Macon Students Using Research to Help Community

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MACON, Miss. (WCBI)- Noxubee County has a rising group of 20 young bright and motivated people who are working to resolve problems facing those in their community.

They’re performing scientific research from a student perspective and helping make positive changes throughout the area.

It’s called the 30-hour research runway. The teenagers focus on 3 major problems affecting the county: family economics, minority farm marketing practices, and attracting new business ideas to downtown areas.

The student group also works with local individuals, teachers, and universities in the area to reach their goals.

30-hour research runway is the first program of its kind in Mississippi and the first program funded by a national organization. Marion Stewart and Kendarious McNese are students at Noxubee County High School. They say they hope the skills they’re learning will help them throughout their lifetime.

” In our school from day to day we don’t normally talk about these problems. So to have this after school program, we can learn more that will make us do better in college and when we go off on our own, we won’t have our parents or these types of programs,”  says Stewart.

“It’s benefitting us by making us better students as well as better people in the community,” says McNese.

The student program is funded by an $8,500 grant from the Society for Science and the Public, a privately funded organization that works to inform, educate, and inspire young adults throughout the nation.