Base Camp Starts Today

Base Camp Starts Today

By David Howell

Editor

WATER VALLEY – Fourteen students from across north Mississippi will start classes today at Base Camp Coding Academy, a year-long school that will provide graduates with a job-ready skill level in computer software programming. Many of the students met their teachers during an open house hosted last Friday at the second-floor classroom above the B.T.C. Old Fashioned Grocery on Main Street hosted by the sponsors and partners of the non-profit.

Base Camp was founded in 2015 and is the passion project of Glen Evans, president of Oxford-based FNC, Inc. and Kagan Coughlin, a former employee of Fannie Mae and FNC Inc. and a Water Valley entrepreneur. The two friends and former colleagues have a track record of bringing their experience and expertise from the banking and software industries to locally-based community improvement projects.

Starting last summer, Coughlin and Evans worked to assemble a dream team of talented people who were willing to donate their time and energy to build the program.  The Board of Trustees includes Evans and Cough-lin, Sage Nichols, John Marsalis, Bethany Cooper and Carla Lewis. Their primary objective is to help students pursue a career in computer science through an immersive classroom environment that features current, real world technologies and projects.  The program is geared for under-advantaged youth in Mississippi to support the technology needs of local and regional employers.  

Students selected for the program receive a 100 percent scholarship and much of the initial work to get Base Camp started included securing sponsors. Founding sponsors include the C-Spire Foundation; Diane and Dickie Scruggs, Paige and Glen Evans, FNC, Inc.; the John N. Palmer Foundation, Renasant Bank,  and one unnamed philanthropist. Trustmark National Bank is a community sponsor.

Northwest Community College also partnered with the school as a founding partner. The support includes funding for instructors at the non-profit, as well as paid internship opportunities and non-credit transcripts for Base Camp graduates.

Key Positions

Equally important was hiring the right teachers, and in February Sean Anthony was the first hire as the director of the school. His work began immediately with curriculum development and he brings a wide range of experience to the organization. His previous work experience includes teaching STEM classes in regional high schools and helping manage the operations for Teach for America in Mississippi. 

“This program will change the life trajectory of the students,” Anthony told the Herald.  “ They will have a career that is not only setting them up for life success, but one they will enjoy.”

Nate Clark was hired shortly after Anthony and saw the program as an ideal balance between the typical classroom setting and industrial training offered for software programmers. 

“I saw a product that was not for industry – not for continued academics, but it was kind of torn between the two of them,” Clark told the Herald.  Clark added that the opportunity allowed him a chance to fill this void he had long recognized.

“I thought I would never have another opportunity like this. What great impact, we can take people out of high school and put them in a real meaningful job that they might not have access to. We’re here to say you can and work really hard to make it happen, Clark said.

 

      Inaugural Class

The inaugural class includes eight Water Valley students, Kyle Spence, Keegan Faustin, Haleem Jones, Addy Welch, Milttreonna Owens, Dustin Buice, Jacob Spence and Nicole Shelton, as well as students from North Panola, Holly Springs, Lafayette and Oxford.

“I had a choice to do this or go play football at Holmes Community College,” Faustin said during the open house. He added that the choice was not made lightly and was a familiar topic with his mother in the weeks preceding the decision. “I even talked about it with my football coach, he told me to do whatever feels right, he wanted me to do what is best for me.”

For Jones, the decision was also difficult, as he was considering entering the Air Force. 

“I had met with the recruiter and was scheduled to take the ASVAB,” Jones told the Herald.  A house fire destroyed his study materials for the military entry test and the actual entry process for Base Camp helped guide his final decision.

“I feel like they are getting the best students they can get,” Jones explained. “That made me stop and think.”

For Kyle Spence, the vast opportunities available for a software programmer made it an easy decision. “There are so many opportunities,” Spence added.

Welch added that she was undecided about her career path when she applied to attend Base Camp.  

  “It is something different and never anything I would have thought I would do. I figured I would step out of my comfort zone,” Welch told the Herald.