GULF SHORES — As a team works to secure Tighten Up, a three-story, sandy white, blue-bottomed yacht, within the massive wheels, steel and straps of a Marinelift, a group of 30 teenagers mills around in the chilly pre-spring wind whipping off the Intracoastal Waterway.

Not the crew's regular observers.

In the 30 minutes prior, the teens, juniors and seniors at Gulf Shores High School, had toured Saunders Yachtworks, learning about everything from large-scale painting and engine repair to woodworking, about the level of detail in working on a 100-foot boat with a 70-foot clearance to the level of detail in the intricate honeycomb design of on-board cabinetry.

"We send mechanics all the way to South Africa, all over the world," said M. Boyd Siegel, their guide for the morning.

Siegel started at Saunders 10 years ago as a fiber glass tech. Now, he's director of operations. Noting that career growth is a puzzle piece to connect the importance of the day to the young onlookers.

The tour on March 19 was part of a program being piloted in Gulf Shores this school year. Gateway to Great Careers was born out of conversations between Jessica Sampley, director of academics and career tech for the city school district, and Tyler Morgan, director of career and business development for the Gateway Initiative.

Each month for the 2023-2024 school year, up to 30 students tour a specific industry. This month focused on marine and marine science businesses and organizations. Previous tours have been themed around health care, construction and engineering, hospitality and tourism and aviation. For April, agriculture, landscape and sustainability.

Students tour businesses and hear from speakers in the industry during lunch at a related or initiative-supporting locale. On Tuesday, the group went from Saunders to the Claude Peteet Mariculture Center before lunching at Lulu's and hearing from a local captain and previous naval captain. They ended the day at Coastal Alabama Community College's facilities on Underwood Road in Foley where instructor Matthew Judy and Josh Duplantis, dean of workforce development for the college, showed and discussed the college's marine tech program, which includes a Yamaha Certification.

"It's very hands-on," said Carson Schaff, marine science and engineering teacher at Gulf Shores. "The local jobs they're exposed to…I didn't even know everything there is right here at home."

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT STARTS IN THE PIPELINE

That Baldwin County is and has been experiencing rapid population growth is not an epiphany. Baldwin County has grown 65% since 2000. If your eyes are open, you can see its impacts. Get near any roadway and you don't even need your eyes. You can hear the traffic.

What stakeholders are doing to keep up with it is where the potential for innovation lies.

The Gateway Initiative launched in 2018 with a vision to "move South Baldwin forward." The programming expanded in 2019 to over 1,700 businesses with a partnership between Gateway and leadership from the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce and Coastal Alabama Business Chamber. A goal is to leverage collaboration between businesses, educational organizations and local municipalities, with funding through private businesses and public entity investment, in the Tri-City – Foley, Orange Beach and Gulf Shores – to address "workforce development, community betterment, entrepreneurship, advocacy and businesses innovation."

"Prior to 2018, as Gateway was being developed, members of our business community were concerned about the future stability of our region," the Gateway website reads. "At the time, unemployment was at an all-time low, at 3.9% in the county, and the top priority of the Gateway Initiative was to address the challenge of having an adequate supply of workforce to continue to serve the millions of visitors as well as the local community."

With workforce development and college and career readiness as complementary missions, Morgan and Sampley started this high school industry tour program to connect students with a variety of career path opportunities.

At the mariculture center, just a little farther in after turning toward Lulu's and Saunders, Max Westendorf talks to the students about something a little more familiar: fishing.The state hatchery is maintained by the Alabama Marine

Resources Division, a 45-acre parcel built in 1973. It contains 35 0.2-acre ponds and equipment in the station to conduct studies and research that enhance the understanding of fish swimming Alabama waters. It also serves as a recovery tool as the production site for, recently, Florida pompano, speckled seatrout and southern flounder for annual restocking of depleted coastal fisheries.

Westendorf, biologist III and hatchery manager, takes the students through spaces used for broodfish spawning, algae production, egg incubation, larval rearing and juvenile holding. Some comment on the smell. Algae. Salt. Science. They watch as flounder skim the bottom, human heads leaning over long rows of tanks. In other tanks, ones that regulate temperature and light to mimic the seasons and encourage and accelerate spawning, they lean down to peer into windows as trout circle.

Aquaculture is fun, Westendorf tells the students. There's no book that says you must do it this exact way. You can try and see what works. You can be a "mini engineer every day. We use science, and we get to work with animals. We give back to the community through conservation."

Shirley Lowe, a paraprofessional at Gulf Shores, said the opportunities students are offered now compared to even a few years ago when her kids went through have expanded. This tour included. They can relate to this industry, though they did learn anew about some of the careers available within it.

"The thing with most of these kids," Lowe said, "is they hunt and fish."
Teenage interest piqued.

STEPS FOR THE FUTURE

If Baldwin County is growing, so is Gateway.

Morgan said a grant from the South Baldwin Chamber Foundation will be used to implement Gateway for Great Careers at Foley High School next school year, and she is in talks to bring it to Orange Beach High School.

Just this year, Gulf Shores students have toured and learned about South Baldwin Regional Medical Center, Airbus and Alabama FlightWorks, The Beach Club, The Wharf Amphitheater, Heron Pointe, Villaggio Grille, Perdido Beach Resort, Thompson Engineering, McCollough Architecture, Riveria Utilities and related programs at Coastal Alabama Community College.

Just like the Saunders mechanics who are jetted to different continents to fix the AC on a yacht because the owner trusts his local tradesmen, "working here can open doors all over the world," Siegel, the operations director, said, about 20 minutes after he explained that most engines they work on are the size of a car, causing one student to look at her friend and mouth, "Wow."