More than 90 seniors recognized during Blount Partnership's Job Signing Day

More than 90 seniors recognized during Blount Partnership’s Job Signing Day 

Daily Times 

By: Marcus Fitzsimmons 

May 13, 2026 

They emerged from the smoke to the beat of the music and neon lights, then struck a pose as their name echoed through the venue in an entrance worthy of rock stars. For a moment on Tuesday these seniors were the stars of the show as they stepped off into their future careers. 

Over 90 seniors from the area’s schools were recognized with dramatic entrances and individually recognized by employers during Blount Partnership’s Job Signing Day at the Airport Hilton. 

“On behalf of the Blount Partnership, our Industrial Development Board, the city of Maryville, the city of Alcoa, Blount County, our three local school systems and our outstanding employer partners, thank you for all for joining us to celebrate these remarkable students,” Bryan Daniels, president of the Partnership, said. “Eight years ago, this event began in our conference room with just seven students. Today, we are proud to celebrate more than 90 graduating seniors, who are signing on to their careers and stepping into the workforce with confidence and purpose. 

“We believe these students deserve to be recognized with the same excitement and pride of an athlete on signing day to go to that next level. Today is their signing day, and this community is very proud of them.” 

Signing Day included seniors on the CTE tracks from the area high schools and featured individual ceremonial signings with their employers, where many of them had already gained experience through internships, co-op job placement and in some cases instructional training for professional certifications. 

“College is a great path for some people, but it is not the only path. Success doesn’t come from just one road. It comes from hard work, showing up on time, treating people right and being willing to learn,” Blount County Mayor Ed Mitchell told the students. 

Companies offering students positions included: Yearwood Motorsports, Xtreme Tower Products, Wilson Brothers Plumbing, Anderson Lumber, Blount County Sheriff’s Office, Cherokee Millwright, Prisma Total Rehabilitation, Garner Automotive, Blackberry Farm, Knoxville Area Transit, Allevia Technology, ICC International, DCS Electronics, Massey Electric, Joseph Construction, Danny Davis Electric, Roger L. Newman Company and Morningview Village Senior Community. 

“Today’s more than just a signing a piece of paper. It’s about hard work, early mornings, long days, learning new skills, and sticking with it when things get tough. Nobody just stumbles into a day like this, you earn it,” Mitchell told the crowd. “You’ve taken career and technical education classes, worked internships, earned certifications and gained real experience before ever graduating high school. Some folks, twice your age still haven’t figured out what they want to do, and you all already way ahead of the game.” 

One of those area employers celebrating the signing of several students from the region was Massey Electric, which had students heading into its construction, industrial development, service and warehouse divisions. 

“The quality of students the high schools are putting out, especially in skills that they’re already coming in to get away from the CTE programs and that their teachers are teaching them, it’s been incredible to see that over the past few years. They’re ready for the next steps into the apprenticeship programs immediately after high school,” Thomas Ford told The Daily Times. “It’s something as a business in Blount County that we’re able to take advantage of.” 

Involved from the program’s early days, the CEO and president of Massey has seen the school systems’ investments in CTE training pay off for the students as they enter the workforce full time. 

“It’s a huge benefit for them. It’s a long four years in the apprenticeship program, but they they already have a leg up and are able to use that to advance a little bit quicker,” Ford said. 

A large contingent of the signees were seniors being celebrated for their enlistment in one of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Army National Guard all represented. 

“It was a lot of fun. It was really cool to see everybody and the jobs where they’re going,” Alcoa’s Kaylee Gilley said, after sitting alone at a table as the only one of four Air Force enlistees present for the ceremony. “It was also kind of funny being the only Air Force member, considering I know there’s a number of other ones.” 

Gilley felt a little bit of pressure having to represent for the service during the introductions but kept it simple when her name was called and she entered through smoke. 

“It was a little bit nerve wracking just watching all the other signees before me,” the senior said. “They told me in back make sure you strike a pose out there and I didn’t know what I wanted to do so I went up and stood there.” 

The program didn’t begin as a collision of concert-level excitement and graduation level testament to the students’ efforts and work. It began rather small in the basement of the Partnership building with not two handfuls of students. The workforce development arm has grown the program working with the schools and business partners, playing matchmaker occasionally and providing the resources that have seen the number of signing seniors and participating businesses steadily climb. 

“We’ve been told this is largest Signing Day in our state,” Daniels said. “We really are celebrating Career Technical Education, and we hope to be inspirational to so many more students that are getting closer to graduation. 

“Jessica Belitz has been amazing. She has taken our Signing Day to a whole new level. We’ve always been involved in workforce development. Many of our industry partners and our our county and city leaders have always had a passion for it but to really getting behind Signing Day it has taken us to another level.” 

Belitz isn’t nearly as willing to take the spotlight like the one she helped put on the students, pointing out all the players it takes to deliver a championship event. 

“This is a team effort. It takes so many people to make this happen. It started eight years ago with an idea from Dave Bennett where he said hey we should so something like they do for the athletes for the students who are starting jobs,” Belitz said. “It started with seven students and here we are today with more than 90 students graduating with jobs. It’s incredible, but it is a combination of really hard work from our workforce committees through the Partnership, our school systems, our employers, everybody comes together to make it happen.” 

The program does serve a secondary purpose beyond recognizing the students accomplishments and the investment of the employers. Signing Day is a signature example shown to prospective businesses considering Blount County of what the community offers and the reciprocal access to being involved in the community. 

“I had a meeting a couple of weeks ago with a company that was looking at different areas and this was one of the events that we highlighted. This event is just really a culmination of things we do all year long, so we try to really impact students at every level — we’re doing career exploration with our elementary and middle school students, preparing our employers, our students in high school for workplace learning, bringing in industry speakers. All of that work by all those employers and all the educators, this event culminates all of that. It’s more than just this hour and a half today, it’s really a year worth of work for all of those people involved.”