John Coffelt, Editor

About 20 community career professionals provided Coffee County and Manchester City seventh and eighth graders insights into their chosen professions during CCMS Career Day on Oct. 29.

CCMS Principal Jimmy Anderson said the event gives students the chance to ask questions and gain an idea of what a career path is like.

“They do a career assessment in their career class and get an idea of what they might be interested in,” Anderson said.

Organizer Richard Skipper said on the day of the event students chose three of their top professions to visit.

Skipper said this year’s event was a new “speed dating” approach. Students spent nine minutes at each of their chosen presenters before moving on to the next round.

“It’s about sparking interest and also about putting community leaders in front of the kids so they can see they are just normal people too,” Skipper said.

“That’s what building community is. We’re hoping that everybody presenting will one day somebody in here will replace them in our town,” he added.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.