BRTC Students Hired as a Direct Result of Draft Day

Six Black River Technical College (BRTC) Career and Technical Center (CTC) students were offered gainful employment, before their high school graduation, as a direct result of attending the 2023 Be Pro Be Proud Draft Day.

Greene County Tech/BRTC Electrical CTC student Anthony Fornash is working at Hytrol. Paragould High School/BRTC Welding CTC student Camden Gramling is employed at Trinity Rail. Greene County Tech/BRTC Welding CTC student Gavin Shelton is working at Best Manufacturing. Paragould High School/BRTC Welding CTC student Kyler Dollar is employed at Trinity Rail. Maynard High School/BRTC CTC Welding student Hunter Grissom is employed at Trinity Rail.

Brookland High School student/BRTC CTC Welding student Deacon Parnell was offered employment at Best Manufacturing, but instead decided to attend Elite Welding School. He obtained a scholarship to attend.

“Draft Day is an amazing opportunity for these students. Our program has seen several seniors leave with a job waiting on them as soon as they graduate from high school,” said BRTC Director of Career, Technical, and Concurrent Education Darenda Kersey.

BRTC’s CTC is a free program which enables high school juniors and seniors to get a head start on a career after high school.  Students can graduate with their high school diploma as well as with a BRTC certificate, ready to go right into the workforce. Juniors and seniors at participating high schools are eligible to apply for the program.

In the BRTC CTC, programs of study are offered in Nursing Assisting (CNA), Phlebotomy, Patient Care Tech, EMT, Welding, Industrial Electricity & Electronics, Machine Tool Technology, Auto Service Technology, Auto Body Collision Repair, and next year Robotics & Industrial Automation will be added.

Participating Schools include Arkansas Virtual Academy, Brookland, Corning, Greene County Tech, Hillcrest, Hoxie, Marmaduke, Maynard, Paragould, Piggott, Pocahontas, Rector, Sloan-Hendrix, and Walnut Ridge.

The BRTC Career &  Technical Center is located on both the Pocahontas and Paragould BRTC campuses. This program is funded by the Office of Skills Development.

BRTC’s Concurrent program enables high school students to earn both college and high school credit during classes taught at the high school campus, in selected cases on the BRTC campus, or by distance education.  Any high school student who has completed the 8th grade, is enrolled in an Arkansas high school, and is recommended by their high school principal, superintendent, or counselor is eligible to take concurrent classes.

For more information about the CTC or concurrent programs contact BRTC Director of Career, Technical, and Concurrent Education Darenda Kersey at (870)248-4184 or by email at Darenda.Kersey@blackrivertech.edu.