November 2025 | Volume 19 | Issue 1
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Real-world ready Hoover’s Riverchase Career Connection Center helps students gain career skills, compete for jobs
Your go-to guide to find a tree along the 280 corridor and get a headstart on holiday memories.
See page B7
By EMILY REED
W
A New Chapter
hen Ja’Skylar Simpkins starts her school day, instead of cracking a textbook, she might be cracking an egg for a dish she’s developing — a new recipe she hopes others will try and enjoy. Standing in a state-of-the-art test kitchen alongside classmates, Simpkins, a Spain Park High School senior, has become comfortable tossing in a little dash of flavor to achieve her desired cuisine. This is no ordinary classroom — it’s a space filled with aromas wafting through the ceiling as high school students use their hands to create dishes that could be served in fine restaurants. “Experimenting with flavors and coming up with new ideas for a dish is something that really has always excited me,” Simpkins, 17, said. “I think I am motivated by coming up with ideas for recipes because I love food and spending time in the kitchen is something I enjoy.” Simpkins, like most high school students, has visions for what she might become one day — in her case, a chef at a restaurant she hopes to one day own. Simpkins uses her visions and passion for cooking as a culinary student at Hoover’s Riverchase Career Connection Center, also known as RC3.
Briarwood Presbyterian Church welcomes Scott Redd as lead pastor.
See page B12
INSIDE Sponsors.......... A4 City.....................A6 Schoolhouse.... A8 Business.......... A12
Real Estate.......B4 Events................B6 Sports................B8 Community......B12
Above: Spain Park High School senior Ja’Skylar Simpkins is all smiles as a culinary student at Hoover’s Riverchase Career Connection Center, known as RC3. Left: Spain Park senior Elena Steed practices her craft at RC3’s Cosmetology and Barbering Academy, which opened in 2023 with a $577,000 lab. Below: Student John Parker Ware works on electrical wiring at RC’s Building Science Academy. Photos by Tosha Gaines.
See RC3 | page A16 Scan the QR code to follow us on social media or sign up for our newsletter!
What we stand for: 280 corridor residents share what patriotism means to them By KELLI S. HEWETT
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With Veterans Day celebrated this month, patriotic symbols will be evident in the area. But how do we live patriotically in daily life here at home? Local residents say true patriotism is about actions and in how we treat our neighbors. Photo by David Leong.
In the U.S. 280 corridor, November means flags on porches, students preparing for assemblies, listening to veterans sing a capella at the Hoover Library Theatre and neighbors lining the streets for Birmingham’s Veterans Day parade — the oldest in the country.
But this year, as the United States prepares to celebrate its its 250th anniversary in 2026, we wanted to ask a personal question: What does patriotism mean to you — and how do you live it, here on the 280 corridor?
See PATRIOTISM | page A18