High school students look for career track stewarded by Fayetteville entrepreneurs

Roughly 200 students from four high schools joined a youth summit on Thursday in a partnership between Cumberland County Schools and Fayetteville State University.

The summit featured motivated high school sophomores, juniors and seniors focused on their futures and seeking guidance on how to shape their careers.

Geared toward steering students to pathways in community safety, technology, entrepreneurship, and creativity, the summit encouraged students to look inward, find their passions and use that to steer them toward a rewarding career path.

The event was organized by these three Fayetteville entrepreneurs.

"We wanted to get together and use all of our organization's resources to basically put together an exposure opportunity for underrepresented youth here in Fayetteville," said Grant Bennett. "We've been able to partner with five different schools over a dozen different organizations from across the county to be able to bring kids together to learn different things around mental health, financial literacy and careers and opportunities outside of Fayetteville."

"The goal is to inspire, empower and educate," said Derrick Covington. "We wanted to expose them to many different resources and opportunities with our vendors. We have Fayetteville State, Fayetteville Tech, Methodist University and non-profits. We have the U.S. Army recruiting here."

That's great news for high school students like Kiana Brown.

"My plan is to go to college, commission as an officer, then go to the Army because I want to be an aeronautical engineer," Brown said.

Several community partners motivated these students by volunteering their time and expertise.

"It's been inspiring and I got a lot of tips on how to invest my money and to grow as a person," said student Kaylah Murray.

The breakout seminars also tackled a very tough subject for high schoolers in their mental health.

"It allowed me to express myself and talk about things I'm going through in a very safe space," said Jaci McCormick. "It was really needed because I don't like talking about how I feel a lot."

"It's one of those things that was definitely felt," said Christian Gray. "You can feel the engagement. They're asking questions. They're involved with you between transitions. It's been a beautiful thing."