Students need
guidance to
find the
right path
Elkhart schools are developing
partnerships to prepare
tomorrow’s workers
Dan Ram (left), a senior at Goshen High School, and Victor Mancilla, a junior at Elkhart Memorial high
The second grader wants to be a veterinarian, School, work together on a project in the mechatronics lab at the Elkhart Area Career Center.
because what 7-year-old doesn’t love a kitten
blocks already are in place. From the STEAM
ones with the great potential.” Soon, 150 of
or puppy?
school – arts, along with science, technology,
these students in the Central and Memorial
engineering and math – developing at
districts will be identified and challenged with
The eighth grader with the newest Kobe
Roosevelt Elementary to the 40-year-old Career a defined path to educational success – it’s an
VIIIs expects to be an NBA star, because
Center, educators and supporters around the
extension of the type of thinking that’s been
doesn’t that always happen?
county have clear focus on the issue.
applied to the “early college” program.
And next April, a senior about to graduate
will just begin thinking about where he’ll
go to college, because isn’t that more than
enough time?
Perhaps the most important soft skill
needing attention is decision making.
Elkhart Community Schools is embarking
on a mission to help students – all students,
kindergarten through graduation – navigate
those all-important career pathways.
“So many times, students have absolutely no
concept of where they are and how today’s
choices will impact how they get where they
want to go,” says Bill Kovach, director of the
Elkhart Area Career Center. He adds it’s not
just the kids lacking in this area: “We just
did parent-teacher conferences, and we did
a survey that 88 percent of the parents said
absolutely, yes, they want their child to go to
college. But what’s been done to prepare?”
Only 25 percent of students currently will
go on to get that degree. Students need to
be better positioned to understand lifelong
technical learning and certification, not a
liberal arts degree, may be the right path
to professional success. It’s why school
administration assigned Kovach to lead a
career pathways program.
A research and plan development phase
is underway, Kovach says, but the building
Horizon Education Alliance, the Economic
Development Corp. and the Chamber, among
others, are on board. Kovach says the support
at this particular time in the process is critical.
Meanwhile, the Career Center continues to
develop career-oriented education with a
greater emphasis on how core skills can be
integrated with everyday work. To extend the
pathways philosophy, middle and high school
“Elkhart is taking
students touring the
ownership of these
building are told they
The Elkhart Area Career Center cannot let their math
challenges. We’re just
in the beginning stages,
and English grades slide
will have an open house
but these connections
and still be accepted for
from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26. The
are bringing us together
facility is located at 2424 California Road. Director an EACC program.
and showing us how we
Bill Kovach says private tours also are available;
can help each other,”
his email is [email protected], and And like a lot of
Kovach says. “We need the more information is available at myeacc.org. educators, Kovach
understanding that we’re
steers clear of constantly
all struggling with the
telling students they
same things.
need a bachelor’s to be successful.
“As educators, we get these kids seven hours a
day and require them to show up on time to
work and be responsible. Then, for the other
17 hours of the day, they have no structure,
no guidance. We have to change the culture
for them to go from survival to success. They
have to change the mindset from ‘what I have
works for me’ to ‘this is the way I can thrive.’”
Kovach says educators – himself included
– have lost sight at times of the middle-ofthe-road kids. The high achievers and the
at-risk, he says, have gotten the lion’s share
of attention while “the kids with B’s, C’s and
D’s have gotten overlooked. Yet these are the
10 GREATER ELKHART CHAMBER
“We have moved to talking about ‘learning’
instead of college, college, college. Get trained
to do something,” he says. “Look at it as a
scaffolding approach – take these classes, get
trained to do something, keep moving up, look
for more opportunities to learn and grow. As
you advance your education, you’re going to see
that bump in pay. And employers will see our
skill sets have improved, and our economy will
diversify and grow.
“As these things happen, this will be even
more of a place that people want to come to,
work in, and live in.”