Page 33 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2015

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He returned to Pascagoula as a more in 2011, he received a Fullbright fellowship was to make a difference
confident young man for his senior year and was faced with the reality of helping to support his family. Part of the time, he worked under his mother doing janitorial duties at Ocean Springs Hospital.
After high school, Polk attended MGCCC, Jackson County campus, where he received a presidential volunteer scholarship award and met President George W. Bush when he gave the commencement address in 2006.
Polk transferred to the University of Mississippi in 2008 as an exclusive Croft Institute Scholarship recipient and was in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College.
After graduating from Ole Miss
Scholarship and spent a year in Germany teaching lower-income students and refugees in a community college setting. It was during that time in Germany that Polk saw a change
in the economy of the country that reminded him of challenges faced by Mississippi. His belief that Mississippi could do better was solidified. He turned down job offers with the state department in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to return to Pascagoula to work in security at the Chevron Refinery. His last position before he took the German fellowship was as a policy analyst for the Mississippi Economic Policy Center in Jackson.
Polk’s motivation for applying for the
in Mississippi. Germany’s strong education system puts citizens on the pathway for jobs, and Polk wants to see Mississippi provide a better way for youths and adults to be trained to hold jobs that provide decent pay and health benefits. Part of his motivation is due to the struggle his family went through to make ends meet as he was growing up.
“This fellowship will allow me to research Germany’s workforce and understand it better. What I’m most excited about is connecting Germany to Mississippi in a more formal way. Groups in Mississippi are interested in the same solutions that I’m interested in. Now I can connect those folks in a very strong way,” Polk said.
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BONN, GERMANY, where Deeneaus Polk now resides during his German Chancellor Fellowship.