- Good afternoon. Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club's weekly celebration of service. I'm Steve Wicks
- and I'm honored to serve as your president this year. Please silence your electronic devices. On this
- day in history, May 5th, 1893, one day after the previous day's failure of the National Courtage Company,
- the panic of 1893 caused a large crash on the New York Stock Exchange.
- It was part of the then largest economic crisis to hit America. It triggered a depression that lasted
- until 1897. Loans were called in across the country, 600 banks failed, 15,000 companies collapsed, and
- the unemployment soared to 25%. So has anyone else here ever heard of the National Courtage Company?
- No, I hadn't either. I guess they were a really big thing in rope in their day.
- But anyway, so I learned about the Panic of 1893. Don Hustler will deliver today's reflection.
- What's that? I will say that if at any time you want to pledge money, we are very receptive.
- Well, I will just say my longest friend in the world, Mike and Sarah with me today, our fathers ran
- cross country and track at Eastern Michigan University. His dad's name is on this. They were clearly
- in competition other ways too because Mike was born three days before I was. So,
- I would guess just about everyone in this room at one time or another has found themselves in some kind
- of leadership role. It might have been a church committee you were on. It might have been a sports group.
- It might have been where you work. It might have been an organization you volunteered for. I've always
- been interested in how organizations work. I can't explain why I am that way. I have just always been
- fascinated about how organizations work.
- whether in my own workplace or nonprofits or a church I've been involved with. I can't turn this part
- of myself off. I've just always been curious about organizational dynamics and leadership. Now, I'm
- going to talk, I'm not going to name names, but most of my experiences with leadership have been sometime
- during my, from 1985 to 2015 when I was at IU.
- Before coming to IU, I was a professor at Loyola University of Chicago. I had to teach a course in group
- dynamics. It wasn't my strength, but I started reading up. And I kind of got fascinated with the research
- on leadership. One of the best known people writing on leadership at the time was a fellow by the name
- of Warren Dennis. He was a distinguished professor at USC. He went on to be the president of the University
- of Cincinnati. Didn't last very long and was a total failure.
- My words here. So I'm still interested in how organizations work, but I've come to realize that I have
- no clear understanding about how leadership actually works to make organizations more or less successful,
- make them better or worse. I chaired an unsuccessful search committee at IU and became the vice chancellor
- for enrollment for eight years.
- And I tried to ask how high thought should leadership be enacted, which I kind of, kind of a consultative
- approach. Bring the heads of all units together whenever we have problems. Behind closed doors, we all
- argue about what the best solution is. I might make the final decision against consensus or use consensus,
- but I said, but I walk out, everybody should walk out of the door with a smile on their face. They had
- their chance to influence decisions.
- During my time here, I observed other forms of leadership. I know one senior administrator that, as
- near as I could tell, his primary goal was to make everybody happy. And I couldn't tell that that worked
- out very well for his organization. I saw someone else who played it like a grand chess master, observing
- all the pieces. And he, not in an authoritarian way,
- But my sense was he tried to move those chess pieces around in the way that would be most successful.
- I also observed leaders who always knew what was best, just ask them. And if they have positional power,
- they usually got their way. They could decide how things would turn out. Well, as I look back,
- I'd like to say that my approach worked sometimes. I did surveys of all the staff every year, and there
- was a fair amount of job satisfaction. But if I had to name the names of the two folks I thought were
- most successful in terms of having the long-term impact at IU, it would be the grand chess master and
- the guy who knew what was best. Just ask them.
- have come to believe that because organizations are idiosyncratic, so is the leadership role. And one
- of my first doctoral students did a study of how, I was a professor of higher education, so she was
- studying how universities went about searching for new presidents and how that turned out.
- 40% of the people I interviewed ended up saying they weren't really happy about the way it turned out.
- And in the reflection, what seemed to emerge was they focused on the weaknesses of the current leader
- and ignored the person's strengths. And it turned out, in fact, that some of those strengths were pretty
- important, but they hadn't looked at them. So at this point,
- I simply say I'm still interested in organizations and how they work. I'm fascinated with the idea of
- leadership, but I don't believe any group that chooses a leader, whether they come from outside or within
- the organization, can be certain how things are going to turn out.
- Well, Don, I'm sure I speak for Steve in saying, if you'd like to take on a leadership role in this
- organization, I'm sure they can find a spot. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Hank Walter
- and I'm here to introduce our guest today. When your name is called, if you would please stand if you're
- able and we can recognize you. If you have any questions or have any interest in further participation
- in the club, I'm sure there will be
- lots of people at your table to, uh, to fill you in. So first, uh, guest of the club and John Zoti,
- uh, Julie Halbig. Go ahead. Thanks. Uh, guest of Glenda Murray, Betsy Coffee. And, uh, passing the baton
- to Don Hostler, Michael and Sarah Marks.
- guest of Heidi Scholl's, Adam Gross. And do we have any guests online today? We do not. Not today.
- Thank you. Thank you, Hank. If you'd like to learn anything about rotary, just turn to a rotarian at
- your table and ask away. We have four birthdays to celebrate this today. First of all, Judy Schroeder's
- birthday is today.
- Joy Harder just slipped in is sitting at the back. She has a birthday tomorrow. Emily Herman sitting
- right here has a milestone birthday on the 8th. And Katie Sensabaugh has a birthday on the 9th. And
- we have no rotary anniversaries to celebrate this week. And so Tyler, if you want to go ahead and start
- my PowerPoint.
- OK, start with a celebration of service. Those of you who listen to what I have to say know that I've
- been almost begging for someone to prepare our district conference rotary basket. And Judy Whit reached
- out last week, and she has prepared a beautiful basket. So we're going to blow away the competition.
- So thank you, former district governor, former club president, Judy Witt. Help wanted, I mentioned this
- a couple of weeks, but we still need additional club members for the membership committee. Senior Lori
- Garrity, if you're interested. District conference is this weekend. It's not too late to register. Friday
- evening and all day Saturday at the Galt House in Louisville. In the just
- off chance that someone here has $2,900 and they're interested in a seven-day home rental in Aruba,
- see me and I will bid on your behalf at the district conference. One other thing, district conference,
- we have the shoe drive and we've gotten a number of shoes and I'll be picking up some more between now
- and Friday. So thank you very much. So Rotary sponsored wonder lab summer blast off schedule for May 21st.
- We'll need club volunteers that afternoon and evening. Dave Meyer and the Community Services Committee
- will be working with Leslie Kutsenko, a club member at Wonder Lab. But it's going to be a really fun
- event. And so you can see the website address there. So consider volunteering on the 21st. A few days
- after that, 5th Annual Refugee Summer Pitch In,
- Sunday, May 24th, 5 p.m. Upper Cascades Lions Den. Refugees, volunteers, friends are welcome.
- Bring a dish, share if you can. Cindy Neidhart, sitting over here. See her for more information. And
- if you know someone in the refugee community who might be interested, please let them know.
- A couple of save the dates a little bit further out. We have some meals and wheels work for a couple
- of us on the 29th. See Diana Hoffman, the Beacon Solidarity Sleep Out. That's the night of June 5th,
- awakening on June 6th. That's coming up and then I don't have the date yet, but in July we'll have the
- teachers warehouse supply drive and that is our biggest volunteer effort of the year.
- Okay, it's the 11th. Good, thank you. Member of election, if you're registered to vote and you haven't
- done so already, please get to the polls this afternoon. Those of you who weren't here last week and
- didn't read the roundabout, our president-elect, Sam Udak, resigned. He's planning to move to the Chicago
- area near the end of May, and we wish him well. And the exciting news is that our last year's club president,
- Tracy Yovanovich, has stepped up and will serve as club president.
- Happy dollars. So today is a little bit different. Today is what we call our hyper happy dollar effort.
- And this is what we use for the club to help fund a portion of club scholarships. And so every year
- the club pledges fifteen hundred dollars. We finished last year. We didn't quite meet that. So this
- year some of our regular happy dollar efforts have gone to the Bloomington Rotary Foundation for scholarships.
- So we're at the point today where we have $900 to raise. We do have a club member who said he will match
- whatever is raised. So we actually could raise more than that. So when I start hyper happy dollars,
- at the beginning, the bids will all be or pledges will all be $100 or more. And then we'll finish that.
- And then we'll just go into regular happy dollars. And anyone who's happy, who wants to pledge or give
- a dollar or more, have at it. So that's coming up in a minute or two.
- Rotary International, seven areas of focus. And we have just started May is Youth Service Month. Big
- deal for Arch Club. We have a very active Youth Service Committee. You know, we help sponsor the Rotaract
- Club at IU. We help
- the Interact Club at Bloomington High School North. We send several students to RYLA each year. And
- here just a year ago, we had an inbound exchange student. So youth services, a big deal for our club.
- One other announcement. Daniel caught me coming in. Monroe County History Center. My wife and I went
- to a program there a week or two ago, part of the preparation for the Sesquicentennial, 250th birthday.
- have another program this Friday, 7 p.m. to 8.30. It's free of charge and you can go to the Monroe County
- History Center for information. So let's go ahead and start hyper happy dollars. And I need one bid.
- Hank, you're gonna go ahead and start it. Okay, this is my favorite meeting in the year is always when
- the scholarship winners are introduced and it
- always fills me both with pride about what's happening in Bloomington and a little bit of feeling about
- what's my kid's been up to. They're just not any anyway. Don't quote me on that, please. So I'm in for
- $250. Okay, put up your hand if you're willing to pledge $100 or more.
- and I also really support the scholarships. I'll do 100. Okay. Anymore for 100 or more? It's one of
- my favorite things. I'll pledge 100. We have someone online. Yeah, I'll match Hank and I'll do 250 as
- well. I'm happy.
- I didn't hear who that was. This is Jeff Richardson, and I'll match Hank with $250 more. Thank you,
- Jeff. We can contribute $100. Dave, $100. I also will pledge $100. Thank you, Winston.
- Okay, any others over 100 or more? Sally. $100. We have one couple more in the back. $100. $100.
- Thank you, Tina and Patrick. Okay, let's open up. Anyone else? Wait a minute. I am happy to do $100.
- 100 oh Okay, is there anyone else who's happy for a dollar or more I Was on a wreck for car wreck like
- three weeks ago two and a half weeks ago And I'm really happy because instead of junking my car and
- salvaging it they're gonna repair it
- So I am happy. Well, we made it through the first month of the baseball season. The Cubs are in first
- place in the National League Central, and they are the third best record in Major League Baseball. Yep.
- Hi, many of you are probably not aware that we are, the club is sponsoring another refugee family after
- the Mohammadi family. That is the Alani family, they're from Iraq. And yesterday I learned through a
- series of misadventures and miscommunications from the family not understanding what they had received
- in the mail, that they have been granted
- permanent residencies, and their green cards are in the mail. And if you guys have been following the
- permanent residency story for refugees, that is like the golden ring. If you went back a couple years
- ago, we would have celebrated like it was citizenship. But today, celebrating permanent residency is
- really amazing, because it's so hard right now.
- So we have time for one more. I don't want someone online. We have online. Yeah, it's wonderful student
- for this scholarship. Go ahead, Raj. $50 for the scholarship. Thank you, Raj. Thank you, Raj. Hi everyone.
- I'm just happy to be here. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you all. Chris Ramji will introduce our speakers today.
- Good afternoon, everybody. Chris Frimjee from the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, and I hope
- I don't knock anything over here. It's my pleasure to introduce our speakers today from the Regional
- Opportunity Initiatives. I know them as ROI, an organization that has been doing some very important
- work and, frankly, some strategic workforce development across our region. So I'll share a personal
- note. I think it was 10 years ago today,
- I graduated from O'Neill School, I think it was still called SPIA then, and I had a job interview with
- Tina Peterson. And it was partially for ROI, which was just appearing at that time. And in true spirit,
- I wasn't applying for that job, but the job I wanted. I don't know if you recall that you were at Fountain
- Square Mall. And then maybe a year or two later, I went to your first conference at French Lick.
- And what I've been seeing from them is just growth in the uplands region. The mindset has only grown
- stronger in the impact over time. It kind of sits in that intersection of education, workforce, and
- economic development, right? Where sort of the chamber is on a micro level, but on a regional level
- for them. So joining us today to sort of represent that sphere are two leaders,
- in the middle of the work. First, Michi McLean, the Vice President of Talent Development at ROI, who
- leads the organization's education and workforce strategies and works across the region to connect talent
- to opportunity. Second is Jen Staub, Director of Career Connected Learning, who brings more than 25
- years of experience in education and now leads initiatives like youth apprenticeship and career coaching
- to better connect students to the real world opportunities. And I work with them.
- success school at the chamber and they do a wonderful job. So together, they are helping shape a region
- to think about talent, not just as a pipeline, but a long-term strategy for prosperity. Please join
- me in welcoming Michi and Jen. Good afternoon.
- It is a pleasure to be here to share with you our work. Many of you may less step back. Okay,
- how we doing? You don't want me to yell at you for 20 more minutes.
- Well, like I said, thank you very much for having us this afternoon. Many of you may remember that our
- president and CEO, Tina Peterson here has presented for you about the Community Foundation. We are part
- of that. We are kind of a sister organization of the Community Foundation under one happy umbrella serving for ROI.
- an 11 county region that we have come to love to call Indiana Uplands region as it has been branded.
- So again, Michi McLean, VP of Talent Development, happy to be here with Jen this afternoon talking about
- education and workforce in the Indiana Uplands region. So that there is
- the beautiful rolling hills of Southern Indiana. So hopefully that looks familiar to you. We are proud
- to be able to support and serve 11 counties in this part of the state through place and education and
- workforce. That's just us. You don't need to see any more of that. So I pulled this from a presentation
- that Tina did for you all at one point.
- for the Community Foundation. And this slide shows the programs and organizations that the Community
- Foundation is part of. So you'll see there ROI there under organizations, along with some others too,
- but really just the incredible support from the Community Foundation, the work that really is, this
- is the heart of so much that is happening, not only in Bloomington and Monroe County, but much of Southern Indiana.
- So these are the 11 counties that make up the Indiana Uplands region, Monroe County, Bloomington being
- one of them. And when, my gosh, Tina, 2014 is when the listening session and studies began-ish.
- 2013, 14, 15, a long time, really, that the Lilly Endowment said, you know, we are interested in this
- idea of regionalism and thinking about how we can support economic development and education in a regional
- manner. And so a group of stakeholders and leaders really set about to study the potential
- of this part of the state. And come to find out, this part of the state had much potential that was
- not yet being realized, but could with strategic planning, strategic investment. And from that significant
- listening session around this part of the state, investment by the Lilly Endowment,
- We were able to stand up regional opportunity initiatives and I wasn't even there then. Soon after it
- was stood up. So nine years for me. So really early on.
- Being able to say, okay, with this opportunity, what could we do with this? From what we know, we have
- some really informed decisions that we can make with the data that we have, with the listening that
- we've done in this very much rural part of the state and what it's capable of. So that set out to start
- with an occupational needs assessment.
- The Occupational Needs Assessment really could say, was able to say, wow, you know, this type of potential,
- if you were to really hone in on three particular sectors and build strategy around that, we could see
- this part of the state really excel.
- So that's our mission is to advance economic and community prosperity in the Indiana Uplands region.
- And we do that through advancing this idea of regionalism. So with 11 counties who are used to working
- in isolation, small, rural,
- prideful communities working in isolation. How about if we come together and we convene and we bring
- resources together to this part of the state and we ideate together. We think of what could be and what
- could be brought to this part of the state with strategic planning. And it is strengthening those particular
- industry sectors that I'll talk more about in just a minute about how to connect talent
- to strengthen these industry sectors and developing the talent in STEM. So what we found was that across
- the board, across these three key sectors, very much for when we think of workforce development, talent
- development, talent retention, talent attraction, talent development, it is around the STEM fields.
- So also enhancing
- placemaking assets. So Julie has been introduced already and she is with us as well. Julie is the VP
- of Economic and Community Development at ROI and so things that, strategies that include housing, really
- working closely with those county leaders, regional leaders in terms of what does it take to attract talent.
- who, no matter the age, right, in the workforce, why will they want to come live, work, play, stay in
- the Indiana uplands? And what do we need to do to really enhance sense of place?
- These are the three sectors that were found early on. We've brought in some since then. We've really
- started to diversify. But really true to form, these three key sectors, advanced manufacturing, national
- security and defense, and life sciences showed the most promise in terms of if you focus and bring that
- STEM talent to the region or develop that STEM talent, really could see a lot of reward in that effort.
- Of course, advanced manufacturing, no surprise, we're Indiana, right? Manufacturing state. And we look
- at that in terms of automotive, food processing.
- and furniture making. So down south, you know, Jasper, Indiana, very much known for craftsmanship,
- entrepreneurship, and furniture making. And, of course, Crane Base and its contractors that support
- Crane. And then Life Sciences, mostly in terms of medical device manufacturing. So, of course, Cook,
- Boston Scientific, Cimtra.
- those like significant concentration in in this part of the country actually. So all three of those
- all three of those sectors really were saying
- it is the STEM fields and building that career awareness and making those connections for us to build
- our workforce, to have that workforce here could really make a difference. This is a slide I don't expect
- you to be able to read. In fact, that list is now even needs updated because we have more going on.
- But once you to kind of be able to see the big picture of the work, so there on your right, regional economic
- community prosperity, that's the mission, right? How do we get there? We are looking at metrics like
- educational attainment, population growth,
- and per capita income. So if those pieces in this part of the state are growing, increasing, really
- what we wanna see that should be leading to regional economic and community prosperity. And so how do
- we get there, right? How do we do those things? How do we find and realize those metrics are through
- a number of initiatives and programs and efforts there on the left. So I have the,
- great pleasure of being able to oversee education and workforce programming. And then Julie, those are
- some of the place programs that I had mentioned. And so when it comes to education and workforce programming
- or initiatives and collaborations and bringing partners together, it has to do with thinking holistically.
- And so ROI knew very early on that you that we can't wait until they're seniors in high school.
- We can't wait until they're in college or we can't wait until they don't have a plan when they graduate
- from high school. So we need to start a lot earlier. So we have been gifted with the ability to think
- about that in terms of K through 12, and truly building the capacity for STEM. How do we even interest
- them in careers and opportunities they don't know exist in their backyard? They don't know exist 30
- miles. So this region, Indiana Uplands region, is really based on, right, let's look at where the workforce
- is commuting.
- What are the in and out patterns of the workforce? And so very much we will have workforce from living
- in Bloomington commuting to Crane, commuting to various parts all over this part of the region. And
- so we really want to think about that regionally in terms of where that talent is, where they want to
- live and work.
- So this is just a visual of some of the education and workforce programs that I'm going to talk a little
- bit about and Jen is also going to talk about those. I'm going to start with Ready Schools and that's
- been a flagship initiative for us.
- to walk alongside school districts. We have 27 public school districts in the Indiana Uplands region.
- This is a map of all of them. It kind of looks like a quilt, but those colors represent so far the districts
- that we've worked with for this particular initiative, Ready Schools. So that idea is let's
- think transformatively in terms of how do we align your students to the opportunities that await them in the
- Indiana Uplands region to retain that talent. And so we spend a year with them in planning through a
- design thinking process to think career awareness, work based learning opportunities,
- re-imagine innovative learning spaces. All of those types of things come from our work in Ready Schools
- to say, if you had the opportunity to have a three to five year strategic plan, what could that look
- like? To really say, our students are prepared for their future. Our students are prepared for the advanced
- technologies that exist now and are at a
- fast pace in evolution. And so how do you create those environments in school systems that allow for
- that creativity, the innovation, the new ideas, and really prototyping?
- So that, we've been able to work with 18 of the 27 school districts so far. We are hoping to work with
- another three districts in the coming school year. And each of those districts have funds to develop
- plans and then implement strategic plans. And with that,
- I am going to turn it over to Jen, who's going to talk about the really bridge programs for experience
- opportunities and then career coaching. Great. Just checking the microphone level. Am I good? Yep. Great.
- So I get to talk about two of the really exciting programs that ROI implements. And the first one is
- the Upskill program. So next slide. Oh, it's me.
- So Upskill is really an exciting program and that it really connects the employers with the students
- in a very tangible way. It's different than what you think of it as an internship. We're all very familiar
- with internships and you probably many of you have had interns over the years, whether they were high
- school or college students. This is an intentional opportunity for students to get real-world experience
- over two years during their high school career, and then potentially even a third year afterwards. And
- they actually have to apply and interview for the positions, and they become employees with the employer
- over the course of time. So a student in their junior year goes to school in the morning and at lunchtime,
- gets in their car and drives to their employer and works not just the two or three periods they have
- free, but often through the rest of the afternoon. The students see this as an investment in their future
- and are willing to commit to the big picture because it gives them that exposure
- The employers are willing to do it because it is a talent strategy. These students come out at the end
- of their two to three years as a slow interview with the employers. And so they get to not only see
- the students, but they get to train the students for the type of person they want at the end of that.
- Over the course of time, we've had 208 students. This is our fifth year. We just recruited our fifth class.
- this last week, and we do that by recruiting students all spring long, helping them prepare to compete.
- We help them develop resumes, we help them practice their interview skills, and then we hold a big interview
- day that some of you here in the audience were actually at the interview day. And the students can interview
- for as many employers as they want, and at the end of that day, the employers let us know who their
- top picks are. We work with the counselors, negotiate schedules to make sure it's gonna work out okay,
- and then the students
- and begin working as early as this summer and often work.
- 30 hours or more over the summertime with their employer on ramping into the school year for next year.
- Students do it their junior and senior year. You can see on the slide here that we have worked in nine
- of our 11 counties with 15 schools and have over 45 employer partners. The logos here are just a sampling
- of some of them, but we focus on the three key sectors that Michi mentioned, so advanced manufacturing,
- health, life science, and
- and then national security and defense, and specifically around crane and the naval base with the contractors
- in that area. We've expanded that out in supportive roles to business, IT, and education. So of those
- students, they are actually physically leaving the school and going to work with those employers over
- the course of their time.
- To give you a better visual, I'm going to cue to a video that'll be a great picture, better than I can describe.
- I haven't seen a program like this before. Even when I was growing up, there were high school students
- who went out and worked at employers during the day or something like that. I don't think anything like
- that was really focused on future career development. ROI has been a fantastic partner with
- RTC Communications and the fact that they're helping Ryder get certifications such as CompTIA and his
- networking certifications. So he's learning a base of education
- to work with our network engineers, and the network engineers are showing him some real life applications.
- I know a lot of the apprentices that come work for us, they're aspiring engineers, so having that ambition
- coming in and that drive is a great value.
- We're looking for employees with a fresh set of ideas, which a lot of the young students have. So it
- adds to your innovation competitiveness. It makes total sense for employers to engage with Upskill.
- It makes complete financial sense from a recruiting and talent standpoint, training standpoint, to go
- this direction. We decided to partner with Upskill because we had a true need of finding local talent.
- Partnering with Upskill allowed us the opportunity to, you know, really focus here locally on students
- right here in our own backyard. The value that the Upskill program and the apprentices brought into
- SAIC is the actual students themselves, and they have contributed greatly. They operate as employees
- here. They're hired on as technicians, not interns, and they operate as technicians on the floor in
- engineering groups with our team.
- they are coming in with a wealth of knowledge, they have the ability to just immediately integrate with
- a team and be professionals in the workforce. Just to see them over their two or three years grow in
- maturity and start to make the connection between what they're learning in school and what they're doing
- in the workplace, I think is one of the coolest things to see as an employer.
- The apprentices will have lots of opportunities as they continue throughout their high school career,
- college career, and us being just a small part of that is just a really good feeling. We have had a
- big push in manufacturing to try to lose that stigma that this is a man only industry.
- And the fact that we received Maddie and matched up with Maddie as an apprentice made me really happy
- because it got her involved in manufacturing and she's very talented and has a good engineering mind.
- I think she'll be very successful, whether it's with us or not. We'd like it to be with us. Having an
- apprentice here, having Tyler here, it definitely provides a breath of fresh air.
- You know, these apprentices have a great opportunity to find out about careers. In the past, maybe we've
- just been out on the West Coast or the East Coast or somewhere like that, and they have the opportunity
- to come in and find out about these careers, and they realize that I don't have to leave Indiana to
- go be an electrical engineer somewhere. We need to grow our own. We need to develop future employees.
- We need to be embedded in our communities
- not just an organization that wants to sell to our community, but an organization that wants to care
- about the community. So it is important to us to have the relationship with ROI and to bring in these
- students to the upland regions to make sure that we're continuing to grow our area in prosperity. Isn't
- that a great video?
- So we're excited this week that we were able to give 58 job offers to our fifth.
- cohort. They'll all go through an orientation on employment skills later this month and then be able
- to start their jobs in June. And as Michi mentioned, our goals here are to really keep talent local.
- This is a great strategy to engage students with local employers and getting that experience. And whether
- they go off to college and come back to their employers in the summer
- or they go to IU and they're able to work at IU and work their job and do a combination of both, or
- they go straight into the workforce, it's a pathway for all students. So the next program I wanna talk
- about, I'm the clicker, is our career coaching fellowship. So the career coaching fellowship is a really
- exciting opportunity to help bolster
- career advising in all of our schools. And we do it by offering a fellowship that lasts the entire year.
- The applicants have to apply for positions and then they experience eight different opportunities throughout
- the year to explore employment opportunities for their students. So the typical career coaching fellow
- is an educator. They're either an administrator, a counselor, a teacher, work-based learning coordinator.
- We don't define who it is.
- We just are looking for individuals in schools who have the opportunity to make connections with students
- and help advise them and guide them on career choices as they move through school. You may not know
- this, but the Indiana diploma has just changed. This year's ninth grade class will no longer get the
- traditional diploma. Ninth graders need to select
- whether they're going to go into what they call an employment seal, an enrollment seal, or an enlistment
- seal. These coaches will be vital in helping guide students which of the three seals that they go into.
- an upscale falls into that employment seal. If a student goes through the upscale youth apprenticeship,
- they not only get an employment seal, they get an employment honors plus seal. So the other piece to
- this is the coaches, when we accept 24 coaches a year to participate, every month we go to a different
- place in our region so that they really get to understand what the employment life is like
- in that area. So we go to furniture makers in the South. We go to General Motors. We go to Boston Scientific.
- And then we also go to the different universities, because we really want to lean into where
- the opportunities are.
- at IU, at Ivy Tech, at VU. Where are the opportunities for each of our students where they can find
- their next step? No longer is it acceptable for schools to just get the students to the May graduation
- date. Schools need to help students be prepared for the step after. There's a statistic that is often
- quoted in Indiana where if you ask a senior at the end of their senior year, what are you going to do?
- 70% say they're going to college.
- In reality, only 35% of those go. So that alone tells us there's a huge group of students who don't
- have a plan, who don't know what's next.
- So what can we do to best support those students so that it's not just may they're done and nobody knows
- what's happening next and provide those opportunities. So our coaches are intentionally working with
- students and they then can say, last week when I was at SAIC and I saw them building these things, that
- would be a great occupation for you. Or last month when I was at Boston Scientific and I saw all the
- different jobs, not just production, but all the different jobs and they can better connect
- students to those. So the additional piece to the career coaching that's been really exciting is we
- were able to get some funding from first the commission from higher ed and then it's now switched to
- the department of ed where we've been actually to hire career coaches that their sole job is to do career
- coaching in schools. So we have
- 10 career coaches placed into schools that that's their sole job is to help connect students along the
- way. And again, this piece reinforces all of the pieces that Michi showed on the slide of our ed force
- work development. And they can help kind of guide and steer all the different possibilities. So I'm
- going to turn it back over to Michi. OK, thanks, Jen.
- There is just so much more that we could talk to you about, but I won't go through every single bit
- of it. I do want to say that one important key finding of ours
- through occupational needs assessment that I mentioned is that one of the findings was, you know, schools
- are doing a better job with pathways or exposure to different types of career pathways. And they might
- take a class here or there, or it doesn't go much beyond exposure because for every
- six students that maybe dabble in something or learn something about a career, only one actually go
- into that broad field. So it was then that we knew that we needed to really build tangible connections.
- get out of the four walls of schools, get into these employers, really see across the board what the
- opportunities are with companies, small, medium size, or even large. So that was a big aha, if you will,
- for us. We have
- a few other programming. One is STEM fellows. I just want to say that we start really early there. That's
- elementary teachers to build their capacity for feeling comfortable integrating STEM into their classrooms
- so that along the way, whether it's elementary, middle, or high school, those students feel like they
- are more informed when they actually do choose those courses in high school and then
- possibly in college or straight into the workforce. We have a student-run business network all over
- the region where we seed that funding for students to create their own businesses in their schools.
- Because in rural Indiana, it's hard when you only have a handful of employers to go out for that work
- baseline. So we're bringing that into the school campuses.
- Also, digital fabrication labs, so the advanced technologies that they might see with their employer,
- we want them to know.
- to feel very comfortable using 3D printers and CAD design and CNC machines and all of those that require
- a lot of software knowledge to just run those. So we want them in their learning spaces. If you're in
- social studies or if you're in an English class, you can go to the Fab Lab and apply what you're learning
- by making a product.
- And we also have a microelectronics workforce development program, a significant agreement to bring
- to this country and for us, this part of the state, the skilled workforce needed in all things
- microelectronics. So really focusing on with Ivy Tech as an incredible partner, their semiconductor
- fabrication certificate that students will complete before they even leave high school. And they get
- hands-on experience all along the way so that they're ready to be a technician when they leave high school.
- I will end there and see if there are questions for Jen or myself. Thank you. In case I missed it, what
- does STEM stand for? And is this only for people, young people who are in school or can it be for people
- who have graduated and are still looking?
- Yes, great question. I'm sorry. There are so many acronyms, science, technology, engineering, and math.
- All of those areas are very much needed in the Indiana Uplands region. And a lot of what we do is K-12,
- but we do also think about
- the population that's looking to upskill and reskill in their career journey. So in particular,
- for instance, that semiconductor fabrication certificate of Ivy Techs that
- will this also available to adult learners, right? For instance, part of that could be getting their
- soldering training just as a start and then building from there. We really think a lot about how do
- you stack into your next thing, right? If I'm in high school, what's my next step? If I am coming out
- of a particular career, but I want to reskill myself, what are those opportunities? Thank you so much.
- I apologize if I missed this information of your
- apprenticeship program, can you share the success rate of the kids that have participated, whether they
- stay employed with these groups or whether they stay in Indiana would be a success? I'm just curious
- about some of the metrics on that. That's a great question, and it's one that we're tracking often with
- a lot of different variables. One of the things is it's a three-year program, so we're only five years
- in, so this is our
- first group finished last year and we're just now kind of gathering the data for the second group but
- we're at about a 75% retention rate and whether they're with their actual employer or a partnering employer
- in the same occupation area in the same region and our goal is for them to stay in the region and so
- it's still early on in that because many of those first-year students
- maybe off at a four-year college somewhere. So don't have great numbers yet, but hope to have that soon.
- I will say to that point, the stories that have come from students involved in these experiences are
- just ones we couldn't even imagine. Students who did not know that maybe college was even for them.
- They just didn't see that in their future. They didn't know all the different types of engineering.
- I'm giving an example, whether it's technician level right out of early training or a four year degree.
- So many that didn't know what they wanted to do, didn't know what existed and are now, I mean, we have
- students in the program who are in the engineering program at Purdue. So they just never saw it in themselves
- that they could do that.
- We just have time for one more question. Jeff Richardson online. Yes, I was very startled basically
- by the number of students, 70% that thought they were going to college, but only 35% went. Besides poor
- planning, which you referenced, do we have other metrics or data that suggests maybe it was lack of
- resources, for example, or other factors that why this disparity exists? Thank you.
- Well, cost has a lot to do with that, and so really helping students see where those entry, realistic
- entry points can be. You may not go straight to a four-year college. You might start with a certificate
- and work with an employer who then pays, right, for that continued education.
- you might start at it with Ivy Tech's incredible programming and they have articulated agreements into
- those four-year stackable but a lot of students just don't know these things so a family might see that
- sticker price and decide no we can't do this there's also right the comfort level of leaving your very
- comfortable small community that you love and going to a big university. So the completion of the first
- year is another data point that we look at. Do students return after the first year of high school?
- Do they feel comfortable in that transition? Thank you.
- Jen and Misha, will you be able to stick around for a couple of minutes? Because we had some people
- with their hands up. Thank you for most interesting presentation. One of my grandfathers was an apprentice,
- so it hit very close to home. In honor of your talk, a donation will be made this quarter to Wheeler
- Mission. Thank you. I'd like to thank today's volunteers, Randy Saunders, Hank Walter, Christopher M.G.,
- Laurie Garrity, Don Hussler, Bill Oates, Michael Shermas, Dave Meyer, Sally Gaskell, and Marcy Hibbard.
- We cut off the happy dollars. If you have something that you'd like to pledge, please see me. I'll probably
- reach out by email. But thank you all for the wonderful participation there. Next meeting will be here
- in the Georgian Room next week, May 12. Our guests will be the group of high school seniors who have
- been awarded Bloomington Rotary Club scholarships. As we've heard from a number of our members, it's
- our big feel-good meeting
- I mean, I love all our meetings, but boy, when we see these high school seniors, and I'm sure Hank's
- kids fall in the same category, they're just very accomplished individuals who give us all hope for
- the future. So anyway, please join us next week. Tyler, if you put on the slide for the four-way test,
- please stand if you're able.
- of the things we think, say or do. First, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third,
- will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned? And fifth,
- is it fun?