NuQeilla Robinson, 16, works at digitizing older TVA documents. Students participated in a “school to work” program recently at Howard. The TVA-sponsored program pays students, who must be 16 or older, minimum wage to work in the electronic document management program.
Staff Photo by Jake Daniels/Chattanooga Times Free PressFor years Lorina Upshaw has heard negative news about Howard School of Academics and Technology.
Bad test scores and behavior issues have at times dominated headlines, but Upshaw believes in the students at the historically black south Market Street school.
“These kids are knowledgeable, and they can do as well as other kids with the proper training and the right opportunities,” said Upshaw, a member of the Howard class of 1969.
So Upshaw, over the last two years, has gone about bringing that opportunity to Howard.
An information representative at TVA for 34 years, Upshaw asked her bosses to create internship opportunities for Howard students. Earlier this year, TVA freed up funding for five part-time internship positions at Howard.