Students at Mount Vernon High School are getting an exciting opportunity to learn a trade and give back to the community one snip at a time.

A handful of students show up every day at third period for Mr. Boreland's barbershop class.

There, they learn the principles of of barbering.

"We do hairlines, haircuts, treatments, what products work best for different textures. We cut with clippers, shears, a straight razor, different hair types. How to spot different diseases or things like cowlicks or lice," said Rick Boreland, who also has his own barbershop in town.

"We learn a lot about the science," said high school senior and future barber Mekhi Torres. "You have to with barbering. The different tools can get infected or contaminated so you need to learn how to prevent it, so that's the huge thing we learn before we even start cutting hair."

Moreland also teaches them things like what not to discuss in a barbershop and how to get along with different customers.

"I tell them barbers are therapists, we wind up talking to you about your problems, what's going on in their day, and its all masked under a haircut," he said.

The budding barbers practice on each other and travel around the district to give haircuts at different schools

"It teaches experience at the end of the day," said high school junior Edward Robinson.

"It helps out kids because some kids cant afford to get haircuts or look their best, and we go there and we do it for free," added Torres.

The kids love their haircuts so much, they're already booked up for the whole year.

Students who complete this course will get college credit, and have enough hours to apply for their professional license.