Today in Education Counts Michiana Baker Youth Club in Warsaw.

PechaKucha, Saint Joe Benton Harbor.

Touchable Knowledge at Science Alive.

Readiness Center.

Preschool in Benton Harbor.

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 Saint Joseph County Crossroads United Way serving Elkhart, Lagrange and Noble Counties United Way of Saint Joseph County Marshall County Community Foundation.

Ready to Grow.

Saint Joe Early Childhood Coalition and a Gift by Elmer and Dolores Tepe.

Thank you.

Welcome to Education Counts Michiana.

I'm your host, James Summers.

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 Facebook page.

First up, afterschool enrichment.

Warsaw's Baker Youth Club prioritizes the education and social identity of the students.

It serves a wide variety of programing, including reading assessments and STEM related activities help kids achieve goals that will allow them to grow and succeed.

Baker Youth Club also allows college students interested in careers and education to volunteer and intern, creating interdisciplinary lesson plans to engage kids in learning.

Segment Producer Shanthini Ode Baker Youth Club is a before school and after school program, and we also run a summer camp.

We do an all day and an afternoon, only summer camp.

Our three pillars of our mission are education, health and social skill building.

Our mission is to work with youth of Kosciusko County to shape an educated, physical and social identity based on Christian values.

I think it's really cool when we get learners hands dirty.

I think that's really when learning occurs, pushing them out of their comfort zone and just taking those steps to kind of deeper learning is where my heart lies, really.

I love watching those moments where students grow.

Whether that is socially, whether that's school related, they need help with their homework and they walk through and they get help in our homework room or sit down with a staff member.

And it's been cool to watch those that need that help come in and then see where they're at.

A couple of months later.

We track the student's reading levels at the beginning of the year through the end of the year, and over the last four years, we've been 100% have maintained and or improved their reading levels from start to finish in the school years.

So we're very proud of the effort we put into those educational programs and then we just try to build off of that with the STEM and art projects.

And then we have just tons of physical activities from dodgeball to run fishes, run to basketball, soccer and then just space for kids to be kids, hang out, play board games.

We created a room in our facility.

That's all STEM related.

We have 3D printers, we have a 50 foot LEGO wall.

We have a magnetic wall.

The probably the neatest thing that's created out of that room is our partnership with the local college, which we have 150 discovery tubs.

These tubs consist of materials and a task card to complete a STEM project because these come really help me because especially being an Ed major, it's so nice to be able to work with kids because so many other people, I feel like they don't really get the opportunity to get the hands on experience besides being in a classroom or staff that are high school or college age students, some of them going into education and they're using this job as pad to their resume or to gain real life experience.

Education is such a huge component of our that's kind of the basis of our program.

Then it's filled in with health and social skill building.

So the importance of the communication with school principals, teachers and administrators is vital to the success.

I try to focus on what does it mean to be a good citizen?

What does it mean to be a good friend?

What does it mean to respect boundaries?

I've been here for three years and just the relationships are so important to me because they are school.

Sometimes it isn't like a safe space for some kids and they don't enjoy it.

But being able to be that safe space for a person have Baker Youth Club be a safe space for them before school and after school is really important.

Transportation always been the determinant of kids coming.

All the parent has to do is drop their child off at B.Y.C.

in the morning.

And between the B.Y.C.

busses and school busses, we get them to their schools.

We do tons of different in-house programs.

So we have STEM projects that we do daily.

We do reading programs.

So our kindergarten to third graders is has mandatory reading programs that come in and do 15 to 20 minutes of reading a day.

The third graders have an I read three prep that helps them prepare for the I read three tests at the end of the year.

It's a different environment because of how close knit the staff is, and I think that translates very well to the students.

This community is a giving community.

We would not be where we are today without their support, but they also see the impact we're having on the kids.

When you get to watch that tough exterior that they put off kind of melt as you form relationships with them and you see their personalities start to come out and they change.

And it's been really fun to watch that in some of our students and people.

Learn more about afterschool enrichment at WNIT.org.

Science up close.

Kids and families get to explore interactive exhibits and science based activities at Science Alive.

The St Joseph County Public Library hosted the 31st annual event and invited the community to see, touch and learn how science, creativity and curiosity come together in downtown South Bend.

Kristen Franklin Videographer Greg Banks Editor.

We're here today just for a nice outing on a Saturday and to engage them into STEM.

They go to a STEM school and it's just to get them out into the community to see what real life STEM is all about.

This is our 31st annual science alive here at Main Library.

It's an exciting time of learning about science and not only science, but technology, engineering, math, nature.

We have some awesome activities here for for kids to get involved with today.

They can see a goat and some amphibians and pet a snake.

See a wide variety of farm animals as well.

And then we have undergraduate students and graduate students here from local universities like Indiana University, South Bend, the University of Notre Dame.

And those graduate students are working one on one with young kids, getting them excited about studying math and physics.

And it's just an amazing, fun time of fun educational hands on demonstrations.

So far, their favorite booth was racing the Lego cars.

They built their own car, and then they got to race it to see who was the fastest.

They're geared to teaching children about science and technology, engineering and math.

That seems to be the way that the world is going.

Is STEM education, STEM jobs.

ND Energy has been participating in science alive for many years.

We have a lot of labs that we're affiliated with who get money from taxpayers, from the government to do research.

And part of the deal is that they need to come back to the community and explain exactly what they've been doing with the taxpayer dollars, explain their research on a level that children can understand or older people can understand.

Whoever in the community would like to come and find out about it in.

And also we're just very excited about science and engineering and we like to share our excitement and hopefully find that next great scientist or engineer in the community.

That's really shiny.

That is really shiny.

Our whole purpose of science alive is to get kids excited about studying STEM fields.

So that when they go back to school, they want to learn more from their teachers.

And really the big picture is that as a nation we need to be competitive in science and technology, engineering and math in order to be the best at research and research impacts our health, we can discover new medicines and it really impacts our quality of life.

One year when the library was under construction before COVID, we actually held science alive at Notre Dame.

So we're very connected with science alive, very committed to it.

There are many other groups besides ND Energy that are here from Notre Dame, different graduate student groups, the Society of Women Engineers.

I believe I saw them here, some biology groups.

There are several other Notre Dame groups.

So, yes, Notre Dame is very committed to interacting with the local community, and this is one good example of that.

We're from the Notre Dame Mathematics Department.

We've come to do an exhibit here at Science Alive and we've got lots of different mathematical curiosities and puzzles.

We've got the towers of Hanoi.

There's an ancient game.

We've got Lily Pad, Leapfrog Game, a Klein, Buffalo and Mobius strip.

People can play with and discover about some geometry.

And we have some card tricks as well.

So we have, I like to say, mathematical card tricks.

So we have over 50 organizations represented here today.

Potato Creek State Park has brought some awesome animals.

We have a farm that has brought a goat and some chickens and a rabbit.

Amazing, amazing organizations.

We have the Boys and Girls Club, Potawatomi Zoo, Saint Joseph Park throughout the day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., we also had stage shows, so we have silly safari coming and giving to presentations in the auditorium.

And so they are bringing mammals and reptiles and amphibians and they'll have those live on stage.

And then afterwards kids can go and pet the animals, meet the animals, learn how the animals can interact with, with, with people.

It's just a really great time of learning.

The children get so excited and I think what's most fun, we don't like to take pictures of children's faces to put on the Internet, but I get the pictures of the college students watching the little children be excited.

And one of my favorite things to do is to watch the parents, watching the children be excited.

And I think when you have the whole family involved, then the child is more likely to follow through and actually perhaps become a scientist or an engineer.

And so, yeah, just watching the children get excited about science, I think is phenomenal.

Learn more at WNIT.org.

Brief but spectacular PechaKucha, which means chit chat and Japanese is a storytelling platform that emphasizes creativity and community building.

Participants get 20 seconds to discuss each slide of a PowerPoint consisting of 20 slides.

A global organization that has planted seeds in over a thousand cities, PechaKucha, Saint Joseph Benton Harbor is the perfect space to learn the stories of neighbors and community members otherwise overlooked.

And hear these experiences through a myriad of lenses.

They gave me community.

I was so grateful to meet this group of people and to have them in my life.

And they also became my resource for becoming a better athlete.

They helped me understand that PechaKucha, is storytelling events for our community members.

It's a great opportunity.

It's like a format of storytelling.

It's a glorified slideshow or PowerPoint where people, they have 20 slides that automatically change every 20 seconds.

So it's a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

That's your chance to tell your story.

And it's it's a great format because it's nice and concise.

It's very unique to be able to tell a story.

Storytelling.

And I think that is one way to bring community together.

And a lot of times we see or think that we're so divided.

But once we start to hear other stories, right, it brings that commonality out and allows us to connect on a greater set.

And there's so many people who we we know maybe we know them pretty well from work or from the community, but we don't really know their whole lives experience.

And when they tell a story, a lot of times it just it opens your mind and it gives you more perspective on where they're coming from and why they might think and act the way they do in their in their life.

20 seconds, 20 slides.

So it makes for a six minute and 42nd presentation, fast paced presentation about a passion project.

Anything that you could think of, you can come up here.

Mark Diaphragm is an architect and his partner, Astrid Klein.

They started the format in their architectural firm staff meetings, and that was devised to let the architect designers share their projects, what they had to cover in staff meetings, but to keep it short.

So they started this and it became so popular within the company that they started having these public events in Tokyo.

First one launched after that in Chicago, England, and then now it's global.

It's like in over 1000 cities around the world.

So any city can start a PechaKucha,.

We do a practice session for our presenters every time, and Mark Strauss is our coach for all the presenters.

And he's he always tell people that, you know, you don't it doesn't have to be perfect.

It doesn't have to be memorized.

The idea is that you're connecting with the audience.

So it's going to be like a professional speaker or anything.

You just have to have something interesting about your life and everybody has a good story to tell.

My story I will be presenting on is where I found leadership and what leadership means to me.

So I'm excited about being involved today because it's a unique way to do storytelling and it's awesome that we can bring people together from all different walks of life, different backgrounds, and just hear different experience that I'm presenting at Patrick Butcher today, talking about some life experiences and the cidery that I started.

Somebody told me about it when I moved here and we went to a PechaKucha, and you got to listen to all the presentations.

And it was fascinating.

It was great.

At the time I was transitioning from male to female, and I was asked a little later on to tell my story and what that was like.

So this is really providing a platform for me to continue.

When you talk about education and life long journey, providing a platform for me to continue to tell more stories about my lived experience and so many others in the community.

But that's the other thing I'm learning is, is there's there's no need to be shy when you're telling a story.

In fact, I find myself breaking cover, like breaking the ice with people, asking them their stories.

The greatest thing about PechaKucha, is that acceptance and being part of a community that is interested in what's going on.

I think that's that's the most wonderful part of this.

It excites me to hear other stories in my community and meet other people that I probably wouldn't meet in any other environment.

Where do you think I would have ended up?

We'll give you a second to think.

Repeat the cycle you cycle where you are.

Well, not only am I a graduate of the renowned immersive university, I'm also a graduate of Lake Michigan College and I am also graduate of Andrews University.

And I'll have my master's degree.

I would encourage people to ask other people what their story is.

It's it seems awkward and forward at first, but if you do it in a way that's not too intimidating, you'll find out.

Amazing things.

And people love you'll find that people love talking about themselves once you get them going.

Find out more about PechaKucha, at WNIT.org.

Creating connections.

The Readiness Center in Benton Harbor is home to an innovative preschool and parent learning environment.

By providing a safe and nurturing environment for children and their parents, the Readiness Center offers families the chance to learn the tools necessary to break the cycle of poverty.

Parents come 6 hours a week for workshops on budgets, credit repair, home ownership, tenant rights and other empowering skills.

What's my role at this program is called the Readiness Center Preschool Learning and Parenting Program.

It is a three day program for our children, and they actually come here with their parents.

So we have something that's called parent and child time on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the first 30 minutes of class.

And it's when the parents are actually like the teachers of their children and they're helping them with learning.

The Readiness Center started in 1980.

It's been around for 43 years, and it was started by Sister Paulitta Walters.

She's a sister of mercy from the Detroit area, and her community encouraged them to go into the community, be a part of the world, and be a part of neighborhoods that could use help.

And she had spent a summer here before and really fell in love with the community of Benton Harbor and wanted to come and offer a new and unique program for families.

One Year two Good job.

So my wife actually, she used to go to this school and when she was a kid growing up and now with having a child of our own, this was a place that she loved to.

She grew up and learned to love.

So we feel like it would be a good idea to bring our son here in enrolling him in this program and seeing that the way that they organize and go about interacting parents and child together is so beautiful.

The teachers here learn your child and you get to see how, since we're actually present, we can sneak into the room and see how our child is actually interacting.

And also you get to see how the teachers are handling it.

So you build a trust by, okay, you are patient with my child.

You do know how to handle my child when they're they come in with a bad day because they have bad days to where they didn't sleep well or they just having a day.

Marcus.

Do you need to of go to time out corner?

Because you told me you were going to have a great day.

How's your day going so far?

Oh, we're acknowledging him.

Good morning.

If I see that they're coming, is there.

Do you need love?

Can I get love?

And then we'll all open with morning affirmations, because I want my kids to be confident.

I want them to be proud of the things that they can do and will do in the future.

So I want them to feel good about themselves.

So it's more an affirmations.

I'm smart, I'm kind, I'm beautiful.

You get to see what's okay is improvement.

You get to see what they learned.

You can teach them things and just learn from the teaching and when you're not in the classroom.

So when you go in the next day, they can tell you what they learned today.

So I feel like that's a good thing.

We're hands on with the parenting classes, with the kids.

Yeah, it's a big square.

Yeah, no disrespect meant from their teacher, but when you can see for yourself, you, it gives you an idea of the things that will be helpful for you to work on with them outside of the classroom.

Because we have no income requirement for our program.

We have families of all socioeconomic status.

And what it was really nice is just having a support system among the parents has been a really wonderful thing to see.

So you'll be surprised how many parents don't know how to actually work with their child.

I hear all the time with kids who go to public schools and stuff like that or when covid first got hit and all the kids had to do online schooling and the parents go, Oh, I can't do this.

I'm not up to this.

I'm not a teacher, but you are a teacher.

You're their first teacher.

You're the one that taught them how to tie they shoes taught them their names, you taught them things, and then you brought them to school.

So the parents what I see is the parents actually learning from one another, whether that's patients or, you know, seeing a different way to actually teach their kids something.

Where I we've got to the point where we basically learning from each other, you know, with the way that they teach us in the 30 minutes that we do before she actually go in a classroom with the parent is called the parent and child teaching time.

So within that time frame, I get to also assist my daughter in her education, helping her grow, learn things and making it fun, excitement for her to learn from me.

It also is taught me a lot in the home, in the parent department of learning about learning how to grow with sewing.

You know, they have programs where they teach our kids how to swim and everything.

And I'm just like very grateful for that.

My son, when he came here, he had a reading problem.

He wasn't really into reading.

After they leave here, they could still come back and do the school program and my son would come to the after school program and it helped him more into reading his books and learning the difficult words and stuff like that.

So that helped him a lot.

And then one thing that I tell him that's really important we help in their teens with their education is make learning fun.

Kids do not like to be bored.

So you make learning fun, make it all fun, make it a game, make it into a game, make it into a scavenger hunt.

Just make it interesting.

And that's the whole that's another time we have such a tremendous staff.

Everybody has been here either working for over 20 years or part of the program and now becoming part of the staff and we really just have such a wonderful family environment that it's a gift.

And I just hope to be able to continue to offer this safe and wonderful place for families well into the future.

I would just say to be the only way is to step into the child's shoes.

You know, we're living for them at this point.

And we're trying to build them a brighter future.

And only way to do that is to walk them through that journey and to be a part of that whatever they want to do, we have to invest in that and anything positive, willing to invest in We Readiness Center is a very wonderful place for children and parents.

I think any father, any parent should actively engage in this programing, really see what it's about, and they'll learn to love it.

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

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The success of every student matters.

Education Counts Michiana is underwritten by Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Investing in Education and Economy, Act development for centuries, supporting the past, current and future development of the Michiana region community foundation of Elkhart County Inspire Good.

Kosciusko Community Foundation Where Donor Dreams Shine.

The Dekko Foundation Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County Crossroads United Way serving Elkhart, Lagrange and Noble Counties United Way of Saint Joseph County Marshall County Community Foundation.

Ready to Grow.

Saint 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.