LaQuisha Jackson is careful to stay within the lines.
For about two hours after school, she stares at diagrams of electrical transformers and wiring and switchboard drawings. The 16-year-old traces over scans of often-wobbly hand-drawn plans with the straight precision of a computer program. The black screen and intricate maze of lines and circles look a lot like an old-school game of Pac-Man.
Jackson, a junior at Howard School of Academics and Technology, works as an intern for the Tennessee Valley Authority, earning drafting class credit and $7.25 an hour to computerize old plans from the 1970s.
The experience, she says, has made her consider a career in some sort of engineering or drafting.
“I like to design things. It’s something I just like to do,” she said, her eyes never leaving her computer screen.