LaGRANGE, Ga. (WRBL) – The Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, Geoff Duncan, hosted the Business and Education Summit at Great Wolf Lodge on Oct. 5-6, 2021. He partnered with THINC College and Career Academy for the summit, discussions mainly focused around “advancing innovation” for students.

“LaGrange is such a great story of where innovation has really kind of changed the trajectory of this community, obviously KIA and their involvement here. Also, there’s so many surrounding partners like THINC Academy that have come together and really tried to build a relationship with the public school system and the community and the employers to be able to develop that next generation of talent and they’re doing an amazing job,” said Duncan.

Duncan said a major goal of the summit was to find what the next generation of jobs will look like and determine the training that will be needed for them. He would like to work directly with different companies to fill in gaps for students who may not be pursuing a traditional 4-year education after high school.

He also said the summit brought together many companies and educators to share ideas and discuss improvements for students looking for jobs after high school.

Brian Shumate, the Superintendent of the Troup County School System, said TCSS felt honored that the summit was held at Great Wolf Lodge. He said it was great to discuss the future of education with many leaders from the state.

“I believe that the future of education has got to change, meaning that kids can choose to do school in many, many different ways especially the older they get. With the Career Academy model, with dual enrollment, technical/community college classes, taking classes at 4-year institutions while getting a high school diploma, all of that is possible these days,” said Shumate.

Shumate also said the innovation that was discussed during the summit lines up with his plans for TCSS and where he intends to take the school system. He also said he is ensuring the curriculum in the schools are adaptable to the constant changes students are seeing once they graduate.