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	Pioneering
	>	About the program
	>	How-It-Works
	>	It's Hands-On!
	>	Why Middle-Schoolers?
	>	Passing the Test
	>	For More Information

Many times, students in middle school don't see the link between learning today and earning tomorrow. The BellSouth Pioneering the Future program was created to help show them the connection between school now and work later.

Pioneering the Future uses the telecommunications industry to focus on the meaningful roles that math, science and language arts play in the world of work. While the program uses the telecommunications industry as the setting for most activities, the students are asked to recognize that this is an example of how skills are applied in one industry and are encouraged to consider how other industries employ these very same skills.

Pioneering the Future is currently a partnership between BellSouth, the National School-To-Work (STW) Office, the state STW offices of Florida, Kentucky and North Carolina and the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor.

Through a series of nine classroom visits, employees and former employees of BellSouth share their expertise with the students and offer them a variety of hands-on experiences. These experiences emphasize academic, personal and interpersonal qualities and relate those qualities to skills necessary for careers in a variety of fields.

The program allows students to:

• Connect and test a telephone circuit.
• Learn how individual circuits are connected to a network.
• Explore fiber optics.
• Make decisions on which services best meet the different telephone needs of customers.
• Play the roles of customers and service representatives.
• Work in teams to develop a plan for providing telecommunications services for an imaginary town, Anytown, U.S.A.
• Create a portfolio and make presentations encouraging people to move to and work in Anytown, U.S.A.

Pioneering the Future is offered to middle school students because educators tell us that it is at this age that students and their parents make crucial decisions about which math, science and language arts courses the student will take, beyond the basics, in high school.

Trials of Pioneering the Future were conducted in five middle schools in Florida, Kentucky and North Carolina during the 1996-97 school year. In 1997-98, classes were conducted in 50 middle schools throughout the nine southeastern states that BellSouth serves.

Please contact Bonnie Browning, Bellsouth Regional Pioneer Administrator, at 205.321.3118 or bonnie.b.browning@bridge.bellsouth.com.