POWERGRAMS

Alabama Power is helping birth the next generation of engineers. Mobile Distribution Control Center Manager Eric Boykin provides mentoring, insight, shadowing opportunities and conducts field trips to Alabama Power facilities for the 15 students in Williamson High School's Engineering Academy. "If you ask most kids about an engineer, they think about a train engineer," Boykin said. "I myself in high school didn't know what an engineer did." Boykin chose electrical engineering on the basis of hypothetical pay scales on a sheet passed around in his high school vocational education class. He eventually earned a bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina. "I love sharing with the kids, exposing them to what engineers do and all the different careers available, not just at Alabama Power, but engineering in general, and what it takes academically in terms of math and science to be a good engineer," Boykin said. "It's the best thing Alabama Power could have done for our students," said Monique Ray, Academy specialist at Williamson. "It's all about giving these kids exposure" to the realities of different professions. Ray said Mobile County Schools' academy concept deliberately includes the trades along with college prep classes. "Our goal is to graduate students college- and career-ready," she said. "We know some students aren't going to college, so at least they'll have some sort of credential or certification in hand to market themselves." Boykin said Alabama Power's partnership with Williamson was started in 2014 by former Area Transmission Maintenance Manager K-Rob Thomas. Boykin took the baton when Thomas transferred to Birmingham. Thomas took the students to Plant Barry, and in 2015 Boykin took them to the Theodore Cogeneration plant, along with visiting the Distribution Control Center in Mobile. Students are chosen in ninth grade and take basic courses during their sophomore, junior and senior years in the career they choose. The Engineering Academy is one of 12 "Signature Academies" in the Mobile County School System covering professions in maritime, healthcare, aviation, advanced manufacturing and international studies, among others. At Williamson, junior Cameron Pharr said he has wanted to be an engineer since elementary school. "When the school finally got the Engineering Academy, I was so excited to join," Pharr said. "Everyone wanted me to join entrepreneurship but my heart is in engineering. I like the academy because it's hands-on and straight forward. We build everything we learn and we also do math and science that we learn in our other classes." Pharr plans to pursue a mechanical engineering degree at Auburn University in Montgomery and hopes for an internship with a company during his college days. His schoolmate, Tyquavian Stokes, also a junior, prefers electrical engineering and gives the Engineering Academy high marks. "I like that we build and create things in class; that it's a hands-on environment," Stokes said. "I also enjoy drawing and designing the projects." Alabama Power is working the teacher end of things at Williamson. The company offers a one-day "externship" to show math and science teachers the technologies and practices of engineers at an electric utility and what they need to emphasize with students to prepare them to be engineers for companies like Alabama Power. Boykin hopes to offer an internship for one of the Williamson students this summer. Ray credits Boykin and Division Area Manager Jill Stork with going the extra mile to connect with students. They brought cake and ice cream for Engineering Academy students who made the A-B honor roll on their most recent report card. "They are building relationships with these kids and letting them know we really really care about you," Ray said. MOBILE STUDENTS PREPARE FOR ENGINEERING WITH EMPLOYEES' HELP BY GILBERT NICHOLSON PHOTO BY DAN ANDERSON Zeroing in On Generation Z EDUCATION 21 Williamson High School students prepare for future in Engineering Academy.

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