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The Educational Talent Search stopped by the School of Discovery-Genesis Center on Thursday.

Dallas County Sheriff Mike Granthum, former Selma Mayor George Evans and Dallas County Deputy J.T. Cole spoke to sixth-graders about making the right decisions.

Evans, who served as mayor from 2008 to 2016, brought up eight points of success: listen, respect adults, be prepared, make good decisions, make good choices, be different, honor your parents and love the Lord.

“It’s important to be different and not follow the crowd,” Evans said. “Love the Lord and neighbor, not just your neighbor next door, your neighbor is your friends.”

Granthum told the students that a life of crime doesn’t lead to success, only trouble.

“If you treat everyone the way you want to be treated, you’ll never have a problem,” Granthum said.

Cole discussed his teenage years when he was in a gang. He urged the students that materialism isn’t the path to success.

“I was in a gang at a young age,” Cole said. “My family didn’t want anything to do with me when I was in a gang. But I overcame that because of God and my family.”

Bowie, who works at Wallace Community College-Selma and former City Council President, said the talent search has an agreement with Granthum and Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson to speak with schools in the talent search.