A news conference on Thursday at 10 a.m. at The Howard School will feature high profile business and industry leaders to introduce the new Future Ready Institutes coming this fall to Hamilton County Schools. The event will feature speakers from Erlanger Institute for Healthcare, Unum, JP Morgan Chase, Chattanooga 2.0 and area government leaders.
The Future Ready Institutes will involve 17 programs in 11 high schools and challenge the traditional approach to education by developing career-themed small learning communities. Themes in the institutes will include healthcare, industrial manufacturing, forensic science, engineering, hospitality, technology and more. In the Future Ready Institutes, teachers of all content areas including English, math, science and social studies will work closely with the career theme instructor to provide classroom lessons with a career focus.
The goals are for students to clearly understand why a lesson is important, how they will use the information in the future, and to leave high school prepared for success, officials said.
Speakers scheduled for the event include Jan Keys, Erlanger senior vice president and chief nursing executive; Miles Huff, Unum community relations specialist, Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger; Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke; Hamp Johnston, East Tennessee market executive for JP Morgan Chase; JP Morgan Chase corporate representative, Erika Wright; and Dr.
Jared Bigham, director of Chattanooga 2.0.
The event will take place in the commons area in front of the gym at The Howard School.