HUNTINGTON -- Whatever you want to do in life, you have to challenge yourself to be good at it -- even if you want to be a rapper, as Brandi Jacobs-Jones pointed out to ninth-graders Thursday afternoon at Huntington High.

She asked how many students in the audience wanted to be a rapper, and when a dozen or so hands went up, she offered a $20 bill to the first student who could define the word "mediocrity."

When one student came forward and said it meant "not being exceptional," she gave him $20, and proceeded to encourage the kids not to settle for mediocrity. Even rappers have to get an education to have a strong vocabulary to be good lyricists, she said.

She joined Cabell County Superintendent William Smith, Carrie Cline of WSAZ NewsChannel 3 and Marshall University engineering professor Betsy Ennis Dulin in launching the State Scholars Initiative in Cabell County, along with Program Director Carey Sadowski.

The program, sponsored by the Huntington Area Development Council, the Education Alliance and Cabell County Schools, is intended to encourage eighth- and ninth-graders to take rigorous courses throughout high school to better prepare themselves for careers.

It encourages students to take four years of English, math, science and social studies, and at least two years of the same foreign language, Sadowski said.

Although students this young still aren't sure what they'll want to do for a career, the point of the program "is to talk a little about being career-minded and to take courses they need to compete in the 21st Century," Sadowski said. The United States needs well-educated students to compete in the global market, and this initiative goes along with some of the aims mentioned by President Obama this week in his speech about education policy, such as problem-solving and critical thinking, Sadowski said.

State Scholars is a national initiative that started three years ago in West Virginia. It was piloted in Wood, Braxton, Ohio and Monroe counties. Cabell is the first county in the state to kick off the program outside the pilot school districts.

The program involves professionals and various members of the business community coming into the classrooms to talk about what it takes to succeed. About 60 volunteers will be participating next week in Cabell County, talking to about 1,900 students.

Tom Pressman of Strictly Business Computer Systems, who's also on the Education Alliance Board, has been pushing to bring the program to Cabell County and is one of three volunteers with his business that will be talking to students in the classroom.

Students need to know how important it is to challenge themselves at every stage, he said. "That's a trait that will serve them well their entire lives," he said.

It's like training for sports, said Dulin, dean of the College of Information Technology and Engineering at Marshall. The phrase "practice makes perfect" is true when it comes to academics, just as it's true in sports, she said.

Exercise your mind as you do your body, and take advantage of this time when you're young and can focus on learning without pressures of making money to support yourself or a family, she advised the students.

"Take as many courses as you can and make sure they're the most rigorous courses you can take," she said.

For more information on the program, visit http://www.educationalliance.org/StateScholars/StateScholars.asp.

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Cabell County Superintendent William Smith is applauded during an assembly to help kick off the State Scholars Initiative at Huntington High School Thursday, March 12, 2009.

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