Shelton State Community College

Very sweet girl.

Shout out Shelton State women's soccer team." [laughs]

Wow.

Uh, Jay- Jay's one of the more interesting dating trees of all time, I think.

stepping in next month when Kyle South departs for a role within the University of Alabama system.

The World's Work Career Expo is underway today and tomorrow at Shelton State Community College.

It's the event's 10th year introducing thousands of West Alabama's high schoolers to potential career paths.

And the iconic blue-roofed building on Lurleen-Wallace Boulevard that housed buddies for decades is getting a fresh start.

I, uh, I started out roofing houses with my dad [laughs] back in the early '90s as a teenager, and, uh, I went to four different colleges in two years.

I failed a history class, University of Alabama, and I said, "College is not for me." And, uh, I got my real estate license at Shelton State, and, uh, that was in 2002.

I started selling real estate down here on the Alabama Gulf Coast.

A lot of people don't realize Alabama has the most, some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

And again, there's so many ties back to workforce and the ability of business and industry to be successful with that.

Obviously, we are positioned in a place where higher education is a huge asset to our community, whether it be the University of Alabama, Stillman College or Shelton State Community College, our two-year school.

So how do we bridge those things together? I honestly think long term, our talent is our best incentive that we have to offer future businesses.

And how do we retain that talent within our community? About, you know, at a high watermark, 60% of the student population at the University of Alabama was coming here from out of state.

Uh, two NCAA transfers, an NAIA transfer, Zakiya Muhammad transferring in from Bellevue University, an Omaha native.

F- uh, three JUCO transfers, Janiya Boone of Shelton State.

You know who else came from Shelton State? A former Griff great, Connie Clark.

Divine Harris, Lincoln, Nebraska native out of Arizona Western College.

A fun fact about Divine, you know who h- her head coach is? Former Griffin great, Chelsea Dewey, uh, who's been holding it down at Arizona Western the last few years.

Was originally committed to my dad at Western Kentucky my junior year of high school.

We kind of came to a family decision to go the JUCO route, and he kind of set me up with Shelton State and Tuscaloosa, and it's just been Tuscaloosa from then.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you played a year.

You were a year here at Shelton and then committed to come come here.

But we were talking a little bit and kind of as we call it, the green room before the before the show here.

And you weren't sure if you could be coming this year, go another year.