepreneurship, and networked with industry professionals from across the country! There were over 1,000 delegates, specialists, and chaperones from across the nation in attendance. As a whole, the Arkansas delegation competed and placed in several categories. On Saturday, students were able to spend the day at Universal Studios.

Don’t forget that this is the last week to purchase tickets for the Jersey Dance Friday January 27th! Tickets will not be sold at the door and can be purchased from Ms. Catlett in room 403.

JAG is hosting the Jersey Dance this year as a fundraiser for JAG Foundatuon scholarships!

Today MHS students were able to visit the JAG classroom and meet Ms. Paige Miller from Arkansas Energy Rocks! She discussed exciting developments in Arkansas’s oil and national gas industry and the types of jobs that are available in the field.

Below is there website where some the information that they discussed in class can be found: https://arkansasenergyrocks.com/educators/bits-of-information/

The Mena JAG Career Association team competed today at their state competition! The competitions are designed to help students become stronger leaders and prepare for their next steps after high school. Our knowledge bowl team placed third overall!

Next week junior JAG students will be hosting a canned food drive competition for the high school. Students are encouraged to bring a canned good and other non-perishable food item to their enrichment class starting Nov 7th through Nov 10th!

Due to Friday night football game being reschedule for Saturday the JAG Halloween Dance is being postponed. We’ll pick a new theme and post a new date soon!
The football game will be at 7 pm at Waldron on Saturday! Come out and support the bearcats!

This year JAG will be hosting an MHS Halloween Dance! Please see the MHS Daily Announcements for more information.

These last two weeks have been busy for MHS JAG. Last Thursday the U of A Fayetteville recruiter visited to discuss applications and scholarships. Last Friday the US Army National Guard visited to tell students about opportunities with the guard! Today MHS juniors and seniors visited the UAFS campus and ATU campus to tour the grounds and learn about admissions and scholarships!

———
A big thanks to Renew Student Ministries for feeding lunch to our students and teachers!