Coalition Lunch to focus on education opportunities

A local coalition is challenging others toredefine how people view college and whoshould attend.“College is any education you receiveafter you graduate with a high school diploma– whether it’s 6 weeks or 10 years,”said Kent Cocking, director of guidance atMarion High School.Kent is part of a small steering team forGrant County’s College Success Coalition,which formed earlier this year. The purposeof the Coalition is to establish communitypartnerships around a common goal – to getlocal youths to complete their educations.On November 29th, community membersand leaders are invited to participate in aneducation forum and lunch from 11:30 a.m.to 1 p.m. at Marion’s Ivy Tech CommunityCollege conference center. One of the purposesof the meeting will be to discuss localactivities that are taking place to promoteeducation and college success to youths. Thecommunity, including representatives frombusinesses, organizations, clubs, non-profitsand churches are encouraged to attend.“There is a need to coordinate the activitiesof people in the community who dothings for college success,” said coalitionsteering team member Ellen Spitzer. “Wewant a lot of different sections of the communityto join the discussion. We want toknow about what they’re doing so that wedon’t continue to repeat the same activities.Mississinewa High School guidancecounselor Debbie Dailey said: “Sometimeswe hear negative in the community, such ascomments about the unemployment rate andask, ‘What are people doing to fix that?’This College Success Coalition initiative istrying to put positive energy behind somethingneeded in the community. We wantpeople to come to the meeting who are interestedin seeing the workforce change.”Bengie Rodriguez, a manager at GrantCounty’s Walmart Distribution Center, isencouraging businesses to participate in theforum, pointing toward the push in the workforcesector for education and the new expectationsemployers place on future employees.“At Walmart, there is a real push togo to school,” he said.Cocking agreed that it’s vital for businessesand organizations with opportunitiesthat allow students to further their educationsbeyond high school to join in on the communitydiscussion.“We spend way too much time in educationcircles pushing kids into four-year colleges,”he said. “Many four-year collegestudents already know how to get there. Butthere are so many opportunities for kids inthe community to get trainings beyond that,”Cocking added, pointing toward examples ofcertifications and apprenticeships that canhelp prepare students for the workforce. “Weneed to centralize as a community so thatparents and students know how to accessthese opportunities. We should devise wraparoundservices for every kid that leaveshigh school so that no matter where they’regoing, they’re prepared.”IF YOU WANT TO GO: RSVP for theNov. 29th community lunch by contactingProject Leadership at 651-0650 ortpearson@projectleadership.or