Are you or anyone you know a Fulton County teenager looking for work or guidance on college and careers?
There’s an app for that.
Fayette came to Cara Leininger, a coordinator for Fulton County Workforce Development wanting to put together a Straight A grant. The grant was worth $1 million and she got all the schools in the county together to apply.
The schools did not receive the grant, but one of the items in the grant application was to develop an app that students could use in the school for access to knowledge and information, Leininger said. Fayette Schools stepped up and said it would develop an app on its own.
Now thanks to the efforts of two Fayette High School seniors, students across the county may soon be able to navigate their future through an app they developed. The students, Jason Stuckey and Bryce Conklin, were part of teacher Becky Short’s Tech Team whom she selected for the task.
The main idea behind the app was to give students all the information they would need in one place to look for a job and check out colleges and careers as well as school news. Short did the coding, while Stuckey designed the app. Conklin served to critique the app.
The pair showed the Fulton County Board of Commissioners the fruits of their labors March 2.
The students were approached by Superintendent Erik Belcher who wanted to tie in several resources into one place, rather than forcing teens to find them on their own.
Conklin and Stuckey wanted the app to show students three options of what they could do after high school.
The college section shows Fayette students the classes they need to graduate through the Fayette curriculum guide, a list of colleges and universities near Fayette in Ohio; a link to a FAFSA tutorial and a guide on how to fill out a FAFSA; and links to the ACT and SAT sites.
The Careers section there are links to Ohio Means Jobs, Fulton County Jobs, the military, with information about the post 9/11 GI Bill and other guidance questions.
A scholarship section provides information on scholarships available at Fayette and in the area. Information on requirements for each scholarship is available as well as the ability to download an application to a student’s phone.
There is also a link to a national clearinghouse for scholarships.
The app links to the school’s twitter feed as well. Only school administrators can post to that site, Belcher said.
The commissioners were impressed with the students’ presentation and thoroughness. Jon Rupp, a Fayette area resident himself, beamed with pride over two more examples of how “great” Fayette kids were.
“What I see here, this is great,” Rupp said. “But what you are going to do for future students that you don’t know about is huge.”
“Our main goal is making Fayette students a success,” Stuckey said.
With a nod to the taxpayers, Belcher said if the school district had gone out in the private sector to have the app made, it would cost the district $90,000.
“To have that done by kids, this is great for taxpayers too, because we learn to do things for ourselves,” Belcher said. “We look for connections with the workforce.”
Commissioner Bill Rufenacht said he liked the emphasis on Fulton County and Fayette in the app.
“They appreciate their hometown and hopefully they appreciate their county,” Rufenacht said. “It never hurts to send that message out like you guys are doing.”
The app will be put in app builder so other schools in the county could access it and shape it to their needs. The app will soon go into the school-issued Chromebooks so all students can access the app.
James Pruitt may be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com