State rep shares life lessons at SHS
A group of Starkville High School students heard from a local lawmaker Tuesday morning.
Mississippi State Rep. Tyrone Ellis, D-Starkville, spoke to students in the Jobs for Mississippi Graduates program, sharing his life story with the young people. Ellis has served in the legislature continually since 1979, and was one of the co-authors of the bill mandating consolidation of the Starkville School District and Oktibbeha County School District.
Ellis discussed his family roots in Oktibbeha County and his childhood in the west side of Chicago.
“My mother was a very hard worker,” Ellis said. “She and my father divorced when I was 12 or 13 years old. She decided that in spite of the odds, we were going to have a family, and we were going to succeed.”
Ellis said his upbringing in Chicago was in an area fraught with gangs, but his mother put him in the Boys Club to keep him out of the violence. He also ran a paper route and a shoeshine stand to help his family.
“Here I am, a little kid, and I was a runt,” Ellis said. “I wouldn’t grow, for whatever reason. I was a little small. They would pick on me. They would bully me. They would beat up on me, and most times they would take my money.”
At the Boys Club, Ellis was involved in the Boy Scout troop, tap dance and piano. He credited the Boys Club with saving his life.
“When your parents say something, it’s not about them trying to be hard on you, they’re trying to save you, because if the wrong person gets their hand on you, you’re in trouble,” Ellis said.
Ellis encouraged the students to apply themselves and aim for their goals.
‘You have your own destiny right there in your hands, and you can become whatever it is, regardless of whatever obstacles you may be facing right now,” Ellis said.
Starkville High School Assistant Principal Ginger Tedder encouraged students to follow Ellis’ advice.
“You make life what you want it, guys,” Tedder said. “We graduate a class that has the potential to go anywhere, you just have to take life seriously, make good choices and again, we’re here to support you.”
Jobs for Mississippi Graduates is an affiliate of the national Jobs for America’s Graduates program, and is designed to work with students with barriers to success, using a research-based curriculum with reading and math integrated into each module. Students from the SHS Jobs for Mississippi Graduates program won first place in a career development conference and as a result, some students from the program will travel to Washington D.C. this fall.