Today on Education CountsMichiana, the world of Bookshare, education through AmeriCorps, Make Indiana Move, innovation through enFocus.

Education Counts.

Michiana is underwritten by Pokagon Band of Potawatomi.

Investing in education and economic development for centuries supporting the past, current and future development of the Michiana region.

Community Foundation of Elkhart County.

Inspire good.

Kosciusko County Community Foundation, where donor dreams shine.

The Dekko Foundation Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, LaGrange County Community Foundation, NIPSCO, the Beim Foundation, Crossroads United Way, serving Elkhart, LaGrange and Noble Counties, United Way of St.. Joseph County, Marshall County Community Foundation.

Ready to Grow St. Joe Early Childhood Coalition and a Gift by Elmer and Dolores Tepe.

Thank you.

Welcome to the Education Council, Michiana I'm your host, James Summers.

Education Council highlights programs and initiatives that are impacting how we teach, how we learn and how we embrace education.

This program explores ideas in all education sectors preschool through lifelong learning, K-12, post-high school, and job advancement training with the philosophy that we should never stop seeking knowledge.

Find additional resources at WNIT.org and on the Education Council Facebook page.

First up, a book for everyone.

Reading is an important part of education, but not all students are able to use physical books.

Bookshare provides millions of titles that can be engaged with in multiple ways to make sure every student is able to enjoy and absorb what they're reading.

Brent Fox produced this segment.

Reading is a very large part of a person's education, but for students who have visual impairment, learning disabilities or aren't able to physically hold books, reading can be a challenge.

Bookshare serves as a way to help not only make reading easier for these students, but also fun.

Bookshare is the largest accessible e-book library in the world.

We have over a million titles in our collection and our mission is simply to make reading easier for people with print disabilities.

Bookshare is a fully free service for US students and schools as long as they have a qualifying disability under that print disability.

You sign up on Bookshare.org.

It's a pretty simple sign up process.

We do require a proof of disability.

Our collection is--you're able to access it through pretty specific copyright law.

So if you do not have a print disability, then we cannot offer you the library.

But outside of that, you sign up, you provide your proof of disability and you kind of have access.

If you're a student, you can also see if your school has an account as well.

Many schools have, you know, like a full district wide or school wide account that all of their students are listed under.

And that can be helpful as well, because then you can work with your teachers to get the books you need for class and things like that.

For us, in our district, Bookshare is used in our classrooms, kind of K through 12 and then our media center.

So we have media centers in every--in every elementary building, middle school and high schools as well that can help students get access to these great resources that also have some great accessibility features.

Books allow students to choose how they take in the content of books and find the best ways to engage with the material.

You have to get students liking and engaged in what they are reading and interacting with.

So for them to be able to A) pick a device that they like to read off of or learn from is key for us.

But then as you get into book share, there's millions of titles.

So teachers aren't just limited to hard copy textbooks that they have.

There's nonfiction, there's fiction, almost, you know, something that will interest them no matter what their background.

And that is hard to do without these digital resources.

Almost impossible to do if you're trying to engage every student.

Bookshare allows you to really customize a reading experience so that it works for you.

That could be downloading a book to read in Braille.

It could be using our karaoke style, highlighting where, you know, words and sentences are highlighted as the text to speech reads along thousands of miles of country roads, rough Timberland's overgrown tracks leading to abandoned mines.

There's the ability to change the voice of the reader as well.

So I learned this the hard way.

We actually did some elementary instruction with my voice, and apparently I was told that male voices can have some negative connotation for students.

So having the students, having the ability to to break down some of these barriers and be comfortable and again, just in that engagement will hopefully improve learning for everyone.

And again, it's not just students with learning disabilities or E.L.L.

It's--it's everyone.

And I also love the future of Bookshare that kind of highlights as you read along.

So they're not just kind of letting their mind wander.

If they're using that read aloud feature, it keeps them engaged in the moment to kind of read through it and keep up with it, which is key.

And Bookshare isn't just a reading tool for people who are in school.

Bookshare isn't just for students.

Anyone with a print disability can qualify for book share.

Students are funded through the Department of Education, which is why it's free for them.

Any adult member, there's a fifty dollar annual fee, which is less than a dollar a week to access Bookshare.

But at that point they would have the same access to the entire Bookshare collection, the same way our students do.

For students who use it.

Bookshare is a valuable tool to read not just what they need to do, but also what they want to.

Not everyone has access to reading materials a just in general, but then especially ones that they're engaged with and can connect to.

So this, I think, is just you can look at all of the research on the students who are read to who have access to books, do better in almost every field of academics and reaching their potential and seeing students grow.

So, you know, the accessibility of this tool that they can use and have any time, anywhere, I think is--is its most important feature, I guess, for our students.

We have students tell us all the time, like I hated reading until Bookshare, you know, the thought of sitting in class and having free reading time or having to read a paragraph out loud, like that's that's debilitating for a student who maybe has dyslexia or a visual impairment, who can't read a book in the same way as their peers.

And so giving them that access to ingest material in similar ways is their peers to comprehend that material and, you know, a very age appropriate, age level way.

Learn more about Bookshare at WNIT.org.

Education through AmeriCorps, a federal program that helps volunteers develop new education programs, also helps them further their own education.

They're not going abroad with Peace Corps, but doing a year of service right here in Michiana with AmeriCorps.

Scott Palmer produced this story.

Do you go and see the movies with your mom?

Oh, that's nice.

Abby Sexton wasn't sure about starting graduate school during a pandemic.

I had just graduated in 2020.

I really didn't know what I wanted to do.

I knew that I was really drawn to nonprofit work.

I wasn't sure which avenue I wanted to take with that, though.

Instead, she joined the Boys and Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County serving their literacy tutoring program as a member of AmeriCorps.

Something that AmeriCorps allowed me to do was to be exposed to all different avenues of nonprofit work.

I was able to get a glimpse into marketing, operations, a little bit of fundraising.

AmeriCorps is like a stateside Peace Corps program.

It's where people give a year of service to their community and then they receive very modest financial compensation.

So our full time members, which is in essence a full time job, it's about thirty five hours a week, they do receive sixteen thousand dollars over an 11 month term of service.

During their term of service, members might also receive health insurance, child care or forbearance on student loans.

AmeriCorps is a federal program administered at the state level, but the focus is on making local impact in key areas like disaster response, economic opportunity and, of course, education through local host organizations.

It's about capacity, so it's about capacity for the entity.

.

In Michiana, some of those entities include Boys and Girls Clubs, El Campito, Ivy Tech and the Robinson Community Learning Center.

Nothing's being made at the Robinsons makerspace, at least not this week.

The program year is booting up and so is their recruiting for about a dozen AmeriCorps positions which start September 1st.

And since their service makes new impacts, AmeriCorps will cover the cost, meaning host organizations don't have to.

But what happens is this could give you a chance to do something you would not otherwise be able to do.

So it wouldn't let you replace a receptionist at your front desk or those things.

But there's a program you always wanted to try or expand, AmeriCorps could give you that capacity to do so.

For example, we had a little preschool that was started 11 years ago by one of our AmeriCorps members.

And now we have a fully licensed preschool that's been in operation for a decade now.

And it really started with AmeriCorps members.

The AmeriCorps focus on education goes two ways.

Not only do the host programs build their capacity, the member does, too.

There's also an education benefits.

So it could either help with your own education expenses, either past or future.

At the end of that service, they receive a six thousand dollar education award for their own future education or to pay off student loans.

For years, I always thought that AmeriCorps was only for young adults, students and high school kids coming out.

It really impacted me because at the time I was old, I was in my sixties at the time and it really helped me because I had a daughter that was in college.

I was able to take my stipend and give it to my daughter to pay off her student loan.

We really feel like the the members that have worked with us have been gone forth to make a difference in other communities.

I just accepted a position in DC with a nonprofit called Defenders of Wildlife where I will be their development coordinator.

I would probably never have even applied to this job if it wasn't for my AmeriCorps service.

I think it's a program that is really steady and has great leaders in our community.

I wouldn't change my AmeriCorps experience for the world.

It was great.

Find out more about Americorps, check out WNIT.org.

Advanced manufacturing opportunities.

There are many new career paths for students who are nearly finished with high school Connexus Indiana launched a new initiative called Make Indiana Move.

This initiative inform students about the prospects of venturing into the world of advanced manufacturing and logistics.

Make IN Move is really a campaign to make Generation Z and some of our youth understand the opportunities and career paths that are involved in advanced manufacturing logistics.

It's an incredibly important and vital industry to our state and incredibly excited to see what we can do to--to build that awareness and draw more people into these great careers and pathways.

The state of Indiana, we make things.

I live in Elkhart, Indiana, and that has been our mantra.

We make things whether it's RVs, or whether it is components or whether it's you know, you go out to Kosciusko County, we're making medical devices.

This state is bar none, one of the best to make things, right?

And so why does Make Indiana Move, why is that so important?

It really comes down to the fight for talent across the country.

Everybody is fighting for talent.

Connexus Indiana is a statewide organization representing advanced manufacturing logistics.

And we have great relationship with companies throughout Indiana, workforce boards throughout Indiana and education.

So we're intricately involved in the K-12.

And so we've been working a lot with our school systems throughout Indiana to get this campaign ready to be launched.

Make IN Move is a new initiative geared towards the latest generation of high school graduates.

The goal; to inform them of the many career opportunities that can be found in advanced manufacturing and logistics.

Make Indiana Move has done a really good job in providing that digital architecture so students can actually have access to this content, learn, understand what these things mean.

When you say the word manufacturing, most of the time you think of, Oh man, I'm going to get an assembly line job, I'm going to just be a grunt.

That's not the case.

Frankly, that's not the case at all anymore.

Start thinking about I'm going to work with sensors and chip technology.

I can actually learn how to program a machine that can 3D print and print product on demand.

I'm using these advanced artificial intelligence algorithms.

It's going to help me make decision quality better.

So we're going to have a great website that's out there to--to research and kind of run through some questions to see if you're going to be a maker or you're a mover.

We also have social media that's going out on Instagram and so forth.

And then are our main real, real attack in some of these rural communities is our grassroots campaign.

So we're really going to get into the communities and help work with some other the industry partners, nonprofit and local government, to spread the word about AML in Indiana.

The students of today, they--they are born for this.

They have--they're taking coding classes.

They know more about technology.

I got a nine and 11 year old.

I know more about technology than I do.

And I feel like I'm a decently smart guy.

But they're primed for these sorts of role.

Their characteristics really align very, very well to advanced manufacturing logistics.

They're technology babies.

So they've had a supercomputer in their hands since birth.

So they understand the innovation and technology that exists.

They're really--get into a good job to utilize those skills.

And advanced manufacturing aligns perfectly.

And advanced manufacturing has changed from what it used to be.

Advanced manufacturing, it really is.

It's advanced technologies.

We're talking about robotics.

We're talking about Internet of things.

We're talking about artificial intelligence.

We're talking about making the products that exist all around us, the the chairs that you're sitting on to the cars that you drive to, the medical devices that are saving lives around the world.

All come from Indiana.

And we have to move those.

So we move those through logistics.

So a lot of our--our state is we're poised to move over six hundred fifty billion dollars worth of product through our state every year with the largest set of interstates that run through a state than any other state in the US.

We're--we're perfectly positioned for that kind of work.

Manufacturing is not what it used to be during my grandfather's age.

Manufacturing has come light years because of the application of so many great technologies.

I think we as a nation went through this shift where we thought everything that was manufactured needs to be done offshore, low cost countries like China or Mexico or places like that.

The reality is that the manufacturing that's being done today is a lot more complex and technical.

And because of the complexity and technicalities we really need, it's not just the old machines that are punch in parts.

It's sensors.

It's--it's the technology that's involved in the production process.

It's our ability to create and build.

With so many different paths and careers available today, this initiative looks to make sure students are aware of a changing and viable industry they can pursue.

But in Indiana, the number of people that have a post-secondary degree is something in the twenties, twenty something percent, right, which leaves around eighty percent of the population that simply don't pursue a postsecondary degree, which really means that there are opportunities for that sector to really start developing that career path.

We pushed the trades because trades are good.

A lot of people like to work with their hands.

Well, this is another version of that.

This is saying, look, instead of and we need those, but we need people to go to law school and to be accountants and to be doctors and to work in health care and all these other great fields.

But for everybody else, there actually is a great career opportunity as it relates to getting into logistics and advanced manufacturing.

Indiana graduates about eighty five thousand students every year, and there's a big portion of those students that come out without a plan.

They're not employed, not enlisted in the military and not enrolled in school.

So it's really--we need to be pushing this opportunity to those students to make sure they know they have next steps after high school or if they go in and get a certificate in post-secondary that they have next steps to grow and be a vital member to their community and their families.

Learn more about all these stories at WNIT.org, infusing innovation.

The key to economic development is attracting and retaining local talent.

enFocus, through project based fellowships and partnering with civic and private industries is bringing innovation back to the region.

So enFocus is a unique nonprofit that was found in 2012.

Our mission is to empower talent to build better communities.

Really, the problem that we're solving is--is, Indiana, a brain drain issue.

A lot of our graduates go off to other places and we'd like to inspire them to stay in our communities here.

And so who we are, we're a group of young professionals, recent graduates, collaborating with community leaders to try to make this a better place and hopefully attract and retain talent along the way.

The main reason I decided I wanted to be part of enFocus was I spent a lot of my time in my younger days trying to get away from Indiana.

I was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, and through all my experience working abroad, I gained all these skills and this realization that really here at home, like, everything, the communities here give so much to me and made me who I am.

So I decided I wanted to look for an opportunity where I could give back to those communities.

When I graduated from Notre Dame with my master's degree, I was looking around.

I heard about Enfocus.

I applied and I could not be happier with my decision.

What makes our fellowship program unique is it's really project based.

Other programs, some pure examples tend to place graduates as fellows within host organizations, work on a variety of projects.

We actually find strategic projects and organize them, such as a fellow gets to lead them, which compared to other types of occupations, you really get to lead a project in your first year and you get to work on a variety of different efforts with different organizations, not just one.

enFocus was a wonderful discovery for me.

So I was working with an attorney in town here, Dave Tomales, who strongly encouraged my coming to meet the folks at enFocus, and they have been able to help me basically develop an R&D arm.

So small businesses don't have the funds typically to do the kind of research and development work that they would like.

And so by connecting here, we've been able to do some amazing things in a short amount of time.

One of my current favorite projects right now is a research and development project where I work with a company called Polar Clean.

Polar Clean is a very unique company in that it utilizes dry ice and a blast that similar to sandblasting in order to clean surfaces in various industries.

So unlike with abrasive media, dry ice is not abrasive and there's no chemicals and no water and there's no cleanup because the material we're blasting out sublimates or it turns to a gas and dissipates.

So it's a green process and requires little cleanup.

It's very unusual and it's something that we can apply in most any industry.

I assisted at the forefront of the project on putting together an application to apply for a Department of Defense small business technology transfer grant or S.T.T.R.

Grant for short in which we did win the--win the opportunity.

We got that contract and that funding.

And now I'm assisting on the project with customer discovery, going out, making calls, emails to find out who are the best opportunities to speak with moving forward with that project.

And it's been an absolute pleasure and delight for me to work with the company, learn more about their service offering and seeing how we can expand their technology, innovate on what their current offerings are, and make sure we get them into locations where that really, truly need them.

Over 70 percent of the fellows have actually stayed in this region, whether at Enfocus or with local organizations.

And so the draw to come here to do good for this region really, I think, is why we know the model is working.

We're seeing things change around us and we're seeing people stay.

And so they really--that demonstrates the success of what we're doing here and how powerful it is for the fellows that work with us.

I've been an employer here in the South Bend for years and it is difficult to keep talent in the community and to grow our businesses to a level that we can keep some of the best talent in the community.

My own children have moved elsewhere and opportunities like this can bring people with their caliber back to the community.

So I'm very excited about the opportunity that EnFocus has been able to help develop with smaller businesses like my own.

And I'm looking forward to a lot of--a lot more because it's really opened up my mind in terms of creative ideas.

Now that we can go after that, we wouldn't have been able to previously.

I think economies, communities, small, medium size, even large communities are competing for talent in a way more so.

I mean, even after the pandemic, things are changing.

And so what we found is purpose is important early in your career, as well as it's a draw for talent.

And so for South Bend or Elkhart or Marshall County to be very much competitive in the worldwide marketplace for talent, these programs catch the attention of young professionals and try to increase the chances of them staying here.

And so in each community, we need to have the innovative talent programs that educate and inspire folks to be here versus elsewhere.

Check out WNIT.org for more information on all of these stories.

Thank you for joining us on Education Counts Michiana.

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The success of every student matters.

Education Counts Michiana is underwritten by Pokagon band of Potawatomi.

Investing in education and economic development for centuries.

Supporting the past, current and future development of the Michiana region.

Community Foundation of Elkhart County.

Inspire good Kosciusko County Community Foundation.

Where donor dreams shine.

The Dekko Foundation.

Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, LaGrange County Community Foundation, NIPSCO, the Beim Foundation, Crossroads United Way, serving Elkhart LaGrange and Noble Counties, United Way of St.. Joseph County.

Marshall County Community Foundation.

Ready to Grow St. Joe Early Childhood Coalition, and a Gift by Elmer and Dolores Tepe.

Thank you.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.