February 6, 2018— Albany, GA—The 4C Academy announces the launch of Group-Up, a collaboration and problem-solving initiative developed under the school’s Sharpen-Up professional and soft skills program.

Designed to promote problem solving and collaboration, the Group-Up initiative is an 8-week project in which student teams are charged with developing a solution to a real world “opportunity” impacting our region of the state. Successful teams will utilize their research, critical thinking and presentation skills in this group activity. An external review committee will evaluate the presentations and the winning solution will be presented to community leadership.

This year, teams have been asked to consider the unprecedented growth in population predicted for the Atlanta and North Georgia markets compared to a decline in population in more southern and rural areas of the state. Teams will be challenged with the following question, “What can we do as a community to take advantage of the enormous growth projected for Georgia over the next 12-15 years and reverse the projections for population decline for southwest Georgia.”

According to 4C Academy CEO, Chris Hatcher, “Our goal with this project is two-fold. First, this activity will teach our team members the professional skills they need to thrive in the working world such as collaboration, team-work and critical thinking. Second, by challenging our students with a real-world scenario impacting our community, we can engage them at an early age while providing local leaders with different ideas that may have yet to be considered.

The Sharpen-Up Professional and Soft Skills Program incorporates all of the school’s professional skills initiatives including the Shake-It-Up handshake competition, Listen-Up speaker series, and Gather-Up community service project. Each initiative aims to equip students with the different skills demanded by today’s employers.