Lafayette County Career Coach Focuses on Building Mississippi’s Workforce

Ronnie Williams helps high schoolers discover paths to successful futures

For AccelerateMS career coach Ronnie Williams, fighting Mississippi’s “brain drain” in the Lafayette County School District is a calling—and with his background in sales and athletics, it’s one he is well-equipped to lead.

“I know so many of these kids who think, ‘Hey, I'm going to get this job and leave Mississippi,’” Williams said. “One of the things I like to do is tell them, ‘I've done pretty well here in the state of Mississippi, and there are great jobs here. Let's find you one.’”

As part of AccelerateMS’s statewide team of career coaches, Williams is helping improve post-graduation outcomes by working with students to identify career goals and map out plans to achieve them, whether it’s continuing their education, entering the workforce after graduation, enlisting in the military or pursuing a combination of options.

Williams is living proof that homegrown success is attainable. He grew up in the county he now serves, where he built a career in sales and sports broadcasting and coached youth baseball and football for more than 20 years. His knack for helping students discover their talents and instilling them with the confidence to turn those talents into careers combines the skills he’s learned in his own career.

“If they don't want to go to college, then they need a plan to get into the workforce,” he said. “We’re selling them on themselves, and once they make that decision, then we're right in there helping them.”

Once a month, Williams sets up at a table in the school cafeteria, where on average 75 to 100 students scan a QR code to claim a free gift while scheduling appointments with him to discuss their career goals. In the one-on-one meetings that follow, he helps students identify their interests, skills, and goals and then goes to work to uncover potential opportunities for them. He also speaks to full classrooms of students regularly about careers.

“The mission is to help the student develop the skill they want to do, and you just jump in head first with them,” he said. “You definitely want to see them succeed, and you want to do everything you can to help.”

Some of his students come from backgrounds centered on specific industries, such as construction or health care. He has helped students learn about new paths within those industries, such as the real estate business side of home and commercial building. He set up job shadowing opportunities at Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi in Oxford to give students a closer look at healthcare jobs. At least one student said she had no clue she was interested in the field until she helped perform an ultrasound.

“A lot of kids I'm dealing with want to do job shadows and internships,” he said. “They can see where they want to go from there, and if that's not what they want to do, then we jump into something else and try to find another field that may interest them.”

In his first year as a career coach, Williams helped students find training and jobs to become linemen in the energy industry. Another student with an interest in athletics and coaching landed a role working with the Ole Miss women’s basketball team. And as he engages with sophomore and freshman classes at Lafayette High School, he is building rapport with students to help guide them to opportunities after they graduate.

“I get a good feeling knowing I'm helping somebody,” he said. “Because I coached for so many years, I can see when it clicks in their eyes and they're doing what they know they can do. It's just a good feeling.”

AccelerateMS serves the people and businesses of Mississippi by developing and deploying workforce strategies to connect individuals with transformative, high-paying careers. By leveraging resources and partnering with organizations that hold complementary missions, AccelerateMS effectuates positive change, creating sustained individual, community, and statewide economic prosperity.

Learn more at www.coaches.acceleratems.org/.