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SmartWorks | page 14
A14 SMART
CAMP
FROM
PAGE 9
W
he r e do y ou s e e Car r o l l
Coun t y ou t - pac i ng our
ne i ghbo r s i n c r ea t i ng new
j ob oppo r t un i t i e s ?
Leadership is critical to job creation.
Our business and community leadership
come together on all projects, big and
small, and support one another. This
leads to an environment of quality job
creation. We are also setting a high bar
by focusing on entrepreneurship. Carroll
County has a long history of spawning
entrepreneurs. Not everyone is going
to become a business owner, true, but a
better understanding and education of
entrepreneurship can prepare someone
to one day start a business or become a
better employee. Along the same vein,
the new buzz word is ‘innovation’ and
innovation is a wonderful thing, but an
innovation does not create jobs without
an entrepreneur to bring it to market.
Our community’s entrepreneurial
spirit and small business success has a
proven track record. There will continue
to be that 5 percent of our small and
medium-size enterprises (SMEs) that
make big jumps in market share. As
more small businesses are able to make
that jump, we need to be prepared to
support their growth and subsequent job
creation.
W
ha t do y ou env i s i on i s
t he f u t ur e f o r our l oca l
wo r k f o r c e?
Education and retention of our youth
is a local issue we cannot afford to fail
to address. Every under-educated youth
is an unfilled job. Every young person
that leaves with no plan to return and
work in the region is an unfilled job.
We must continue to foster work-based
learning opportunities and develop true
apprenticeship options for our students
as early as middle school all the way
up to technical college and university.
By creating these experiential learning
environments, our students will see first-
hand the benefits of local, high paying
and skilled jobs.
12 for Life graduate NivenitieMcDaniel.
LIFE
FROM
PAGE 10
“Monday through
Friday, I drove an
hour to campus, slept
on a pallet in the back
of my car, clocked in
at 8 am for a campus
job, went to class,
drove anoth-
er hour back
to work at
McDonalds
all night and
then did it all
over again,”
she noted.
How did
she do it?
“With a lot of
prayer,” she
said.
After
Georgia
Highlands,
she attended
Kennesaw
University
and complet-
ed a two year
program in one year.
“When I graduated,
I cried like a baby,”
McDaniel said. “I
never thought I would
complete high school,
much less earn two
college degrees.”
Now as an enroll-
ment management
specialist at Georgia
Highlands, she is on
the front lines helping
students through the
paperwork maze of
admissions and finan-
cial aid.
“Many students
are first generation
college students, just
like I was,
and I am so
humbled to
be able to
help them
with this
process,” she
said. “I’ve
come full
circle.”
What
would Niveni-
tie McDaniel
tell high
school stu-
dents who
are thinking
about partici-
pating in the
12 for Life
program?
“Go for it and
dream big. Don’t let
your circumstances
define who you are,”
she stated. “Make
your dreams a real-
ity.”
Workforce
Education Task
Force Goal: Will
seek to identify
and recruit
otherbusinesses
willing to create
studentwork
study programs
such as 12 for
Life, Tanner
Connections and
the Southwire
Engineering
Academy.