New Vocational School Will Launch This Summer
The board of Base Camp Coding Academy includes (from left) Bethany Cooper, Sage Nichols, Glen Evans, Kagan Coughlin and John Marsalis. – Photo Provided
New Vocational School Will Launch This Summer
Staff Report
WATER VALLEY – This week C Spire announced their partnership with Base Camp Coding Academy, a new vocational training school that will be headquartered in Water Valley.
Base Camp Coding Academy will train young adults fresh out of high school in the software coding skills over the course of a one-year program. After completion, these students will have the opportunity to work for the leading tech companies in Mississippi.
Base Camp is the passion project of Glen Evans and Kagan Coughlin. Evans is the husband of Paige Evans of Water Valley, son-in-law of Mary Lou and Baxter Jones, and the president of FNC Inc. of Oxford. Coughlin is the husband of Alexe van Beuren of the B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocery, and completed the renovations of the Blu-Buck Mercantile buildings earlier this year.
Couglin and Evans started working on Base Camp at the beginning of the summer. “I’m pretty sure Glen first pitched the idea over dinner,” Couglin told the Herald. “But I distinctly remember the afternoon we spent not catching fish on the Yocona and decided we had to make this happen.”
Over the past six months they have done just that. Step one was assembling a dream team of talented, good-hearted people who were willing to donate their time and energy to build Base Camp. The Board of Trustees includes Evans and Couglin, Sage Nichols, John Marsalis, and Bethany Cooper.
Step two and up has been sharing their vision with leaders across the Missis-sippi business and philanthropic community. Base Camp is a 501 (c) (3) not for profit operation, and will offer a 100 percent scholarship to every student accepted into the program. “Thanks to the support of companies like C Spire, (see the C Spire announcement above) and others that will be announced in the coming weeks, Base Camp Coding Academy is expecting to begin classes on June 1,” Couglin told the Herald.
The first year of classes will be located above the B.T.C., also known as the Loft On Main.
