June 25, 2024 • 28 mins
Get ready to uncover the secrets of integrating real-world industry insights into education with Gail Cruikshank from the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation (GSDC). Ever wondered how local businesses and schools can team up to better prepare students for future careers? This episode promises to enlighten you on the transformative power of such partnerships. Gail, the Talent Director at GSDC, shares her experience in fostering economic development across Stearns, Benton, and northern Sherburne counties. From the Employer Advisory Council's efforts to align educational curriculums with workforce needs to the EPIC initiative's hands-on career exploration opportunities, Gail reveals the strategies driving student preparedness and career awareness in the St Cloud area.
Join us as we highlight the EPIC initiative's focus on meaningful student-employer interactions, featuring real success stories like a student's unexpected passion shift from health sciences to welding. Discover the potential for mentorship opportunities and the importance of relationships in education. Gail also discusses future plans for EPIC, including specialized industry sessions for students and externships for educators, ensuring that both students and teachers benefit from real-world industry insights. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the impact of community partnerships on making education more relevant and impactful. Don't miss out on these valuable insights and inspiring stories!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The 742 CoffeeCast is your ultimate destination for
insightful conversations,thought-provoking ideas and
innovative strategies in StCloud Area School District.
Your host is Director ofCommunity Engagement and
Communications, Tammy DeLand.
Grab a cup of coffee and joinus.
So good morning.
(00:31):
We are so glad to have with ustoday Gail Kirkshank from
Greater St Cloud DevelopmentCorporation.
Welcome, and so glad to haveyou here on a rainy summer day.
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
So excited to be here .
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, I'm wondering if you might start by talking
about GSDC and your role there.
If we could start there, that'dbe great.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Okay, absolutely Love talking to you about GSDC.
Gsdc is a small nonprofitfocused on economic development
for the region, and region forus is defined by Stearns, benton
and the northern half ofSherbourne County, and my role
as talent director was aposition that was added back in
2014 because our investorsreally felt strongly that there
(01:11):
should be someone focused oneverything workforce, be that
connector, be that collaboratorbetween anything from our
business community to oureducators, to our job seekers
and any community partners, andso my role was born, and I was
lucky enough to be selected forthat role and have been there
ever since, so just celebratedmy 10-year anniversary.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Oh, congratulations.
That's wonderful, and so tellme a little bit about what the
connection is with St Cloud AreaSchools, because we have this
great partnership.
But how did that come to be andhow does it work now?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Sure, absolutely.
District 742 and GSDC have beenstrong partners since the
actually the inception of GSDC.
Previous Superintendent Jett wason our board of directors, and
this district has always beenvery, very engaged in what's
happening in the community andhow can we make it better
together.
So what has evolved from thatwas Superintendent Putnam and I
(02:12):
started conversation about herdesire to get our employer's
voice much more involved in howwe are preparing kids for the
future, and so we actuallycreated together an employer
advisory council that was madeup of my employers that I
thought would be the mostengaged.
(02:33):
We wanted to cover all of theindustry types that we have here
in St Cloud, so all voices wererepresented, and then
Superintendent Putnam gatheredthe right educators that she
wanted in the room from yourteam to be able to have quality,
just honest, open conversationabout what are we missing in our
curriculum, what could we maybedo different, how can we engage
(02:55):
our employers more effectively.
And it has just blossomed overthe years.
It started in 2019, rightbefore COVID hit, and so, but we
kept it going during COVID,virtually, and now we're back in
person and just continuing todive into what's missing and how
can we be better, and obviouslywith that ultimate goal of, you
(03:15):
know, making our students ready, work ready and hopefully
keeping a good number of themright here in central Minnesota,
you know, helping support allof our businesses here.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
And that really is an important gap to fill.
You said what was missing inthe curriculum, or even
awareness.
When we used to talk aboutcollege preparedness, career was
left out, and now those twothings are married together and
that intentionality seems to bea part of the really powerful
(03:44):
thing.
Can you give an example of howyou see that gap being filled?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Well, I think, just from the work we've done with
the advisory, through our EPICinitiative, through helping be
more intentional, with givingkids an opportunity to know more
about the businesses in ourlocal community Again, I think a
lot of times nobody knowswhat's right in your backyard,
you know I think maybe there'ssome misperceptions about what
(04:10):
certain companies do and whatthey don't do and just allowing
students the opportunity toreally understand who's here and
who might be able to help themwith that career choice.
And it doesn't mean they haveto work here, but they still can
have a mentor here or a contactperson just to answer questions
about their interest, theircareer interest, so they can
(04:31):
know that when they graduatehere they have a plan that makes
sense, that they feelcomfortable with, that's aligned
with their skill sets and theirpassions.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
And you mentioned Epic.
I wanted to talk about Epicbecause that is an incredible
community effort really, and so,yeah, I want to give you the
opportunity to talk about howthat came to be, that, what the
brainchild originally was, andhow it's grown where it is now,
because it's pretty darnimpressive.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
EPIC stands for Exploring Potential Interests
and Careers and it is acommunity collaborative.
That really started in 2018when a variety of business and
community partners and educatorsgot together and wanted to
figure out how do we providemore in-depth career exploration
for our future workforce.
And we modeled it loosely afteran initiative up in Brainerd
(05:24):
called Bridges Academy, whichhas been going on for many, many
years, and we brought that ideaback and really looked to see
what made sense for this regionand so we put together our first
ever Epic Day, which was in2019.
And we had 2,400 students fromabout 15 area high schools 10th
(05:46):
grade students come and reallyexperience all of the different
career possibilities followingthe Minnesota Department of
Education career wheel.
What our model is a little bitdifferent is we actually have
our business partners creatingthose activities and
interactions and experiences.
So it's not education in ourcase, it's in partnership with
(06:09):
education, but it's our localbusiness partners.
They understand the work themost.
They really want to engage withour students and our educators.
They actually create hands-onactivities, so a student will
come, they get to spend twohours roaming throughout the St
Cloud Technical and CommunityCollege, which is a great host
facility, and we also partnerwith St Cloud State and St Ben's
(06:33):
, st John's, so all careers arerepresented during this day and
in planning, and so the studentsreally get that chance to see
what a career might look like.
Because, again, many studentsonly know what they know from
their parents, caring adults,neighbors, relatives, that sort
of thing, and so we just want tomake sure that student has that
(06:56):
experience to be able to say Ihave, you know, had a vast
exploration and I have now honedin on this career.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I want to kind of laser in on one of the things
you said, and that's that thisis an interactive experience.
I wonder if you can talk aboutthat, because one image that I
had when I first heard aboutEpic all those years ago is oh,
we're going to busload a bunchof high schoolers in and they're
going to walk around and it'sgoing to be like the old
(07:23):
fashioned career fair, where youstop and you look at literature
, right, that is not what thisis.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
No, not at all.
It is not a job fair whatsoever.
That is not what this is.
No, not at all.
It is not a job fair whatsoever.
In fact, employers cannot talkabout jobs unless a student
obviously asks about employment.
That's certainly fine, but itis where our business partners
maybe they compete out in thebusiness world, but on this day
they're all working together toshowcase health care,
(07:50):
manufacturing, construction,business finance, whatever their
expertise might be that theycan then share with students.
And so it is not about come workfor me, it is about this
industry.
This is the type of career thatyou could experience and these
are the type of things you mightdo.
As those students have morequestions, they can just dig
(08:13):
deeper.
As far as you know, what is theeducation that's needed or what
type of skills do you look for,and that sort of thing.
So it really helps that studentunfold what it could look like,
to help them make that decision.
Because, again, we all know theinternet tells us a lot of
things, but it doesn't get downinto the details about what a
(08:33):
career really truly is day today.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
And that exploration, you have to be exposed to
something first.
Right, like you said, you canbuzz the Internet or even read
about it elsewhere, but untilyou're really exposed to
something, you're not going tobe very likely to explore what
those possibilities are.
So I think that's one of theunique things.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, and I think the way we have this set up is it
is so open and inviting thatstudents can maybe explore
things that they wouldn't havenormally thought to explore.
Maybe it's that littlechallenge that one of their
friends posts to them to go hey,let's go check out this area.
I don't know anything about it,but I hear they've got some fun
activities.
(09:13):
Well, now they're exposed tosomething they've never, ever
been exposed to before.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
So you went from 2,400 high school students and
now this is a thing, this is anactual community event from many
different school districts.
How has it grown?
Where are you at now?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Our last event, we had a max of 4,500 students
coming to the college, eachhaving a two-hour segment.
So it's not that we have 4,500students in the building at one
time, but it still doesdefinitely fill the hallways.
And we've had from 24 areaschools, and now we're to the
point where we're getting morerequests than what we can house,
(09:58):
and so great problem, but weneed to figure out what's next
and what's futuristicallypossible.
Really, what we're trying to dois also, if there's schools
that are not within our centralMinnesota, pairing them up with
other communities that are doingsomething like this or
encouraging them to do an eventin their community.
We have created an epic playbookthat we share with whomever
(10:21):
might want to know that.
They could then have somestartup guidelines to help them,
so you're not recreating thingsfrom scratch and be able to
maybe entertain something intheir community.
The other thing we've beentalking with DEED and folks at
the state to say is there apossibility that this could be
in, you know, futuristically,funding come to each of the
(10:42):
communities so they could eachdo their own however they see
fit.
So some of the things are stillin the works, but we know that
we have hit a max at SCTCCbecause we want.
We are first and foremostfocused on making sure that
student has a good experienceQuality experience, yes, quality
experience, not necessarilylet's see how big we can get it.
(11:02):
And even our employers, theywant to have that quality
conversation.
They can't truly tell a studentabout an industry if there's
way too many there at one time.
So we do spread them all out.
We have a great busing system.
St Cloud Technical andCommunity College is a wonderful
partner that coordinates allthat for us, so we are very
lucky to have that facility tohost this.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Has Epic been around long enough now that you
actually can start to seestudent outcomes?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
We can and we're starting to really dig into how
can we do that more effectively.
Right now our biggest outcomesare testimonials from our
students, which is great and wewant to continue to build on
that.
But we want to try and dig intothe data to see if we can truly
see those numbers and thingslike that.
(11:51):
Are there more students stayingin our region post-graduation?
What type of careers are theygoing into?
That sort of thing.
So we're working with our locallabor market analyst.
He's obviously got all of theins to numbers and trying to
figure out how we can capturesome of that.
So that's a work in progress.
But in the meantime we reallylean into those testimonials,
(12:14):
both from the students, theeducators that come along with
their chaperones that come withfor each school district, and
then also our employers in thecommunity.
If they've made connection to astudent following EPIC, they're
sharing that with us, so we canthen again know that we're
making a difference.
I do feel that we have made atremendous amount of progress in
(12:38):
just allowing students to havea wide understanding of the
careers available to them beforethey make that decision, so not
just jumping to those.
I want to do this because mymom does this or that sort of
thing and really getting anunderstanding of what's out
there.
So we definitely haveopportunity to still dive into
that.
But at least we're starting tosee this now, because our first
(13:01):
event was in 2019.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
It's been six years, so that's long enough to hear
the success stories, right?
Do you want to share one?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
or two of those.
Sure, absolutely One of ourfavorite ones was from a couple
of years ago.
A student was thinking she wasplanning to go into a health
career.
She went to Epic, you know,wanting to learn more about all
the different types of careersin health sciences.
And then actually one of herfriends kind of challenged her a
little bit to say, hey, let'sgo look at some of these other
(13:32):
careers, let's go look inmanufacturing and construction
and things like that.
And so they went to those andthis individual was just so
enthralled and passionate aboutwelding because there is a
welding station where you canmake this little epic statue and
she did that.
She excelled at the welds andher new career was born.
(13:55):
She left there saying I amgoing into welding.
And now she is currentlyemployed by a local employer and
absolutely loving her job.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
That is such a great story.
She should be the poster girl,right?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, yes, we have used her in some of our
promotional pieces just becauseit is a really compelling story.
But then there's others that'llsay I was going to go here, and
now I'm here and others havesaid this just solidified that I
definitely want a career inthis.
Sure.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Affirmation yes, that I'm making the right choice.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
We do surveys after each of our events and we
continually get over a 95%rating that it either helped
solidify or, you know, get themin the right direction as to
where they want to pursuefurther.
Because, coming as a 10th gradestudent, you still have two
years in high school to be ableto maybe change some of those
(14:54):
classes, make some connectionsto other folks so you can be
more prepared and then ready togo either post-secondary or into
the workforce, wherever youwant to go.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
And I think that making those connections in
education, we talk an awful lotabout relationships because it's
key to learning, right it is.
And so I wonder and again,maybe this is farther down the
timeline, but I wonder aboutmentorships, I wonder about that
opportunity.
(15:23):
Is that one of the outcomesthat you see from Epic?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
It is definitely happening in an organic sense
right now.
To give you an idea, for ourEpic Day events, we have over
200 different employers givingtheir day to planning and being
there and obviously the prepthat goes into it beforehand.
And then we've got 200 othervolunteers that are just coming
to say I'll just hope for theday, just tell me where you need
me.
So think of all those potentialinteractions that they get.
(15:50):
You know, as we mentioned, thisevent isn't a job fair, but
it's also a great opportunity tostart connecting and networking
.
So, those can lead to mentorship.
One of the initiatives that GSDCis really passionate about is
mentorship.
We hear it all the time, bothfrom students all the way
through the workforce.
So some of our local businesseshave some very quality
(16:13):
mentorship programs and they'rejust doing really well, and it
supports retention of talent,growth of talent, all of those
things.
But then some people would liketo do it but they just don't
have the bandwidth to do it.
So GSDC is going to work onsome programs that we can house
and just have people connect tothem as resources, but also for
the student piece.
(16:34):
My dream would be for everystudent to have a mentor in one
way, shape or form, and I knowthat's a very lofty goal and you
just look at your district andit's like how in the world would
you do that, gail?
But you know that's what we'reworking towards and, again, if
we can help those connections,that's something that we
(16:55):
definitely want to do, becausewe hear over and over from the
students, again from that survey, that it means more to them to
hear directly from somebody inthe business than their teacher,
their parent, their caringadult.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, there's a lot of power in there.
There is.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, they trust them just because, again, they're an
expert and they're not somebodythat's going to, you know, try
and sway them one way or theother, because that is their
industry.
So they will honestly share allthe details of it.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
That's interesting.
Listening to you, it soundslike there's also this element
of trust that I wouldn'tnecessarily think about.
But yeah, this is my field andso I'm invested in, you know,
meeting quality people.
Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
That's interesting, well, and another nice element
is on our EPIC website we have aresource called EPIC Connect,
which allows both our educatorsand our students to connect with
employers in our community.
So if a teacher wants to bringin a subject matter expert, or
if they just want to ask them aquestion, or if a student wants
(17:56):
to connect to somebody in anindustry and the educator just
doesn't have that connection yet, they can reach out and find
one, and those folks are morethan willing to just do whatever
that student's looking for.
Maybe it's just ask a question,or maybe it's come on site and
job shadow a little bit,whatever the need might be.
That's what we're trying tobuild are those connections, and
(18:18):
some will grow into reallystructured mentorship and some
will just be that connector,which is awesome as well,
because all we want to do ismake sure students are able to
make an educated decision as totheir career that's best fit for
their skill sets and theirpassions.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
This is such big work .
It certainly doesn't comewithout its challenges, right,
right?
So could you talk just a littlebit about those challenges and
what we can do to partner toovercome them?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Absolutely.
Collaboration is one of themost enlightening and rewarding
things to be a part of, but italso is a lot of work and really
the reason if you want to do itright, you have to make sure
you have all of the voicesrepresented.
So even as we developed ourEPIC work, it was important for
us to say do we have the rightpeople at the table making
(19:11):
decisions for our kids?
And so we have educators ofsecondary schools, we have
post-secondary educators, wehave business, we have community
partners.
So hopefully we're hitting allavenues.
We've actually talked aboutmaybe having a student or two as
an advisory to this committee,knowing their schedule might not
work for regular meetings, butmaking sure we're having that
(19:34):
student voice as well to makesure that we're creating
something that is appropriateand desired by them and helpful
to them.
I think that, like I said, it'sgetting those people together,
taking the time to listen andunderstand everybody's
perspective, because everybodybrings something different to
the table and they havedifferent goals and aspirations.
(19:54):
So it's working together tokind of get to that common goal
and understanding that okay,maybe we can't get to Gail's
goal yet because that maybe isfuture, but we focus on Tammy's
goal here right now, and theneventually we can get to Gail's
goal yet, because that may behis future, but we focus on
Tammy's goal here right now andthen eventually we can get to
Gail's goal.
So it's weighing that out andworking through that At GSDC you
(20:16):
have added a position right tohelp with that challenge.
Epic has added that I want toclarify.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Oh, epic.
Yes, Okay, it is a.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
You know, epic started and remains as a
community collaborative.
So when Epic has grown now tosuch great capacity and with so
much more potential, thecommunity really supported us
hiring a full-time Epiccoordinator.
So all of Epic initiatives arefunded through local businesses
here, which is fabulous, andalso a little bit of grants that
(20:48):
we do receive along the way.
So the EPIC coordinator, emilyDavis, she's in place.
She is just knocking it out ofthe park.
She does office in our GSDCoffices because we do act as the
fiscal host for EPIC, but it isall funded through our local
community, which is so veryexciting to see the commitment
(21:10):
and the intentionality that weneed to keep this growing and to
have her be that sole focus hasjust made it more
impressionable and intentionalthat it's not okay.
Do I call Gail?
Do I call this person?
Do I call this person?
Now, she is our point personand we all here are here to
support her, because it's not aone person show, but she is our
(21:32):
leader and it's really excitingto see where we can go.
She did a little bit of thiswork in Southern Minnesota
before she relocated up toCentral Minnesota, so we are
beyond blessed to have herbecause she has enough work,
knowledge and passion to reallylead this to the next level.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
You gave me the perfect segue.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
What is next for Epic ?
Speaker 1 (21:54):
right.
We've grown leaps and bounds.
We've seen amazing thingshappen, some great success
stories.
What's the future hold?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Well, there's a lot of future ideas going through a
lot of people's heads, primarilyEmily's, but also, you know
what that allows after a studentattends Epic Day, if say they
(22:28):
are very interested in learningmore about health sciences, they
can attend a two-hour sessionfocused specifically on health
sciences, led by our localbusiness leaders in that
industry.
So that kind of helps them divea little bit deeper.
So that is something that we'regoing to roll out, so we will
have one for each of theindustry clusters.
(22:50):
Again, just to again of therelationships.
So even some of the events thatwe do where we bring students
to a business site or bringemployers into the school
(23:12):
districts just to be able tohelp educate on career
exploration.
We will continue to do thingslike Epic for Influencers in
some way, shape or form, just tobe able to provide those caring
adults, parents an opportunityto learn about those careers,
Because, again, we need ourparents to learn these careers
(23:34):
and support these as well to bethat number one cheerleader for
their students.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
You and I were talking offline a little bit
when you brought up the parents.
I also wanted to mentionsomething you and I were talking
about that I guess I wasn't asaware of, and that's how
educators can benefit from thisrelationship as well, and you
were talking about externships.
Can you explain what you meanby that and what an opportunity
(24:00):
for an educator might look like?
Speaker 2 (24:02):
We all are better when we continue to learn.
We're lifelong learners, or wehope everybody is, and so that's
the goal.
Yes, so one of theopportunities for our educators
is they can connect with ourbusiness folks through an
externship and and that can meana variety of things, you know.
It can be a one day, it can bea summer long thing, it can be
(24:25):
whatever each party wants to do,but it allows them to dive
deeper into industry to then beable to better help their
students.
So I actually had theopportunity to help coordinate
two of those this summer, one inthe area of finance and one in
the area of just counseling andjust general business, and so
(24:46):
allowing me to connect thateducator with four to five
different people in ourcommunity that can share from
their perspective.
What do students need?
How do I learn more aboutfinance?
I mean, now that finance is arequired class for all of the
students, those teachers want tomake sure that they have all of
the latest and greatestinformation on how they can
(25:08):
effectively teach that class.
So that is something that GSDCis always very open to helping
collaborate with.
Being an investor-basedorganization, we have those
connections to majority of ourbusiness folks and if we can't,
we can find it with our otherpartners, like the Chamber of
Commerce and our economicdevelopment groups that we
(25:29):
partner with.
So it just, I mean we are againhere to help those educators
also learn more about industry.
It just helps them in theclassroom and it helps them, you
know, grow their career as wellrobust academically.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
that classroom then becomes because, right, the
teacher is diving and developingon a different level.
So then that comes back to theclassroom.
That is an amazing piece ofthis that I wasn't aware of, so
thanks for sharing that.
That's great.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Well, and I think a lot of times the teachers think
that they have their curriculumthey need to cover and they want
to stick to that.
But again, this could make yourjob a little bit easier.
You bring in a communitypartner for 10 minutes, a full
section on our class day, and itbrings that perspective.
Like we hear from our studentsthat attend Epic, they so much
(26:26):
prefer to learn from somebody inthe industry, and not that they
don't value their teacher, theydon't value their parents'
opinion, they don't value whatthey hear and read on the
internet, but to hear somebodythat's in that field give them
the down and dirty about what isthat career?
What would I be doing?
What education do I need?
(26:47):
What know, what skill sets arethe most important?
So then they can make adecision that is best for
themselves, you know.
So students aren't going toschool for something.
They come out and they're like,oh, I don't like this and I
just spent four years or twoyears or whatever of my time
learning that industry.
So that's powerful it is, and Ithink we're starting to see
(27:08):
students really take moreownership to really learning,
doing all that investigativework, if nothing else, just to
make sure they're understandingtheir career and also, you know,
weighing the balances of eachand every option they might want
to consider and then what makesmost sense for the education to
(27:30):
do that career.
You know it's not about I wantto go to this college mom, it's
I want to be this and this isbest taught at this institution
or maybe directly right into theworkforce through hands-on
learning.
You know many of our employerswill pay for education of those
new hires.
Continuing Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah Well, gail, I can't thank you enough for being
here today.
This was really fun and it'sactually something.
Coffeecast hasn't been aroundthat long, but it's this topic.
Our partnership with JSDC and,in particular, epic, has really
been at the top of our wish list, so I'm really glad you came
today.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
You are so welcome.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
We have a gift for you today.
Look at it.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Oh, I love it.
Coffeecast.
Yes, it will be prime on mydesk, thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Thank you.
Talk soon.
Okay, do you have a greatpodcast idea?
Submit your idea tocommunications at isd742.org.
And thank you for listening to742 CoffeeCast, the best place
to stay informed and be inspiredby St Cloud Area School
District.
Thank you.
The 742 CoffeeCast is your ultimate destination for
insightful conversations,thought-provoking ideas and
innovative strategies in StCloud Area School District.
Your host is Director ofCommunity Engagement and
Communications, Tammy DeLand.
Grab a cup of coffee and joinus.
So good morning.
(00:31):
We are so glad to have with ustoday Gail Kirkshank from
Greater St Cloud DevelopmentCorporation.
Welcome, and so glad to haveyou here on a rainy summer day.
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
So excited to be here .
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, I'm wondering if you might start by talking
about GSDC and your role there.
If we could start there, that'dbe great.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Okay, absolutely Love talking to you about GSDC.
Gsdc is a small nonprofitfocused on economic development
for the region, and region forus is defined by Stearns, benton
and the northern half ofSherbourne County, and my role
as talent director was aposition that was added back in
2014 because our investorsreally felt strongly that there
(01:11):
should be someone focused oneverything workforce, be that
connector, be that collaboratorbetween anything from our
business community to oureducators, to our job seekers
and any community partners, andso my role was born, and I was
lucky enough to be selected forthat role and have been there
ever since, so just celebratedmy 10-year anniversary.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Oh, congratulations.
That's wonderful, and so tellme a little bit about what the
connection is with St Cloud AreaSchools, because we have this
great partnership.
But how did that come to be andhow does it work now?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Sure, absolutely.
District 742 and GSDC have beenstrong partners since the
actually the inception of GSDC.
Previous Superintendent Jett wason our board of directors, and
this district has always beenvery, very engaged in what's
happening in the community andhow can we make it better
together.
So what has evolved from thatwas Superintendent Putnam and I
(02:12):
started conversation about herdesire to get our employer's
voice much more involved in howwe are preparing kids for the
future, and so we actuallycreated together an employer
advisory council that was madeup of my employers that I
thought would be the mostengaged.
(02:33):
We wanted to cover all of theindustry types that we have here
in St Cloud, so all voices wererepresented, and then
Superintendent Putnam gatheredthe right educators that she
wanted in the room from yourteam to be able to have quality,
just honest, open conversationabout what are we missing in our
curriculum, what could we maybedo different, how can we engage
(02:55):
our employers more effectively.
And it has just blossomed overthe years.
It started in 2019, rightbefore COVID hit, and so, but we
kept it going during COVID,virtually, and now we're back in
person and just continuing todive into what's missing and how
can we be better, and obviouslywith that ultimate goal of, you
(03:15):
know, making our students ready, work ready and hopefully
keeping a good number of themright here in central Minnesota,
you know, helping support allof our businesses here.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
And that really is an important gap to fill.
You said what was missing inthe curriculum, or even
awareness.
When we used to talk aboutcollege preparedness, career was
left out, and now those twothings are married together and
that intentionality seems to bea part of the really powerful
(03:44):
thing.
Can you give an example of howyou see that gap being filled?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Well, I think, just from the work we've done with
the advisory, through our EPICinitiative, through helping be
more intentional, with givingkids an opportunity to know more
about the businesses in ourlocal community Again, I think a
lot of times nobody knowswhat's right in your backyard,
you know I think maybe there'ssome misperceptions about what
(04:10):
certain companies do and whatthey don't do and just allowing
students the opportunity toreally understand who's here and
who might be able to help themwith that career choice.
And it doesn't mean they haveto work here, but they still can
have a mentor here or a contactperson just to answer questions
about their interest, theircareer interest, so they can
(04:31):
know that when they graduatehere they have a plan that makes
sense, that they feelcomfortable with, that's aligned
with their skill sets and theirpassions.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
And you mentioned Epic.
I wanted to talk about Epicbecause that is an incredible
community effort really, and so,yeah, I want to give you the
opportunity to talk about howthat came to be, that, what the
brainchild originally was, andhow it's grown where it is now,
because it's pretty darnimpressive.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
EPIC stands for Exploring Potential Interests
and Careers and it is acommunity collaborative.
That really started in 2018when a variety of business and
community partners and educatorsgot together and wanted to
figure out how do we providemore in-depth career exploration
for our future workforce.
And we modeled it loosely afteran initiative up in Brainerd
(05:24):
called Bridges Academy, whichhas been going on for many, many
years, and we brought that ideaback and really looked to see
what made sense for this regionand so we put together our first
ever Epic Day, which was in2019.
And we had 2,400 students fromabout 15 area high schools 10th
(05:46):
grade students come and reallyexperience all of the different
career possibilities followingthe Minnesota Department of
Education career wheel.
What our model is a little bitdifferent is we actually have
our business partners creatingthose activities and
interactions and experiences.
So it's not education in ourcase, it's in partnership with
(06:09):
education, but it's our localbusiness partners.
They understand the work themost.
They really want to engage withour students and our educators.
They actually create hands-onactivities, so a student will
come, they get to spend twohours roaming throughout the St
Cloud Technical and CommunityCollege, which is a great host
facility, and we also partnerwith St Cloud State and St Ben's
(06:33):
, st John's, so all careers arerepresented during this day and
in planning, and so the studentsreally get that chance to see
what a career might look like.
Because, again, many studentsonly know what they know from
their parents, caring adults,neighbors, relatives, that sort
of thing, and so we just want tomake sure that student has that
(06:56):
experience to be able to say Ihave, you know, had a vast
exploration and I have now honedin on this career.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I want to kind of laser in on one of the things
you said, and that's that thisis an interactive experience.
I wonder if you can talk aboutthat, because one image that I
had when I first heard aboutEpic all those years ago is oh,
we're going to busload a bunchof high schoolers in and they're
going to walk around and it'sgoing to be like the old
(07:23):
fashioned career fair, where youstop and you look at literature
, right, that is not what thisis.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
No, not at all.
It is not a job fair whatsoever.
That is not what this is.
No, not at all.
It is not a job fair whatsoever.
In fact, employers cannot talkabout jobs unless a student
obviously asks about employment.
That's certainly fine, but itis where our business partners
maybe they compete out in thebusiness world, but on this day
they're all working together toshowcase health care,
(07:50):
manufacturing, construction,business finance, whatever their
expertise might be that theycan then share with students.
And so it is not about come workfor me, it is about this
industry.
This is the type of career thatyou could experience and these
are the type of things you mightdo.
As those students have morequestions, they can just dig
(08:13):
deeper.
As far as you know, what is theeducation that's needed or what
type of skills do you look for,and that sort of thing.
So it really helps that studentunfold what it could look like,
to help them make that decision.
Because, again, we all know theinternet tells us a lot of
things, but it doesn't get downinto the details about what a
(08:33):
career really truly is day today.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
And that exploration, you have to be exposed to
something first.
Right, like you said, you canbuzz the Internet or even read
about it elsewhere, but untilyou're really exposed to
something, you're not going tobe very likely to explore what
those possibilities are.
So I think that's one of theunique things.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, and I think the way we have this set up is it
is so open and inviting thatstudents can maybe explore
things that they wouldn't havenormally thought to explore.
Maybe it's that littlechallenge that one of their
friends posts to them to go hey,let's go check out this area.
I don't know anything about it,but I hear they've got some fun
activities.
(09:13):
Well, now they're exposed tosomething they've never, ever
been exposed to before.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
So you went from 2,400 high school students and
now this is a thing, this is anactual community event from many
different school districts.
How has it grown?
Where are you at now?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Our last event, we had a max of 4,500 students
coming to the college, eachhaving a two-hour segment.
So it's not that we have 4,500students in the building at one
time, but it still doesdefinitely fill the hallways.
And we've had from 24 areaschools, and now we're to the
point where we're getting morerequests than what we can house,
(09:58):
and so great problem, but weneed to figure out what's next
and what's futuristicallypossible.
Really, what we're trying to dois also, if there's schools
that are not within our centralMinnesota, pairing them up with
other communities that are doingsomething like this or
encouraging them to do an eventin their community.
We have created an epic playbookthat we share with whomever
(10:21):
might want to know that.
They could then have somestartup guidelines to help them,
so you're not recreating thingsfrom scratch and be able to
maybe entertain something intheir community.
The other thing we've beentalking with DEED and folks at
the state to say is there apossibility that this could be
in, you know, futuristically,funding come to each of the
(10:42):
communities so they could eachdo their own however they see
fit.
So some of the things are stillin the works, but we know that
we have hit a max at SCTCCbecause we want.
We are first and foremostfocused on making sure that
student has a good experienceQuality experience, yes, quality
experience, not necessarilylet's see how big we can get it.
(11:02):
And even our employers, theywant to have that quality
conversation.
They can't truly tell a studentabout an industry if there's
way too many there at one time.
So we do spread them all out.
We have a great busing system.
St Cloud Technical andCommunity College is a wonderful
partner that coordinates allthat for us, so we are very
lucky to have that facility tohost this.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Has Epic been around long enough now that you
actually can start to seestudent outcomes?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
We can and we're starting to really dig into how
can we do that more effectively.
Right now our biggest outcomesare testimonials from our
students, which is great and wewant to continue to build on
that.
But we want to try and dig intothe data to see if we can truly
see those numbers and thingslike that.
(11:51):
Are there more students stayingin our region post-graduation?
What type of careers are theygoing into?
That sort of thing.
So we're working with our locallabor market analyst.
He's obviously got all of theins to numbers and trying to
figure out how we can capturesome of that.
So that's a work in progress.
But in the meantime we reallylean into those testimonials,
(12:14):
both from the students, theeducators that come along with
their chaperones that come withfor each school district, and
then also our employers in thecommunity.
If they've made connection to astudent following EPIC, they're
sharing that with us, so we canthen again know that we're
making a difference.
I do feel that we have made atremendous amount of progress in
(12:38):
just allowing students to havea wide understanding of the
careers available to them beforethey make that decision, so not
just jumping to those.
I want to do this because mymom does this or that sort of
thing and really getting anunderstanding of what's out
there.
So we definitely haveopportunity to still dive into
that.
But at least we're starting tosee this now, because our first
(13:01):
event was in 2019.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
It's been six years, so that's long enough to hear
the success stories, right?
Do you want to share one?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
or two of those.
Sure, absolutely One of ourfavorite ones was from a couple
of years ago.
A student was thinking she wasplanning to go into a health
career.
She went to Epic, you know,wanting to learn more about all
the different types of careersin health sciences.
And then actually one of herfriends kind of challenged her a
little bit to say, hey, let'sgo look at some of these other
(13:32):
careers, let's go look inmanufacturing and construction
and things like that.
And so they went to those andthis individual was just so
enthralled and passionate aboutwelding because there is a
welding station where you canmake this little epic statue and
she did that.
She excelled at the welds andher new career was born.
(13:55):
She left there saying I amgoing into welding.
And now she is currentlyemployed by a local employer and
absolutely loving her job.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
That is such a great story.
She should be the poster girl,right?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, yes, we have used her in some of our
promotional pieces just becauseit is a really compelling story.
But then there's others that'llsay I was going to go here, and
now I'm here and others havesaid this just solidified that I
definitely want a career inthis.
Sure.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Affirmation yes, that I'm making the right choice.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
We do surveys after each of our events and we
continually get over a 95%rating that it either helped
solidify or, you know, get themin the right direction as to
where they want to pursuefurther.
Because, coming as a 10th gradestudent, you still have two
years in high school to be ableto maybe change some of those
(14:54):
classes, make some connectionsto other folks so you can be
more prepared and then ready togo either post-secondary or into
the workforce, wherever youwant to go.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
And I think that making those connections in
education, we talk an awful lotabout relationships because it's
key to learning, right it is.
And so I wonder and again,maybe this is farther down the
timeline, but I wonder aboutmentorships, I wonder about that
opportunity.
(15:23):
Is that one of the outcomesthat you see from Epic?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
It is definitely happening in an organic sense
right now.
To give you an idea, for ourEpic Day events, we have over
200 different employers givingtheir day to planning and being
there and obviously the prepthat goes into it beforehand.
And then we've got 200 othervolunteers that are just coming
to say I'll just hope for theday, just tell me where you need
me.
So think of all those potentialinteractions that they get.
(15:50):
You know, as we mentioned, thisevent isn't a job fair, but
it's also a great opportunity tostart connecting and networking
.
So, those can lead to mentorship.
One of the initiatives that GSDCis really passionate about is
mentorship.
We hear it all the time, bothfrom students all the way
through the workforce.
So some of our local businesseshave some very quality
(16:13):
mentorship programs and they'rejust doing really well, and it
supports retention of talent,growth of talent, all of those
things.
But then some people would liketo do it but they just don't
have the bandwidth to do it.
So GSDC is going to work onsome programs that we can house
and just have people connect tothem as resources, but also for
the student piece.
(16:34):
My dream would be for everystudent to have a mentor in one
way, shape or form, and I knowthat's a very lofty goal and you
just look at your district andit's like how in the world would
you do that, gail?
But you know that's what we'reworking towards and, again, if
we can help those connections,that's something that we
(16:55):
definitely want to do, becausewe hear over and over from the
students, again from that survey, that it means more to them to
hear directly from somebody inthe business than their teacher,
their parent, their caringadult.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, there's a lot of power in there.
There is.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, they trust them just because, again, they're an
expert and they're not somebodythat's going to, you know, try
and sway them one way or theother, because that is their
industry.
So they will honestly share allthe details of it.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
That's interesting.
Listening to you, it soundslike there's also this element
of trust that I wouldn'tnecessarily think about.
But yeah, this is my field andso I'm invested in, you know,
meeting quality people.
Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
That's interesting, well, and another nice element
is on our EPIC website we have aresource called EPIC Connect,
which allows both our educatorsand our students to connect with
employers in our community.
So if a teacher wants to bringin a subject matter expert, or
if they just want to ask them aquestion, or if a student wants
(17:56):
to connect to somebody in anindustry and the educator just
doesn't have that connection yet, they can reach out and find
one, and those folks are morethan willing to just do whatever
that student's looking for.
Maybe it's just ask a question,or maybe it's come on site and
job shadow a little bit,whatever the need might be.
That's what we're trying tobuild are those connections, and
(18:18):
some will grow into reallystructured mentorship and some
will just be that connector,which is awesome as well,
because all we want to do ismake sure students are able to
make an educated decision as totheir career that's best fit for
their skill sets and theirpassions.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
This is such big work .
It certainly doesn't comewithout its challenges, right,
right?
So could you talk just a littlebit about those challenges and
what we can do to partner toovercome them?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Absolutely.
Collaboration is one of themost enlightening and rewarding
things to be a part of, but italso is a lot of work and really
the reason if you want to do itright, you have to make sure
you have all of the voicesrepresented.
So even as we developed ourEPIC work, it was important for
us to say do we have the rightpeople at the table making
(19:11):
decisions for our kids?
And so we have educators ofsecondary schools, we have
post-secondary educators, wehave business, we have community
partners.
So hopefully we're hitting allavenues.
We've actually talked aboutmaybe having a student or two as
an advisory to this committee,knowing their schedule might not
work for regular meetings, butmaking sure we're having that
(19:34):
student voice as well to makesure that we're creating
something that is appropriateand desired by them and helpful
to them.
I think that, like I said, it'sgetting those people together,
taking the time to listen andunderstand everybody's
perspective, because everybodybrings something different to
the table and they havedifferent goals and aspirations.
(19:54):
So it's working together tokind of get to that common goal
and understanding that okay,maybe we can't get to Gail's
goal yet because that maybe isfuture, but we focus on Tammy's
goal here right now, and theneventually we can get to Gail's
goal yet, because that may behis future, but we focus on
Tammy's goal here right now andthen eventually we can get to
Gail's goal.
So it's weighing that out andworking through that At GSDC you
(20:16):
have added a position right tohelp with that challenge.
Epic has added that I want toclarify.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Oh, epic.
Yes, Okay, it is a.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
You know, epic started and remains as a
community collaborative.
So when Epic has grown now tosuch great capacity and with so
much more potential, thecommunity really supported us
hiring a full-time Epiccoordinator.
So all of Epic initiatives arefunded through local businesses
here, which is fabulous, andalso a little bit of grants that
(20:48):
we do receive along the way.
So the EPIC coordinator, emilyDavis, she's in place.
She is just knocking it out ofthe park.
She does office in our GSDCoffices because we do act as the
fiscal host for EPIC, but it isall funded through our local
community, which is so veryexciting to see the commitment
(21:10):
and the intentionality that weneed to keep this growing and to
have her be that sole focus hasjust made it more
impressionable and intentionalthat it's not okay.
Do I call Gail?
Do I call this person?
Do I call this person?
Now, she is our point personand we all here are here to
support her, because it's not aone person show, but she is our
(21:32):
leader and it's really excitingto see where we can go.
She did a little bit of thiswork in Southern Minnesota
before she relocated up toCentral Minnesota, so we are
beyond blessed to have herbecause she has enough work,
knowledge and passion to reallylead this to the next level.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
You gave me the perfect segue.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
What is next for Epic ?
Speaker 1 (21:54):
right.
We've grown leaps and bounds.
We've seen amazing thingshappen, some great success
stories.
What's the future hold?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Well, there's a lot of future ideas going through a
lot of people's heads, primarilyEmily's, but also, you know
what that allows after a studentattends Epic Day, if say they
(22:28):
are very interested in learningmore about health sciences, they
can attend a two-hour sessionfocused specifically on health
sciences, led by our localbusiness leaders in that
industry.
So that kind of helps them divea little bit deeper.
So that is something that we'regoing to roll out, so we will
have one for each of theindustry clusters.
(22:50):
Again, just to again of therelationships.
So even some of the events thatwe do where we bring students
to a business site or bringemployers into the school
(23:12):
districts just to be able tohelp educate on career
exploration.
We will continue to do thingslike Epic for Influencers in
some way, shape or form, just tobe able to provide those caring
adults, parents an opportunityto learn about those careers,
Because, again, we need ourparents to learn these careers
(23:34):
and support these as well to bethat number one cheerleader for
their students.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
You and I were talking offline a little bit
when you brought up the parents.
I also wanted to mentionsomething you and I were talking
about that I guess I wasn't asaware of, and that's how
educators can benefit from thisrelationship as well, and you
were talking about externships.
Can you explain what you meanby that and what an opportunity
(24:00):
for an educator might look like?
Speaker 2 (24:02):
We all are better when we continue to learn.
We're lifelong learners, or wehope everybody is, and so that's
the goal.
Yes, so one of theopportunities for our educators
is they can connect with ourbusiness folks through an
externship and and that can meana variety of things, you know.
It can be a one day, it can bea summer long thing, it can be
(24:25):
whatever each party wants to do,but it allows them to dive
deeper into industry to then beable to better help their
students.
So I actually had theopportunity to help coordinate
two of those this summer, one inthe area of finance and one in
the area of just counseling andjust general business, and so
(24:46):
allowing me to connect thateducator with four to five
different people in ourcommunity that can share from
their perspective.
What do students need?
How do I learn more aboutfinance?
I mean, now that finance is arequired class for all of the
students, those teachers want tomake sure that they have all of
the latest and greatestinformation on how they can
(25:08):
effectively teach that class.
So that is something that GSDCis always very open to helping
collaborate with.
Being an investor-basedorganization, we have those
connections to majority of ourbusiness folks and if we can't,
we can find it with our otherpartners, like the Chamber of
Commerce and our economicdevelopment groups that we
(25:29):
partner with.
So it just, I mean we are againhere to help those educators
also learn more about industry.
It just helps them in theclassroom and it helps them, you
know, grow their career as wellrobust academically.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
that classroom then becomes because, right, the
teacher is diving and developingon a different level.
So then that comes back to theclassroom.
That is an amazing piece ofthis that I wasn't aware of, so
thanks for sharing that.
That's great.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Well, and I think a lot of times the teachers think
that they have their curriculumthey need to cover and they want
to stick to that.
But again, this could make yourjob a little bit easier.
You bring in a communitypartner for 10 minutes, a full
section on our class day, and itbrings that perspective.
Like we hear from our studentsthat attend Epic, they so much
(26:26):
prefer to learn from somebody inthe industry, and not that they
don't value their teacher, theydon't value their parents'
opinion, they don't value whatthey hear and read on the
internet, but to hear somebodythat's in that field give them
the down and dirty about what isthat career?
What would I be doing?
What education do I need?
(26:47):
What know, what skill sets arethe most important?
So then they can make adecision that is best for
themselves, you know.
So students aren't going toschool for something.
They come out and they're like,oh, I don't like this and I
just spent four years or twoyears or whatever of my time
learning that industry.
So that's powerful it is, and Ithink we're starting to see
(27:08):
students really take moreownership to really learning,
doing all that investigativework, if nothing else, just to
make sure they're understandingtheir career and also, you know,
weighing the balances of eachand every option they might want
to consider and then what makesmost sense for the education to
(27:30):
do that career.
You know it's not about I wantto go to this college mom, it's
I want to be this and this isbest taught at this institution
or maybe directly right into theworkforce through hands-on
learning.
You know many of our employerswill pay for education of those
new hires.
Continuing Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah Well, gail, I can't thank you enough for being
here today.
This was really fun and it'sactually something.
Coffeecast hasn't been aroundthat long, but it's this topic.
Our partnership with JSDC and,in particular, epic, has really
been at the top of our wish list, so I'm really glad you came
today.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
You are so welcome.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
We have a gift for you today.
Look at it.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Oh, I love it.
Coffeecast.
Yes, it will be prime on mydesk, thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Thank you.
Talk soon.
Okay, do you have a greatpodcast idea?
Submit your idea tocommunications at isd742.org.
And thank you for listening to742 CoffeeCast, the best place
to stay informed and be inspiredby St Cloud Area School
District.
Thank you.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.