Purpose. Potential. Pathways. Career Readiness at Tupelo Public School District

Tupelo, Mississippi is big in every sense of the word. In a city well known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley, Tupelo Public School District boasts the largest public high school in the state, supporting more than 2,100 students, a diverse student body, and a campus with 14 buildings. A key part of that is the College and Career Readiness program at Tupelo High School (THS), which runs on a simple but powerful promise: Purpose. Potential. Pathways. Evet Topp, Director of Workforce Development, sees that challenge as an opportunity.

A School with Big Ambitions and the Platform to Match

Tupelo High has been using MajorClarity for years, but by Topp’s own admission, they weren’t using it to its full potential. That changed in 2022 when the school launched a career academy model—a structured system of 16 pathways spanning everything from Health Sciences and Engineering to JROTC, Business Marketing, and a Middle College Academy.  Students can now graduate with both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree from Itawamba Community College, completely free.

The career academies gave students a new framework for thinking about student futures, and MajorClarity became the connective tissue that held it all together.

“MajorClarity is a major component of our career academies,” Topp said. “If we’re going to implement this technology, we have to ensure that the students understand the importance of being able to document their learning, and what that will mean for them in their senior year.” 

MajorClarity Monday: Turning Reflection Into Habit

One of the most distinctive pieces of THS’s approach is what they call “MajorClarity Monday.” Every week, during first block, teachers across the school carve out time for students to log their college and career readiness experiences. Whether it’s a club they joined, a job shadow they completed, a community service project, or a scholarship interview, they make time for it.

The goal is to build a living portfolio from 9th grade through 12th that students can download, reference, and draw from when applying to colleges, scholarships, or jobs. It’s a system that solves a problem Topp knows firsthand.

“I can’t tell you how many students have probably missed honor letters because they forgot a club they were in during 9th grade,” she said. “Even my own child—I asked him, do you remember you were in the bike club? ‘Oh yeah, mama, I was.’ Had he been recording it in MajorClarity, he would have remembered, because it still counts when it comes to high school awards and credentials.”

The platform doesn’t just store records; it also prompts students to think about their lives holistically and plan with intention.

Incorporating Durable Skills into Career Readiness

Perhaps the most powerful shift happening at THS involves work-based learning opportunities. In many schools, job shadows and internships are arranged by administrators or counselors. At Tupelo High, the students are the ones picking up the phone, and that’s helping them develop valuable durable skills.

In 11th and 12th grade College and Career Readiness classes, students research local employers that align with their chosen academy pathway. Then, with their teacher present (and, occasionally, the support of a script), they contact those businesses directly to request a job shadow or internship.

The results speak for themselves. When Topp started as CTE Principal, the school facilitated around 150 job shadows per year. This year, they’ve surpassed 300, and the goal for next year is for every graduating senior to have completed at least one. MajorClarity is where each of those experiences gets documented, tracked, and preserved.

Real-World Experiences That Build Confidence and Motivation

The outcomes aren’t just quantitative. Topp shared a story that captures what’s happening at a deeper level. A student told her she wanted to go into forensics and crime scene investigation. Topp connected her with a detective sergeant at the Tupelo Police Department. The girl got to sit in on an actual crime briefing.

“She could not believe it,” Topp said. “She could not believe she was actually in a briefing about a crime that had taken place.” Afterward, the student went back to her counselor with a new request: could Ms. Topp get her in with the FBI?

That’s the ripple effect Topp is after. Having students who come back from a single experience hungry for more, who now understand what’s possible, and who return to school with renewed motivation. It’s the kind of confidence that’s hard to teach in a classroom but comes naturally when a teenager realizes their ambitions aren’t as out of reach as they thought.

A Diverse Student Body, a Shared Destination

THS’s student population reflects the broader demographics of its community, a growing, economically diverse city in northeast Mississippi. About 60% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and the school’s career pathways are designed to serve all of them all while broadening students’ view of the opportunities available.

The Middle College Academy, for instance, offers students a fully funded associate’s degree alongside their diploma through a partnership with Itawamba Community College (ICC), district, and Toyota Wellsprings funding. This year, 60 students are enrolled, and next year, the school is hoping to expand enrollment, should funds permit. At ICC graduation, THS students fill the first two rows.

The JROTC pathway, another standout, has grown to over 150 students in just a few years, and Topp is quick to note it’s not just for students planning to enlist. “It teaches them leadership, collaboration, communication,” she said. “It teaches them a lot of things.”

Topp’s vision doesn’t begin with 9th grade orientation. She’s now meeting one-on-one with elementary school principals across the district, exploring how college and career readiness can begin long before students begin to exclude themselves from pathways that they might not otherwise explore. 

Purpose. Potential. Pathways.

Before MajorClarity, her documentation system was a spreadsheet. With 2,000 students cycling through job shadows, clubs, internships, and service projects every year, that approach was quickly reaching its limits. Now, that data lives in a platform students use, one they access every Monday, update throughout high school, and carry with them when they graduate.

For the largest high school in Mississippi, that’s not a small thing. It’s Purpose. Potential. Pathways. Built one documented experience at a time.