How blessed we are! I took my staff for a little higher education today. We spent 2 hours with  Kathy Carlisle, the CEO of  THINC College and Career Academy. Wow, everyone was excited  when they went out the door. Now this is Part 1 of several articles about how great this place is.

1. All kids from all three high schools in Troup County can attend. What I liked is that if a student wants to cause problems, he/she will not stay there long because they are not a baby-sitting business.

2. The students are there to learn and be successful in their chosen career path.

3. We watched many classes where everyone was paying attention.

4. It is not a trade school.

5. Some students finish there and go to work for one of our local companies making more than $20/hour right out of high school. That is more than some college graduates make.

6. Other students leave there and go to great schools like Georgia Tech, Auburn University and University of Georgia.

7. Parents do not have to pay extra for their kids to go there.

8. A young person can go through West Georgia Technical College and get their freshman and sophomore years behind them.

9. There are many options to train for at THINC. For instance, there’s Business, Health Science, Mechatronics/Manufacturing, Energy Systems, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), Marketing and Communications.

10. It is the future. A young person can go there and find out what they are interested in, or  more importantly, what they are not interested in. I hope over the next few weeks you will get your group together, call Kathy Carlisle and go see this exciting College that is state of the art. You too will be excited. This is one of the best things in Troup County.

Jerry Johnson is President of First Realty of LaGrange.