In 2015, Kenneth Calhoun was working as VP of customer relations for Truck Centers of Arkansas (TCA) when he received a call from Andrew Parker, a man with an idea to help make students in the state more aware of the lucrative opportunities available in the skilled trades. The idea was Be Pro Be Proud, and it hinged on engaging kids through a mobile workshop filled with simulators for transportation, welding, construction, and more that could roll up to schools.

“You have my attention,” Calhoun recalled saying. Using a tractor-trailer to teach kids how great a job in the trades could be? It was a no-brainer for Calhoun.

Over a short span, Calhoun arranged for the dealership to lease a Freightliner M2 Sport Chassis to Be Pro Be Proud to haul a specialized 40-ft. trailer. The cost: $1. In 2019, Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) and dealer Doggett Freightliner (which acquired TCA in 2018) provided Gen 4 Freightliner Cascadias.

At the 2026 Technology & Maintenance Council Annual Meeting in Nashville, Daimler Truck North America and Doggett Freightliner announced the donation of three Gen 5 Freightliner Cascadias to haul newer 53-ft. trailers. Those trailers expand into a 1,000-sq.-ft. STEM lab featuring educational stations for 16 different career paths.

The mobile learning center, funded by individual states and numerous industry partners, travels to any school willing to host it and complete the online signup process. Once there, students—and adults—often light up after laying down digital beads on the welding simulator or taking a turn behind the wheel of the semi simulator.

In Arkansas, the results took shape within a few years. According to Bruce Sikes, chancellor at Arkansas Tech University, the school saw a 22% increase in enrollment for technical programs in 2019 compared to 2018. He attributed that jump specifically to Be Pro Be Proud.

The onboard tour guide acts as an evangelist for the trades, providing more detailed information on career opportunities and the earning potential available without spending four years in college and accruing $100,000 in student loan debt. Instead, students can begin careers that eventually exceed $100,000 per year.

Calhoun, now Be Pro’s chairman of the board, also makes sure the drivers can expound upon trucking careers and explain how modern diesel tractors like the 5th Gen Cascadia are essentially rolling STEM labs themselves. They discuss everything from advanced electronics to emissions systems, often teaching students about how diesel engines have become far cleaner.

“We’re in the process of building Alabama a second mobile workshop, simply because the demand has been so strong,” Calhoun said. “It is not uncommon when we launch in a state to have a two-year backlog of schools wanting the units to visit within a very short period of time.”

The trailers have all been built by Special Event Vehicle Co. (SPEVCO) in North Carolina, which also manages the growing fleet.

And it is growing.

Now Be Pro Be Proud has captured the attention of educators not only across Arkansas, but across the country. The nonprofit, founded in 2016 by the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce, has visited every relevant high school in the state, and seven other states have joined the Be Pro Be Proud National Network:

• Alabama
• Georgia
• North Carolina
• New Mexico
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas

Parker, Be Pro Be Proud’s executive director, expects to hit 10 total states by the organization’s national conference on July 20-22, with Florida and South Dakota close to completing the licensing process.
The second goal is to have representatives from 10 additional states attend the conference.

“The future of the transportation and fleet maintenance industry depends on whether today’s students can see themselves in these careers—Be Pro Be Proud exists to make those connections,” Parker said. “By introducing students to technical professions through immersive experiences and direct industry engagement, we are helping build the next generation of skilled professionals who will keep America’s fleets moving.”

The organization also hosts “Draft Days,” or pop-up job fairs where students can meet with companies in need of skilled labor. Calhoun said Draft Days has an 80% success rate in generating second interviews.
And it’s not uncommon for those interviews to become pathways to real careers.

That’s how Greenway Equipment, a major Be Pro sponsor, found Amarion Lofton, now an apprentice on the rise at the Arkansas-based John Deere dealer. He divides his time between the Newport Training Center and Greenway, where he gets hands-on experience with electrical systems, hydraulics, engines, and diagnostics.

Lofton’s Greenway mentor, Marcus Smith, admitted the apprentice knew very little at the start, but that’s changed.

“Now I can tell him to go out there and diagnose a tractor, and he’ll be able to diagnose it, fix it, and do everything I can do,” Smith said.
That’s just one of many lives Be Pro Be Proud has affected over the past decade.

And Calhoun is still surprised by how much it changed his.

“So many people out there are so focused on whatever their daily job or core competency is that they don’t step out into those political arenas,” he explained. “If you’d have told me 15 years ago that I was going to be one of the people who did, I’d have laughed at you and said, ‘You’re crazy.’”

But he believes this was his true calling. He had the industry connections and the passion to help make it a reality.

And for all the countless students and companies that have benefited from Be Pro’s mission, Calhoun considers himself one of the biggest beneficiaries.

“When you do these things, it does rejuvenate you,” he said. “It does give you something to hang your hat on, to be proud of. And I’ve said this more than a few times, but when my life is over and done, if my involvement in Be Pro Be Proud is my legacy, I’ll be very content with that.”