ELIZABETHTOWN — The Elizabethtown Rotary Club met heard from Brian Campbell regarding a Bladen County Schools Career Day.
Brian Campbell, president of Campbell Oil Company, told those gathered for the Wednesday luncheon meeting that he had been thinking about ways that the business community can become involved and help the school system. He noted that the test scores have not been outstanding.
Campbell said, “Students are being sent out into the work environment and are able to do complicated math problems but they are not completely ready for the work force.”
He explained that while some of these graduates are great at math or have strong science skills, they are not really sure what type of career they want.
Campbell said, after giving it some thought, he decided a Career Day would be a good idea.
“I approached the superintendent about this and they (school staff) were excited,” said Campbell.
He said he hoped that the goal of the program is to get students to become more engaged and more interested in class and thinking about continuing their education. The East Bladen day is May 3 and West Bladen is May 5. Both will start about 10 a.m.
“There is a role we could play and should play,” said Campbell.
Campbell said the concept is to do the career day and start working with the schools to mentor the students. He said that this year the program would focus on the junior and senior students, next year he wanted to include the 8th grade students.
Campbell said that by mentoring these students and letting them know that someone is interested in their progress will result in improvements in academic performance.
“A lot of kids don’t have a stable home life and as a society we are really quick to judge,” said Campbell.
He said when he hears about a student who is in trouble, he often thinks about what kind of setting did that person grow up in.
“Hopefully by doing some of these things we can see results,” said Campbell.