Jackson Public Schools Launches Immersive Learning Initiative as Part of District-Wide Career Exploration Strategy
This fall, eleven of the JPS schools will start to implement Lobaki’s immersive learning experiences as part of a six-year initiative aimed at establishing individualized career pathways for students in the district.
The Jackson Public Schools (JPS) are launching a new immersive learning program at 11 junior high and high schools this fall and are at the same time starting a wider, six-year project with Lobaki Inc., a Mississippi-based education technology company, to extend personalized career exploration for students throughout the district.
The project combines two initiatives that are complementary.
Starting this fall, the scholars from the 11 JPS schools taking part will have access to immersive learning experiences which focus on civics and financial literacy. In addition, Lobaki and JPS are going to start a six-year initiative aimed at developing VISTA — Virtual Investigation of Students’ Talents and Aptitudes — a personalized career discovery platform that has been specifically designed for JPS scholars.
The aim of the various initiatives is to enable scholars to relate the knowledge they gain in the classroom to their own strengths, interests, and future opportunities.
Jackson Public Schools serves approximately 17,000 students throughout the district.
Dr. Scott, who is the Executive Director of School Support at Jackson Public Schools, said that our scholars should have the opportunity to experience what is possible before being asked to make a choice about it. The partnership allows them to enter a career, a civic process, or a financial decision and leave with a better understanding of themselves than they had when they arrived that morning. That is precisely what we are investing in.
This fall immersive learning will begin at the 11 JPS schools.
Starting this month, six junior high schools and five high schools will be introducing Lobaki’s immersive educational experiences.
The participating schools are:
Junior High Schools
Blackburn
Cardoza
Kirksey
Lanier
Peeples
Powell
High Schools
Callaway
Forest Hill
Jim Hill
Lanier Sr. High
Provine
The students taking part in the schools will be able to use Civic Lens, a tool which makes civics come to life by offering immersive experiences with state and local leaders, and Money Lens, which puts students into real-world financial situations so that they can apply what they have learned about financial literacy and practice making decisions.
The eleven schools taking part are expected to be fully operational by the end of September 2026, and educators will receive professional development, implementation assistance, and ongoing support from Lobaki as the program rolls out.
A career discovery platform built specifically for JPS scholars
Together with the first deployment in the classrooms, JPS and Lobaki are starting a six-year initiative aimed at developing VISTA — Virtual Investigation of Students’ Talents and Aptitudes, a personalized career discovery platform for the district.
The program consists of three stages: Discover, Develop, and Deploy.
Discover helps scholars learn how they learn, what they are interested in, and where their natural abilities may lie.
Develop links those insights to immersive, hands-on experiences which enable scholars to explore careers while acquiring relevant knowledge and skills.
Deploy converts that information into a personal roadmap which links scholars with postsecondary programs, local internships, apprenticeships, and career opportunities that match the Mississippi career pathways.
Instead of guiding each scholar towards a general career path, VISTA is intended to provide a more personal kind of journey taking into account the scholar's strengths, interests, and experiences.
"It's not a matter of giving a student a pamphlet on career day," said Kevin Loud, CEO of Lobaki Inc. "Our aim is to get in touch with each scholar at their current level and demonstrate to them the paths that can be taken based on their strengths, interests, and experiences. Jackson scholars deserve that kind of commitment to their future."
David Schommer, Grant Manager at the Jackson Public School District, stated that VISTA offers our scholars something which neither a textbook nor a career fair could provide—that is, a personal and immersive insight into the particular paths their strengths can take. "We are certain that this partnership will open up for our scholars doors that they never knew existed," he added.
Connecting the classroom to what comes next
The initiative aims to strengthen the link between students' school experiences and the opportunities available after graduation.
By means of immersive experiences, scholars are able to go beyond just reading about a career, a civic process, or a financial decision and instead have the opportunity to take part in situations that require them to make decisions and apply what they have learned.
By drawing on those experiences, VISTA will help scholars better understand their individual strengths and link them to possible education and career pathways.
The initiatives form a sequence that takes people from gaining experience and making discoveries to developing their skills and accessing real-world opportunities.
How the partnership came together
On August 4, 2026, Jackson Public Schools chose Lobaki after a competitive bidding process, citing the company's catalog of over 1,000 hands-on learning activities, educator training and support, and experience working with schools in Mississippi.
Lobaki is also taking part in the district’s GEAR UP program under a different six-year service agreement, approved on May 5, 2026, and running until 2032.
The GEAR UP program—a grant program run by the U.S. Department of Education —aims to increase the number of students from low-income families who are ready to enter and complete postsecondary education.
Lobaki is joining Hinds Community College, Jackson State University, and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History as partners approved to serve the district as part of the initiative.
The Civic Lens and Money Lens experiences are currently available on Meta Quest headsets at participating JPS schools, while the initial VISTA experiences are scheduled for the 2026–2027 school year.
The six-year project will enable Jackson Public Schools to develop a more connected approach to career exploration while assessing the impact of personalized, immersive learning on scholar engagement, career awareness, and postsecondary readiness over time.
For Lobaki, the partnership is part of a broader education technology strategy, using immersive experiences not as the final aim but as a means to help learners identify their strengths, acquire relevant skills, and better understand the potential paths those skills can lead them down.
About Lobaki Inc.
Lobaki is a Mississippi-based education technology company that creates immersive learning and career exploration experiences for K–12 schools, career and technical education programs, and workforce organizations. Through immersive learning, career discovery, and personalized pathways, Lobaki helps learners connect what they are learning today with where they can go next.
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