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The several Brantley Elementary School students part of the ARISE program got a chance to visit the Selma Fire Department and learn about careers related to firefighting and EMS.

The group called ARISE Male to Men Program brought a group of male students from Brantley as part of a program to mentor the students. Cedric Wherry, executive director of ARISE, said the goal is to help mentor the boys and give them a positive role model.

“Many of these boys do not have a father at home,” Wherry said. “So what we try to do is to mentor them and maybe give them a father figure. Each student in the program is paired up with a man who takes time to mentor them.”

This summer, the mentors are taking the mentees on their Quest for Excellence tour. It started Wednesday with the Selma Fire Department and it continued Saturday with a trip to Tuscaloosa, which included tours of the University of Alabama campus, Stillman College campus and the Children’s Hands On Museum. They have other stops planned after the Fourth of July at the radio station, a trip to Gulf Shores, visiting the courthouse, touring the YMCA and learning from the George Washington Carver Museum at Tuskegee University.

“What we are doing today is to expose them to the career of firefighting,” said former Selma councilman Corey Bowie, ARISE board president. “We want to show them that there are careers for them that they can do.”