Sept. 3, 2018 - With their bright red ties freshly tied, 24 First Coast High School students recited an oath and became the first group of students this year to be inducted into the district's 5000 Role Models Program.

The tie-tying ceremony took place on Friday, Aug. 21 at First Coast High School with parents, teachers, mentors, and school and district staff in attendance.

The young men will now be a part of a special mentoring network that includes more than 400 students and approximately 300 mentors district-wide.

The 5000 Role Models program is a leadership development program designed to offer adult mentors for minority male students between the grades of 6-12, who attend select schools in the district.

The goal is to provide exposure educationally, vocationally and culturally in order to help the students navigate their post-secondary success plan. This is performed by enhancing classroom instruction with inspirational role model interaction and hands-on workplace experiences. The cost of activities, field trips and college tours are free to the student/parent!

This school year, the program was expanded to two new schools: Highlands Middle and William M. Raines High schools. With the addition of these two schools, there are now 14 schools participating in the initiative.

The high schools are First Coast, Jean Ribault, Robert E. Lee, Samuel W. Wolfson, Terry Parker, Westside and William M. Raines.

The middle schools are Alfred DuPont, Arlington, Highlands, Jean Ribault, J.E.B Stuart, Jefferson Davis and Northwestern.

Visit the 5000 Role Models webpage for more information about this program.