Cape Girardeau Central Academy hosted an installment ceremony for its Jobs for America's Graduates Career Association (JAG) program Wednesday, Oct. 2, at Cape Girardeau Public Schools' Central Administrative Offices.

According to the program's website, JAG's purpose is to help its members explore career pathways, assess opportunities and appropriateness of seeking post-secondary education, connect with representatives of each student's chosen path, develop knowledge and skills, secure employment and demonstrate the ability to advance with employers. Central Academy began its JAG program in 2020.

"It's a program used to help students overcome barriers, any obstacles that they face and try to get them in contact with employers, schools, anything post-secondary, to help them attain their goals," first-year JAG specialist Nichole Buehrle said. "We have guest speakers and we go to visit places. We've already been to Rankin Technical School this year and we had some sorority girls that came in and gave tips for going to college. It's just anything we can do to try to give them an edge in going into the world after (high school)."

During the ceremony, 45 students were welcomed into the program, along with the new officers for the 2024-25 school year.

Junior D'Angelo Wiggins and senior Chalyce Horrell were selected as JAG's co-presidents and civic awareness chairs. Other officers sworn in Wednesday were junior Jael Jones and senior Kayeli Carter-Long as the program's public relations officers; senior Jalayah Francis and junior Elijah King as service learning officers; senior Taylor Banks as secretary; junior Sofia Smith as treasurer; and seniors Dyland Davidson and Jaiden Moore as employability skills officers.

"At first, I really had no intention of being president when I came up," Wiggins said. "But I saw my cousin, she's older than me, and I saw what she was doing. ... It meant something to me."

Horrell, who has goals of attending Southeast Missouri State University as a pre-med major upon graduation, said the program has helped teach her to "have faith" in herself and "give it your all."

"Mrs. (Ursulla) Wadley and Mrs. Buehrle, they've taught us a lot when it comes to opportunities, jobs and what would be best for you once you graduate," Horrell said. "It teaches a lot, (how to make) better decisions, better choices and all things positive."

Buehrle said her experience with the program in her first year has been "absolutely wonderful."

"This whole curriculum is based on helping people do those things that we are always wanting to help them do," Buehrle said. "It's (developing) the social skills, the soft skills, it's building a resume, the applications. It provides the things that we don't always get to work on in a classroom, that we know they need help with."

The most fulfilling part of being Central Academy's JAG specialist, according to Buehrle, is getting students to believe in themselves.

"It's not the fact that they can't do it, it's the fact that they don't realize they can do it," Buehrle said. "It's when they come back and say (the program has helped them) that I realized we're doing something right, because I know they can."