The fifth annual WestStar ALStar African-American Youth Summit will be held Wednesday, Jan. 29, in the Duncan Ballroom in the Boling University Center on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Martin.
The summit invites African-American high school sophomores from across West Tennessee to learn more about potential careers, network with fellow students and meet professionals from several different fields.
The summit is sponsored by the WestStar Leadership Program. The initials in ALStar (pronounced like “all-star”) stand for African-American Leadership.
More than 100 students will take part in this educational conference.
Jahnae Johnson (pron.: “jah-NAY”), program manager for the WestStar Leadership Program, said this would be the first ALStar Youth Summit to be held in Martin.
“Usually, the summit is held in Jackson, but the venue that we usually use (the West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center) is under construction, so that’s why this year, it’s on the campus of UT Martin. Next year, we will be back in Jackson.”
Johnson said there are many components to the annual ALStar Youth Summit.
“The ALStar conference is designed to show students that they can go to college, they can go to trade school, they can do a lot of different things, but be thinking about your next steps,” she said. “Then, they learn what exact steps they have to take to achieve their goals.
“There is a big networking piece as well. They are meeting students from other schools, but they are also meeting a lot of different people who work at the university or are heads of different entities in West Tennessee.”
The program begins at 8:30 a.m. and will feature several activities. Kameron Echols, director of multicultural affairs in the Office of Student Life, will serve as the program’s master of ceremonies.
The keynote speaker of the ALStar Youth Summit will be Demetrius Robinson, the director of the Office of Career Services. He will help participants learn to network and find potential careers by playing “career bingo,” where students go around the room and talk to different students from different schools. In the process, they will seek out students who want to become a doctor, lawyer, teacher or something else, perhaps in a field that they share.
An alumni accelerator panel will feature alumni from several University of Tennessee campuses, including Chancellor Yancy Freeman’s son, Yancy Jr., who graduated from UT Chattanooga.
Johnson, a UT Martin alumna, will also be on the panel, along with Trajin Cheirs, a graphic designer in Dresden and UT Martin alumnus, and Samuel Williams, a creative strategist for SnapChat and alumnus of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
“We are all young Black professionals,” Johnson said. “We are going to showcase our experiences and get into real life and the steps we took to get into our careers.”
Dr. Youlanda Jones, the president of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology Northwest, will make a presentation about the benefits of studying at trade schools.
Dr. Austin Ferrell, the director and academic success coordinator of the Call Me MiSTER (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role models) program and Dr. Mary Giles, assistant professor of education and the development and training coordinator for the Call Me MiSTER program, will make a presentation about that program.
The Call Me MiSTER program strives to increase the pool of available teachers from a more diverse background, particularly among the state’s lowest-performing elementary schools. Student participants are largely selected from among underserved, socioeconomically disadvantaged and educationally at-risk communities.
The program began in 2000 at Clemson University. UT Martin is the only college or university in the state of Tennessee to have a Call Me MiSTER program.
A Greek Life panel will showcase the Divine Nine fraternities and sororities on campus.
The Divine Nine are predominantly African-American incorporated fraternities and sororities that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council.
For more information about the WestStar Leadership Program or the ALStar African-American Youth Summit, call Jahnae Johnson at 731-881-7787.
