High Point x Design aims to highlight the richness of the North Carolina city’s design industry, a mission that is typically focused on reaching those outside the community. But for its latest initiative—Educators Exchange: Pathways to the Design & Home Furnishings Industry, taking place on June 15 and 16—the organization is looking to showcase the breadth of the design industry to its residents, specifically local educators.

The new immersive initiative will introduce teachers and administrators from the area to industry professionals, bringing them into factories, studios and showrooms, with the goal of expanding their awareness of the range of career opportunities in and around High Point.

“For the home industry, High Point is this internationally recognized hub, but for citizens here, often all they know is that there’s heavy traffic twice a year, and they avoid that part of town during that time,” says Raven Jefferson, the founding executive director of High Point Schools Partnership, a local nonprofit that has partnered with HPxD on the new effort. “This is an opportunity for teachers to have a field trip of their own, explore the industry and learn about the opportunities that are available here. It helps them to understand the opportunities that are available to their students, whether that’s through internships and apprenticeships, or eventually, career paths, right in their own backyard.”

Jane Dagmi, managing director of HPxD, says the initiative was made possible largely because of a $20,000 grant the foundation received from the North Carolina government. The funding enables organizers to pay participating teachers a stipend for their time; the teachers will also receive a CEU credit toward their licensure for attending. Dagmi hopes that the event can showcase the interconnectedness of the furnishings industry and the wide array of opportunities available to graduating students—from factory-floor positions to design and sales jobs and even technology-focused roles in an increasingly digitized industry.

The two-day event will begin at the 35,000-square-foot Cohab Space on Monday, June 15, with a roundtable about job opportunities featuring employers and employees from the area. Among the speakers will be Carrie Dillon, managing director of the International Textile Alliance, commercial photographer Johnny Davis, and marketing strategist Dawn Brinson. A reception following the talk is open to the public. On Tuesday, June 16, 50 selected educators (Jefferson says they had over 130 applicants) will visit Verellen’s headquarters and factory, then take a showroom tour of Universal, a driving tour of the Market District sponsored by the High Point Market Authority, and a visit to marketing and content studio THS Creative.

Jefferson, a High Point native and former educator, first heard of a similar concept at a teacher’s conference, and felt that it could easily be adapted to her hometown. While she hopes to partner with other sectors (the healthcare industry, for example) down the line, she considered the home furnishings business a natural place to start. She says many area residents associate High Point Market with temporary work opportunities, as showrooms and the hospitality sector bolster their staff during those times, but otherwise don’t have a solid grasp of the more permanent careers available in the home furnishing industry.

Dagmi says that she has also felt a disconnect between High Point’s design industry and the city’s residents. “Our [local] community here often feels like they do not have any access to this business, and they don’t really know what’s going on behind the scenes of the showroom district,” she says. “There’s a feeling like it doesn’t belong to them. We want to build back a sense of pride in the industry. We want to welcome teachers warmly and show them all the different avenues that are available to their students.”

Through her work with the HPSP, Jefferson has found that real-world connections are often what’s missing from the equation. Teachers may be able to identify a student’s inclination toward a certain field of work, but they aren’t always able to refer them to a person employed in that sector to talk to. “We want to create pathways and tangibility,” she says. “It’s not out of reach—there are real-world opportunities for these students right here.”

Looking ahead, Dagmi and Jefferson hope to host the exchange on an annual basis, though they acknowledge that it would be dependent on funding. They’d also like to create direct programming for youth, including a summer camp. “I think students need something extra to spark their attention and really wow them,” says Dagmi. “And we have that wow factor here in High Point.”