POWERGRAMS

35 CARROLL HIGH SCHOOL The days of the "three R's" are long gone at Carroll High School. While reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic will always be fundamental, students in Ozark begin focusing on their future starting in the ninth grade. Since its new campus opened in 2013, Carroll High has been home to six "career academies" that prepare the 700 students for specific skills that will enhance their college or career endeavors. The school is among the first in Alabama to follow this path, employing traditional educators alongside former industry-experienced personnel. Students start out in the Freshman Academy, getting required basic courses out of the way before choosing either the Alabama Power Business Academy, the Arts Academy, the Human Services Academy, the Industrial Technology Academy, the Medical Science Academy or the STEM Academy. Alabama Power employees, for example, will speak to students during the school year, giving advice to supplement courses such as business applications or Microsoft Office. Twice each year students attend a luncheon for business etiquette lessons. Mike Stough left the business world in Memphis, Tennessee, 15 years ago to follow in the footsteps of his parents, both educators in his hometown of Opelika. He was assistant principal at Carroll for four years before becoming Career Center director in 2015. "I decided I wanted to make a difference," Stough says of his career change as he walks through the wide halls that double as 593-person-capacity storm shelters that can withstand 200 mph winds when the steel storm doors and windows are closed. Each academy is a simulated workplace. Students wear uniforms that match their future career interests. They clock in and work in an organizational structure with student managers. Their punctuality and absences are reflected in their "paycheck." The Medical Academy has a mock hospital with patient manikins, blood pressure instruments, IVs and other professional equipment. The Arts Academy has a full television studio where students deliver a 7-minute broadcast to all classrooms each morning highlighting school happenings, as well as local and national news. Cosmetology students in the Human Services Academy work in a salon on campus that provides haircuts to paying customers. At the end of each semester, junior and senior students interview with local businesses that hire them and provide feedback to Stough and academy teachers. Students can switch to another academy if their interests change. About 100 Carroll High School students also will graduate with a head start on a possible military career. Retired Army Col. Milton Shipman leads the training. "We have the best Junior ROTC program I've ever seen," Stough says. "We have moved up into the top 5% of programs in the nation." Banners hanging near an expansive trophy case note that Carroll High was named by A+ College Ready a School of Excellence in 2016-17 and a School of Distinction in 2017-18. Alongside those banners is the Advanced Placement Wall of Fame, a long list of students who've earned college credits before graduating from high school. "We're trying to put our kids to work and in college, or both," Stough says. "We don't want them graduating and having to wait tables. We want them to have a higher income at something they enjoy doing." ALABAMA POWER OFFICE Ozark Business Office Supervisor Julie Davis, a Wiregrass native, was named this year as one of the state's "Movers & Shapers" by Business Alabama magazine. Davis has a passion to see young people succeed, serving on the board of directors for the Boys & Girls Club of Southeast Alabama and the Dale County Youth Leadership Program. She is a volunteer for Southeast WOW and was the founding committee's logistics chairman for the event that helps 6,000 students across 16 counties in Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Davis is also a founding member of the Power of Youth-Wiregrass Leadership Forum. She is on the board of directors for the Ozark-Dale County Economic Development Corp., and is secretary for Ozark Rotary. Davis has served for over a decade as producer/director of the Hillcrest Baptist Church television production team. She is an active member of the Alabama Power Service Organization and on the Wiregrass United Way Funds Carroll High School is home to Alabama Power Business Academy, among others. Eagle Stadium opened in 1946.

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