Today on education counts, Michiana programs for preschoolers, African drumming and music program, field scholarship program through Bethel University, the Wagon Wheel Learning Conservatory, 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, LeGrange County Community Foundation, NIPSCO, the Beim Foundation, United Way of Elkhart County, United Way of St. Joseph County, Marshall County Community Foundation.

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

Thank you.

Welcome to Education Counts Michiana I'm your host, Sam Centellas.

Education counts 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 counts.

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First up, quality pre-K learning the mission of pre-K programs is to provide as many kids as possible with a high quality educational foundation.

Starting this fall, the South Bend Community School Corporation will become part of that mission by launching three programs at no cost to parents.

Brent Fox produced this segment.

Starting in the fall of 2001, Marshall, Muessel and Studebaker primary schools will be the home of the first three pre-K programs of the South Bend Community School Corporation.

The origination of the ideas to start our own pre-K start with the whole concept of the whole child in helping ensure that we are helping our youngest learners with a strong foundation to prepare them for the K through 12 Experience which would come next after pre-K.

I think it's a great opportunity for our schools and our families.

I just envision that building more community and more stability with within those schools.

I can see, you know, starting at pre-K that there be an ownership in the buildings, kids coming back, families staying in those buildings and just like you see in small towns, even where that school is their home.

That's what I envision, that this program will really help build that with our district.

These programs are unique and that they are being offered through a public school system at no cost to parents.

Most pre-K is do involve a cost and South Bend schools is offering this to our students for free.

So our pre-K program will not only be taught by certified state certified teacher that has early childhood experience and certification, but there will also be an instructional aide in the classroom.

So we're we're offering a 10 to one or less teacher to child ratio, which should encourage more interaction and more learning, as well as the opportunity to work with a certified teacher, which means that we're really driving what is going to be the high school curriculum through our community partners, family connections in the city that's offering training for all my staff that will help drive and steer how our students are learning and developing.

I reached out to a friend that I knew was running one of the early childhood programs, and it just sounded sounded really interesting to me.

Exciting that we're bringing in pre-K into our school district so that we're servicing really everyone from early childhood, from four year old to adults.

And it was kind of neat to be able to be a part of that.

We know that in the kindergarten curriculum that students are more focused on reading, writing, arithmetic.

We're hoping to help them with the foundational piece of being able to follow directions and explore learning through play and other activities.

We have the the power to help them engage in social settings and emotionally developmental settings in order to create the readiness to move on into kindergarten and beyond.

Seeing how that kindergarten curriculum and program has changed over the years and the expectations that they have on them now, it would be great for little ones to come in and just have that school experience to to learn about what school is to start to begin to practice some of those procedures and rules and just get a sense of school so that when they're when they head off to kindergarten, they're more prepared.

They're ready to take off and learn while they, you know, have fun, too.

But they're more ready for what they have to do.

And it's easy for parents to sign their children up for this program.

There's two programs offered at each of these buildings.

For the fall of twenty one, they can register online at the South Bend schools.

There is a place where you can check which building you're interested in and then if you're interested in the AM program, which will run from eight thirty to eleven thirty, or the PM program which will run from twelve thirty to three thirty, that is a slightly different schedule than the new school schedule that was approved by Dr. Cummings and the board.

So we will start a little bit later, which may be a little bit easier for our pre-K students to come most ready and prepared and awake.

Well, these pre-K programs may just be getting started.

There are high hopes for them as they move into the future.

I'm just really excited about helping them grow and build their love for school, teaching them, you know, those procedures and routines that that they'll need to know really coming into a group maybe for their first times, but also just exploring with them, helping them get creative, ask questions, learn to get along with other kids to to really set their plans for the day, to check in on their learning, just to really be more aware of school and and what they're interested in.

I particularly have a heart for the little for the little youngest students because they are so excited and every moment is an aha or gotcha moment.

So this enables us to see their excitement and learning and growing and help build their foundations with our passion and our intensity in the classrooms and allow them to grow and just Experience their smiling faces when they come in every day and when they leave every day.

Because I anticipate that it will be a great experience every single day with our pre-K programs.

I learn more about the program at WNIT.org.

The art of production, the Wagon Wheel Conservatory gives students the opportunity to know what it takes to play a part in large productions.

With courses run by experienced theater professionals, they teach students the importance of finding their own unique, authentic voices on stage or behind the scenes.

Trevor Fowler produced this segment, Something that I think can be overlooked in a in a normal public education system is the idea of seeing the world through somebody else's lens, seeing the world through somebody else's eyes, getting to know intimately the experience of other people by learning about how to speak the truth from somebody else's perspective.

So we feel like Wagoneer Conservatory can be really beneficial to the students of the community in a lot of different ways.

One of the ways is that students who might not find a home in sports might not find a home in other traditional activities, might find theater is the place where they really thrive and find companions and find their voice.

It's probably one of the most rewarding things.

Seeing kids that love theater are really excited about the arts, something I've been passionate about my whole life.

It's great to have them come in the building and feel that energy and get that excitement.

We have so many kids that do one show and then they're hooked and they're doing show after show after show after show every single year.

And now they're taking classes and they're getting that education and the training to become better actors and better performers.

And for me, it's really what means community and more size to bring those kids into the building.

Of course, this year I wheel they're really informative and they're very professional.

And so you get that professional experience as a young student and you get to start off your career with that foundation of knowing how how professional theaters work and how they function.

And you also get that connection from everybody else in the theater.

So you have those connections in the future when you go to look for jobs or want to apply to schools or and they're just like good foundational skills for any job to.

So not even just theater like you could go into anything else and you're going to be set for people skills.

Theater is also a great way to learn how to get up in front of a group.

I always tell my students 80 percent of acting is being willing to look silly in front of other people.

The self-confidence that that provides to the students is extremely beneficial and translates to the traditional classroom as well.

It helps prepare them to make presentations in their classroom.

It even helps prepare them for job interviews in their futures, just being able to sit and talk with someone and speak their truth.

I started out with just basically we do a show, we put it up in 10 days and then we'd run it for a weekend.

And we did several of these throughout the year.

And then we decided now it's time to expand that we have a pretty good base and we really felt like we needed to do some classes and have more of a steady outline throughout the year where we're doing you know, we had dance camps, we've had dance workshops over the weekends, we've had classes, we've had acting classes, we have improv classes.

We had all these things going on in the theater.

And we thought it was finally time this year to bring it all together and to kind of get it under one umbrella organization.

And we thought starting off with a conservatory, which means that it covers all arts, whether that's going to be music or media or performance based stuff.

So we wanted to do something that really involved a name that would cover all of those things and give us room to expand in the future.

Whether we want we're going to be planning on doing voice lessons.

We're planning on doing musical lessons of kind piano.

We don't know where it can go.

So we just wanted one umbrella name that we could have out there, that we could put all of these new things and give us room to grow into the future.

At the conservatory, we will offer dance classes, music lessons.

So singing and piano, of course, acting classes.

That's the the main focus for me specifically.

And we offer them from the age ranges of second grade is really where we start.

Of course, there's lots of script reading and things like that.

So we kind of start at the second grade level to make sure everybody's on the same page and and able to read.

And then we're looking forward to expanding and offering adult classes as well.

We have a really thriving community theater here, a wagon wheel under our umbrella, and a lot of passionate adults who love theater and want to continue their education.

The conservatory will probably grow so much and expand to so many more people than it did before.

And so many more kids will get the opportunity to learn and to explore and to try new things and ask questions and meet with all these people who are professionals in their field and get those experiences from them.

We have scholarships.

If people think that they can't afford it or they don't have the time, we try to get it in ours that we can bring the kids into the building at any time during the day or night.

We have just weekend things.

We've been doing some zoom.

And if kids we've had people from Arizona that have been in this community before who've moved away, who really want to take classes with us still.

And so we're able to do that through.

Zoom so they were able to be a part of these programs and stuff.

So we just really want to make it broad reaching to everyone in our community to let everyone know that it's available and accessible to them.

Conservatory.

Sounds like a big word.

It's really not.

It just means all encompassing.

We just wanted one word.

It doesn't mean that it's going to be elitist or any of those things.

It is really accessible and for everyone to be involved in the arts and we're trying to make that is simple and accessible as possible.

Find out more about the conservatory at WNIT.org a degree on the go, a college degree can be a valuable tool when it comes to career paths, but the cost of attending college often keeps people away.

The field scholarship program at Bethel University in Mishawaka partners with local employers to provide either a low or no debt option for students to earn their degree.

The Bethel University Scholar Program is a program that allows for students within the Michiana region to walk away with the low debt to debt free option with a bachelor's degree of their choosing.

How this is done, students receive scholarships and grants in addition to state and federal contributions, which then help a student to receive a loan debt to no debt option for college.

The scholarship program derived when there was some great people at this university who said, you know, how can we, you know, extend this great opportunity as great Christian education to the Michiana region students.

And so along with those great minds and some donors, they said, hey, let's make this this a more financially feasible option for those students in the Michiana region.

And so by doing that, that the university has cut the cost of tuition by about 50 percent to make this reality.

And so with the assistance of the donors and the university coming together about three years ago, made this program a reality for students in the Michiana region to come to Bethel University and have the option to choose from a host of 50 plus majors.

Students in the Field Scholars program also the cost of their education.

By going to classes and working a job, it's expected that a student can work 15 to 20 hours over the course of the school year and then 40 hours over the course of the summer to help offset that cost.

And so we look at the students, FASFA, which then helps us determine a student's expected family contribution.

And then we put all those things together to see how we can get a student down to a zero dollar goose egg before they graduate.

And those jobs are made available through partnerships with local businesses.

As the director of the Field Scholarship Program, one of my primary objectives is to make relationships with community partners.

I'm constantly in the community shaking hands with people trying to extend those relationships, explain what the Field Scholar program is all about to make this program ubiquitous and to to draw the attention that it needs.

Students will need employers.

They will need places to work while they're here at the university attending classes.

And so employers are key role in the success of these students.

And so the more employers that we have who are willing to hire about those students, that that poses a greater option for the success of the students within the scholarship program.

In addition to working a job and working towards their bachelor's degree, members of the field's color program get some additional perks.

We offer each full scholarship the opportunity to come to monthly sessions where they are enriched with a lot of information, information that they are not that other students on the campus are not privy to.

We talk about financial literacy, creativity, professionalism, things like that that will help you enhance who you are, even resume building ways to dress, how to talk when you're going into a resume, things that you should expect when you're on the job.

And so these tools and resources we are giving to field scholars, students that will help them to not only be successful as they're working on and working their way through college, but also helping them as they're working their way through life, giving them the skills that they need.

And these lessons can lead to even more investment towards their future educational prospects.

You walk into an employer who who says, I want to invest in you.

You're a great person.

I see you growing here within this organization and they offer to do some college tuition reimbursement for you or even want to pour into you so that you can go off and get a master's degree.

Not only then have you walked away from the university with a low debt to debt free option with a bachelor's degree.

But then here you are now looking to walk away with a low debt to debt free option as well for a master's degree.

And I think that's really big.

I think we don't look at those things in the moment.

But to look down the road when it's time to buy a car or buy a home that was debt to income ratios or something that we usually don't tend to think about until they hit us in the face.

The program has also had benefits to prevent students from putting off their educational pursuits during the covid-19 pandemic.

I believe that this program is so significant, especially after we've come through so many unprecedented times due to covid-19 parents and students who have become so financially conscious.

This program, I believe, has alleviated a lot of that anxiety for a lot of the Michiana region students and said, hey, you know what?

We understand that we don't know what tomorrow may hold.

But one thing that we can say as field scholars that we know that we can assist you with your tuition to help cut those costs.

And so I truly believe that this program has come in the right time.

In the end, the aim about the university's field scholarship program is to make sure the cost of college is no longer an obstacle for students looking to advance their academic and future careers.

This program makes the dreams for those who said, you know, I drove past Bethel University as a child in the car with my parents.

And that's a place, our university that I wanted to obtain a degree from.

It makes it a reality for them and says that, yes, this is an option for you.

Don't cancel out college because of the cost.

Let's explore the field scholar program.

Maybe this is a route for you.

If you think that, you know, you need to stay out of college for a year and save up some money to attend college the next year.

Let's talk about the Bethel Field Scholarship Program for you, because this is a program.

That not only allows for you to work and put away some money, but it also allows for you to pay off your school that while you're going through this program.

Learn more at WNIT.org.

Intuitive learning at the Discovery Enrichment Center in Benton Harbor.

Students are given the opportunity to learn through various social and cognitive activities and programs.

The new African drumming and music program teach students about different instruments and gives them the opportunity to play and learn through sound.

So the Discovery Enrichment Center is the kindergarten of Benton Harbor Area Schools.

We also hold the Great Start Readiness Program GSRP.

So we have preschool in our building too, even though I don't think they're technically a part of Benton Harbor area schools, but they feed into it.

So it's just where a lot of the students in the area, most of the students in the area get their beginning of formal education.

Raise your hand if you can tell me what this kind of drone is called.

What's the name for this drum, Mikhaila?

Can you tell us really loud?

Yeah, that's right, it's djembe everybody say djembe All right, Mikhaila, I can grab a djembe Haylen, Isiah, Kaydence Tory, Jordan Ricardo, Ruby and Matthew a djembe.

So it's d j e m b e, it's a djembe.

I didn't have enough djembe for everybody.

So Matthew has a tubano.

Do you want to show him the tubano and you pick it up and come over to.

This is a tubano.

straight up and down, and then djembe has a yeah, has a rounded top.

So I already had this djembe from the middle school, has several drums.

So I was able to borrow one.

And so I've been using that throughout the year for like rythm echoes, for teaching them about different instruments.

And then at the beginning of 2021 it was right after New Year's there was the Benton Harbor Education Foundation was taking grant applications and I think the high school band director recommended it or something.

But I decided to do like an African drumming project.

And I found a website that has like a whole package of all of these drums, plus a ton of other African instruments, like smaller ones, shakers and scrapers like that that the kids are able to use.

And so I applied for it.

And the original idea was to like incorporate it into Black History Month.

But I mean, we did this project last month, so didn't quite make it in time.

But they are still a lot of very cool, interesting and different instruments.

The kids I mean, I didn't run into whole college.

So I think it's very cool to be able to give these kids that experience at this age.

Good now we're going to take turns and pass the beat around.

Kinesthetic learning you learn through doing you learn through emotion and actually interacting with things.

And so the kids are way more likely to remember this African drumming Experience than like.

We started learning, like how to read So and Me on the staff, like they're going to remember this way more than that.

So hands on learning, it's just so more engaging experience that they have a lot more fun with Go.

If you think I to like when you were in school it's not fun to, like, learn things you don't like, you're more engaged, you learn better and like everything sticks with you longer when it's a fun experience.

And I think that's pretty easy to do with music in kindergarten.

I think a lot of it is just intrinsically very fun.

This is my first year out of college, so this is my first teaching job, and to be able to bring something totally new to the school with the support of my fellow staff and my principal and my superintendent and everybody like that, it feels very good to be able to broaden their horizons in this way.

So it's a very hands on activity and it is something like that's very doable for kids, drums especially are like I mean, they can go nuts on them and it's it's still music and may not always sound like it, but it's still music.

Whereas other, I guess, more complex instruments like I can't hear a clarinet to these kids and I expect them to be able to really make music out of it where it's so easy for them to engage and feel successful playing these drums.

I think it's pretty fun.

Do you guys think it's fun?

I just really want them to remember the importance of hands on learning for one, and then also looking at different cultures and like reading into a little more, even though it's different from us, that never makes it bad.

It's something that.

Is that way for a reason and we want to understand it and respect it and be able to learn from it, and I think these African drums are a very good vessel for that.

We are going to give you 10 seconds of free play again.

Who are you looking for?

The cut off for you.

Yeah.

All right, ready.

Go.

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

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The success of every student matters.

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

Thank you.

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, LeGrange County Community Foundation, NIPSCO, the Beim Foundation, United Way of Elkhart County, United Way of St. Joseph County.

Marshall County Community Foundation.

Ready to Grow.

St. Joe Early Childhood Coalition and a Gift by Elmer and Delores Tepe.

Thank you.