Wednesday 16th November - Wilcox County (pm)

During the afternoon we were fortunate to be able to visit the schools who had taken part in the economic development project that we had heard so much about.

The first visit took us to Wilcox Academy in Camden (a private school). We were welcomed by the principle of the school who took us on a tour of the facilities. This school was home to elementary, middle school and high school pupils which is in contrast to the school system in the UK. During the last academic year there were 16 pupils in the graduating class (at age 18) which is very different from the number of pupils leaving our Stoke-on-Trent high schools at age 16. We were also accompanied by pupils who attended Wilcox Central High School (a public school) and it was interesting to hear their first impressions of Wilcox Academy as this was the first time they had visited the school. We also heard from the Wilcox Academy Students who took part in the project.

Our next stop was at Wilcox Central High School where we were given a military welcome:

It was interesting the differences between the public and private schools. Wilcox Central High School had three feeder elementary schools and therefore was similar to the UK school system. We were made extremely welcome by the principle who took us on a tour of the school escorted by the Reserve Officer Training Corp. (ROTC).

The final stop on this trip to Camden was a visit to Black Belt Treasures - the location for a lot of the work carried out by UAB interns and Wilcox High School pupils;

It was here that we said goodbye to Wilcox residents, high school pupils and UAB interns and Faculty members.