Welding student Patrick Watt (left) of Memphis describes welding patterns to 1st District Congressman Alan Nunnelee and aide Walt Starr Friday, June 10, 2011 at the Finch-Henry Job Corps Center in Batesville. Nunnelee, a freshman congressman from Tupelo, was making his first visit to the campus.

“What motivated you to come here?” Congressman Alan Nunnelee asked Patrick Watt, a welding student from Memphis, at the Finch-Henry Job Corps Center in Batesville. Nunnelee also posed the same question to carpentry students and painting students, and culinary arts students and students in an office administration class — pretty much every student who crossed the congressman’s path last Friday, his first-ever visit to the Batesville center. Nunnelee, a first-term Republican from Tupelo, toured Finch-Henry for approximately an hour and a half before departing to speak to the Senatobia Rotary Club. At the administrative building, local officials and Job Corps staff squeezed into a conference room, where they introduced themselves to Nunnelee as he stood beside center director Cordella Smith.  Smith described the history of the center and its name change in 2009 to honor Gov. Cliff Finch and Dr. Aaron Henry.  Smith also pointed out that she and two other employees were original hires when the Batesville Job Corps Center opened 30 years earlier, in June 1981.

Nunnelee peppered Smith with questions about the Job Corps students: how many attend, the minimum age to attend, and how many are age 18 and older. The congressman’s questions continued as the tour unfolded.  After a number of students raised their hands to indicate they were taking GED courses, Nunnelee asked Smith if Finch-Henry receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education for the ongoing GED program. Smith explained that Job Corps centers are funded only through the Department of Labor. The Finch-Henry center is operated through MINACT, which won the bid to oversee the Batesville site, she said.

In a classroom where new students were learning about the program, at least two students told Nunnelee they viewed job training at Job Corps as a “second chance.” “I want to make a better life for me and for my little girl,” said Veronica Motley of Hattiesburg. A third student told Nunnelee two of his brothers had graduated from the Job Corps Center at Crystal Springs but he was attending Finch-Henry to study culinary arts. In an office administration class, teacher Earlene Brewer explained to Nunnelee that students are learning Microsoft programs such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel.  “These students will go on to college from here or to the military,” she told the congressman.  Forty minutes into the tour, the congressman recited the teach-a-man-to-fish adage.  “That’s what you’re doing here,” Nunnelee said. “You’re teaching young men and women how to fish for themselves.”

Nunnelee took office January 3 after defeating Democrat Travis Childers last November to win the 1st District seat.  Nunnelee’s visit to Finch-Henry also comes after Childers made at least three visits to the center, where he was known for keeping in close contact with goings-on there.  The new 1st District congressman has already signaled support of Finch-Henry. Walt Starr, a congressional aide from Hernando, sits on the Community Relations Committee at the center.  Starr attended his first meeting of the CRC last week.  Starr told The Panolian the congressman visited Finch-Henry with a simple question: why students chose to attend there.  “He was curious about why they wanted to come and what brought them there,” Starr said. “He has a heart for young people.” “We wanted Congressman Nunnelee to understand that Finch-Henry is here to help students make good decisions in life,” said Roger Given, Business and Community Liaison for the Finch-Henry Job Corps Center.  Given reported that Finch-Henry leaders were pleased with Nunnelee’s first visit, citing his numerous questions about that campus that indicated he was interested.  “He told us before he left  that we should rename it the “Second Chance Center,” Given said.

-Panolian