What if your first job as a paperboy could shape your future leadership skills? Join us for an engaging conversation with Chad Bolser, Chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College of Richmond, as he reminisces about his early years delivering newspapers in Clinton, Illinois. Chad shares the life lessons in hard work, responsibility, and financial savvy that he gained from those early mornings, offering a heartwarming glimpse into the roots of his work ethic and leadership style.
Step into the world of high school basketball with Chad as he recounts his transformative coaching career at Richmond High School. From the ups and downs of building a successful team to mentoring standout players like Dominique James, Chad provides inspiring insights into leadership, teamwork, and personal growth. We also delve into his professional certifications in Simplex Creative Problem Solving and ProSci Change Management, exploring how these methodologies have influenced his approach to organizational leadership and communication.
Look ahead to the future of education and technology as Chad discusses the role of AI and modern communication methods in academic institutions. Hear about his enlightening trip to Switzerland, where he studied global educational reforms and their potential impact on local systems. Discover Ivy Tech's innovative work-based learning programs, successful enrollment initiatives, and the exciting launch of a high-tech healthcare floor. This episode is packed with valuable insights and forward-thinking ideas that underscore Ivy Tech's commitment to cutting-edge education and community engagement.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Michael Allen from Manpower.
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you time and money.
Let us help contact Manpowertoday.
Hello and welcome to the Hubpowered by Manpower of Richmond,
with offices in Richmond,portland and Newcastle.
I am your host, michael Allen,and here on the Hub we interview
local businesses, communitypartners and very special guests
(00:45):
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And interview local businesses,community partners and very
special guests, and our missionis to share and spotlight unique
and untold stories of companies, organizations and people who
are making a difference in ourcommunity.
So today's guest is Chad Bolzer.
He's the chancellor of Ivy TechCommunity College.
Uh, in the campus, and wetalked about this before we
(01:07):
started recording and I didn'tknow whether to call you, like
Chancellor Bolzer, dr Bolzer.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Chad, chad would be fine.
Let's not break that up Allright?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, hey, welcome to the hub today.
Thank you so much for joining.
When I looked over your bio, itoccurred to me that we've
really kind of known each othera pretty long time A mix of
socially, professionally.
However, we really haven't satdown and had super real long,
(01:40):
intimate conversations, so I waspretty excited about getting to
do that with you today.
And, uh, it was I believe it waskind of during golf league, uh,
that you and I are both in.
Uh, you mentioned a workingtrip that you'd recently uh been
on to, uh, zurich, yeah,switzerland, right, and um,
(02:03):
you're excited about the tripand you kind of came up about
maybe coming like today andtalking about it, and so we're
definitely going to get to thatpoint.
But before we do that, I'd liketo talk to you a little bit
about just some things about youpersonally.
And before we even get to that,I want to start with.
Our tradition here is we askeverybody about their very first
(02:27):
job.
Yeah so can you tell me aboutthat?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, so I was a paper.
I did a paper out back inClinton, Illinois.
That was the first official job.
I think I had certainly hadjobs before that.
But yeah, the paper route forthe Pantograph, which was the
area newspaper out of normalIllinois, and we did that every
(02:50):
day before school, seven days aweek and did that for about
three years and honestly it wasa great experience.
I'm not sure my parents wouldsay it was a great experience
because I think they had tomotivate us because it was an
early morning, you got up earlyand it had to be out on the
(03:11):
doorsteps by 6.
But we learned a lot of stuffthere and I know that Sunday
editions were a lot bigger backthen and that was a struggle and
collecting, going around doorto door and collecting with
those tickets, that kind ofshows how old and how long.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That was, but I remember that, yeah, it was a
great job.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
It was a great job because not that we made a ton
of money from it, but thataligns with the first savings
account we took place, where wekept track of that and kept
track of our money and how muchwe were being paid.
I think that was all goodexperience, learning how to work
.
So when you said, we did yourbrother, help you.
(03:57):
So Clint and I had Clint, twoyears younger, some folks.
He's been around and he played,graduated from Richmond High
School but has also been aroundthe community in a professional
standpoint.
He's now in St Louis but he was, you know, part with.
(04:17):
We split up the area and it wasabout a eight block area.
We did it on our bikes and itwas was, uh was quite a deal.
We would have a you know alittle bit of competition in the
morning who could get it donethe fastest.
But there was that qualityversus uh, you know, uh time, uh
who could get them on the,because if you didn't get them
on the porch in the right areathere were several people that
(04:39):
would oh yeah, there's a phonecall.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Oh, there's no doubt about that.
So was it the traditional thebig bag?
Oh, yeah, yeah, the big, yeahthat bag.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I, that bag probably was the first thing in my life
that I ever threw away um withgreat, uh anticipation, because
you can only do it was.
It's hard, it's getting upearly and that's where sort of
stuff is.
Is was fun and you know andwork and you learn to do that.
But sundays, that bag.
There's nothing quite like thatexperience and you know that.
(05:11):
You did it all year long, soyou know that rainy days or cold
days or whatever were just asuh, just as much part of the
process as good days did youhave to roll the papers?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah, before before
you went out.
Yeah, they came to your house.
Yeah, big stack of, big stackof papers yeah they would drop,
they would drop those off.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
I and look, I I think about 4, 4, 30 in the morning,
and then we had we, we had tohave them out on on doorsteps by
six wow, yeah, do you remember,like, how many you guys had to
deliver?
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I mean, I don't remember the exact number.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
but if you, if you and I, were to drive to Clinton
Illinois, I would be able totell you exactly the paper out
and I promise you I'd be able totell you the homes that were
the most difficult to get theirtickets paid.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well, I like that story about the papers Cause I
mean that was kind of a.
I like that story about thepapers because I mean that was
kind of a traditional, kind of ayoung person's job.
I mean I haven't had anybodytalk about paper delivery.
A lot of it is like fast foodwhich is a lot of us.
(06:18):
I don't know if you ever didfast food.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, dairy Queen, I can still put the swirl on a ice
cream cone if you'd like to.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, I think that's really cool
.
Thanks for sharing that uh theuh.
So, going on past that, tell usa little bit about it.
You touched on it, but whereyou grew up, where you went to
school?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Clinton, illinois is a yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Central Illinois.
My dad was a school teacher, uh, and then a school
administrator, um, and and didthat his entire, uh professional
career.
Um, we grew up, um, our myselfand the family and mom and two
brothers uh, we were in Clinton.
Clinton is exactly in themiddle of Central Illinois.
(07:09):
If you were to bisect placesthat people do know Normal and
Bloomington, normal, decatur,springfield and Champaign, if
you took a line, it's actuallyright in the center of it.
And what most people wouldremember about or know about
Clinton, illinois, is that ithad a nuke.
(07:30):
It still has a working nuclearpower plant.
So the jokes about the Simpsonsand all of that stuff a small
town of about 10,000 folks witha nuclear power plant and a
really cool man-made lake, tocool, the power plant was what
we lived in, lived there and sogrew up there, graduated high
(07:51):
school from there.
My brothers both were in schoolwhen my dad had made a career
decision that he wanted toexpand out of the school
district the only schooldistrict he had worked in and he
applied at three placesColumbus, indiana.
There was another place inIllinois, I think, sparta,
(08:12):
illinois and Richmond, indiana,and at that time I had just
graduated high school, and sothen.
So we moved over here and mybrother both my brothers
graduated from Richmond HighSchool.
We were heavily into basketballand athletics and so I went on,
went to school in Missouri,lindenwood College, played there
(08:35):
and graduated from there.
And Clint eventually played hereat Richmond and then followed
me down there and was a part ofthat, played there as well.
He's a lot better player than Iwas.
That was a quick exit for me.
Once they recruited my brotherand then I, you know, after I
had bounced around from smallcollege basketball programs for
(08:59):
about four years and then or sixyears, sorry then uh came here,
uh, in 1998, 1998, to be thehead boys basketball coach and
teacher at richmond high schoolthe uh when you go to clinton,
illinois, is that, would youlike to take 70 and yeah?
(09:21):
well, yeah, 70, 70 to 74 andthen at 74 it um at the even
less, uh, larger.
No, it's a smaller town, farmercity.
Uh, you, would you jump off ofthere and you go, uh, you go in
on, uh, I believe it's, route 10.
Yeah, so it's, it's truly afarm community.
(09:44):
It was agriculture all the wayaround the pretty small town
based solely on that industry.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Well, for about three , three and a half years I would
travel to Illinois quite a bitbecause my oldest son, sam he,
went to college in Illinois.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, greenville College, yeah, it's Greenville
University now but I don't knowhow far that was from where yeah
, so if you go on 70 and so thatwould be, um, when we went from
richmond to st louis, we wouldgo by greenville college and, in
fact, lindenwood college whereuh was.
Uh went to school.
We played at greenville, okay,um, so been on that campus many
(10:22):
times, and both as a player anda coach.
Okay, all right, very familiarcool, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
And then I actually my youngest son lives in crystal
Greenville, so been on thatcampus many times and both as a
player and a coach, veryfamiliar.
And then actually my youngestson lives in Crystal Lake,
illinois.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Oh my gosh, yeah, I had several friends that I went
to college with from CrystalLake.
In fact, my first recruitingtrip as an assistant basketball
coach for Lindenwood because Igot hired right after I
graduated my first recruitingtrip was to Crystal Lake.
I think it was Central at thetime, crystal Lake South, and
(10:52):
they had a junior college workout there, and so I went up and
watched a bunch of players andspent a day and a half up there.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
It's a nice area, very nice area.
Yeah, did you go to Lindenwoodbecause of basketball,
basketball.
Yeah, were you recruited.
I mean, how did thatopportunity come up?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I actually was a better football player than I
was a basketball player, I don't, so I was going to.
I had full intentions of goingto DePaul over in Greencastle,
indiana, all right, and I wouldhave been an excellent clipboard
holder and wore a baseball capfor four years, but I love
football and love playing it.
It was a great opportunity.
(11:34):
I played in an all-star game inbasketball in my summer and was
offered a scholarship.
Lindenwood was an NAIA school,so they were able to offer
athletic scholarships and I wasoffered a scholarship.
Lindenwood was an NAIA school,so they were able to offer
athletic scholarships and I wasoffered an athletic scholarship,
and it was one of thosesituations where it was
essentially I went to school ona full scholarship for four
(11:56):
years and that was too.
I loved DePaul and loved thethought about playing for Coach
Marissus and had a real fondnessfor that.
But free was free.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
So you said, your brother followed you there.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah two years later we recruited Clint and I was
still playing at the time andnot very well.
To be honest with you, I was atypical high school basketball
player.
It wasn't bad, but not goodenough, and the better we got,
the less chance it was that Iwas good enough to play.
And so Clint came down and hewas excellent.
I mean, he's a really goodplayer.
(12:35):
He was a good player here atRichmond.
He was a really good collegeplayer, all-region kind of
player and that sort of allowedme to take my exit and start the
coaching track that I wouldeventually be on for a few years
.
Did you guys get to play alittle bit together when you
were there?
Yeah, a little bit, a littlebit, but mostly the way I would
describe it is him playing andme watching.
(12:57):
Yeah, it was.
As I.
I don't have any problemadmitting the stair step of the
hierarchy of playing.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
You came to Richmond to work for Richmond Community
Schools in 98.
Yeah, I'm assuming that wasbecause of the connection that
you made being here when youmoved here.
I mean you came here, but thenyou went off to college, but you
did have a Richmond connection.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, I spent my summers here and I actually
worked as a groundskeeper onwhat used to be the grounds crew
for Richmond Community Schoolsin the summers and there were
some great folks there who Ilearned to pour concrete and
finish concrete there and do alot of the maintenance work.
That was a part of that.
(13:54):
It was a great program, met alot of folks in there and really
did feel like Richmond was home.
I applied honestly, this is thetruth.
I was an assistant coach forMilliken University and we had a
nice program and it was a goodprogram at the time.
But I was 28 years old.
(14:15):
Richmond High School has had along-standing tradition of
pretty experienced coachescoming in.
Not many 28-year-olds get hired.
There were some tough times foryou know, six or seven years
after Coach Griff had retired,and so I think there were some
(14:37):
wanting a new face, kind ofthing, and so I so, um, I always
tell people that I, uh Ieventually was the athletic
director.
I never hired myself.
You know like I it was.
It was, you know, and Ray Wolpe, who is still the principal.
There was the AD and and Ithink you know I think things
worked out pretty well, uh, butI came here, uh, as as probably
(14:59):
too young for the position,frankly, um but uh, 10 years, 10
years, a pretty good basketballand I think we turned things
around and set the stage forwhat I think were really good
years after that.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
I don't trying to kind of think of where I would
have been, you know, when youwere coaching.
I remember going to the games alot when I was during, like the
woody austin and chad austinyears but I kind of lost
connection because I didn't goto richmond high school so I
(15:34):
didn't have this natural uhconnection to going to games and
such.
But I just don't remember, Idon't.
I know that during that timeyou guys were able to get an NCC
championship again after apretty long drought.
I don't remember the players whowas kind of, when you look back
, who was kind of the reallytalented some of the really
(15:56):
talented players that you hadduring your tenure.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Well, the one that everyone will remember in
Richmond that had anyassociation was Dominique James.
Dominique played for us forfour years and ultimately went
on to Marquette and he wasrunner-up to Mr Basketball and
those were really really goodbasketball teams.
You know, dominique had theunfortunate and our team had the
(16:20):
unfortunate luck, as it is andthat happens to teams.
We were in the same sectionwith Muncie Central that ended
up going to the statechampionship two years, so they
beat us three years in a row inthe championship, so those were
a part of it.
That's the group that probablymost people would remember from
(16:41):
my time.
We did win the conference hisfreshman year, which was the
first group that had reallychanged the dynamic of the
program where we went from.
There were not a lot of winsover a four or five-year period
and then my first year, wereally struggled and only had
(17:01):
five wins that first year, butthat group was a freshman and
that had Marcus Jewett and TylerStewart, chris Yant, jermaine
Crumby, donald Crawley thosefolks People probably would
remember in terms of that crew.
They were a really solidbasketball team and um, um and
(17:25):
won the league.
Uh, for the first time in 2002had won for the first time.
It's 88.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
It's ironic you mentioned on it, cause I was
talking about him not long ago.
I just didn't associate thetime that you were coaching.
And I.
The question came up likewhat's he doing today?
Do you know?
Yeah, yeah, do you know what'sgoing on with him?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah, so he is married with a family.
He played overseas for about adecade.
Never was able to crack intothe NBA.
You know he was not, was stillis about 5'10" very small,
unbelievable athlete.
He got caught up in being apoint guard when the transition
(18:12):
of there were longer guards inthe NBA and really, from a
shooting perspective, that wasthe beginning of the transition
about, you know, to the extraemphasis on the three-point line
.
He is now with his family,three kids.
They live in Tennessee.
His wife is or was played atKentucky and Indiana State was
(18:39):
an excellent point guard.
He would never admit that.
She might have been better thanhim, but she's an unbelievably
talented person and so they haveput together a business.
In fact they just broke ground.
They started a trainingbusiness outside of their house,
(19:00):
on a half court kind of intheir backyard sort of thing
started training folks, createdhe is a very faith-based young
man, he and his family a verystrong Christian ministry and as
a part of that ministry theyhave given their talents to
(19:23):
training folks and puttingpeople together.
They have a daughter, jensey,who's going to be an excellent
player.
She's in third grade and theyhave a thriving business.
In fact, they just broke groundon a facility that they're
building on their property.
That's a great story?
Yeah, it really is.
And, as I tell people, he wasan unbelievable basketball
(19:48):
player and I mean he got theabsolute, very best out of there
.
He got it.
You know, he had a greatexperience, got a degree, had a
great career.
But what he's done now sincethat time his ability to, one,
be an entrepreneur, two, to havea creative ministry and, three,
to touch doing what he loves todo, to touch the amount of kids
(20:11):
that he does it's amazing.
Uh and and.
To hear him speak about thatjourney is absolutely it's one
of the most inspiring things.
I've always thought he was a uh, a great person, person, um,
since I've known him in the inmiddle school, what he is as a
man uh is is inspiring.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
That's great well, I'm sure you uh probably
wouldn't take any credit, butI'm sure this four years that
you spent with him in highschool were uh help, was a
compliment to him and anencouragement to him.
So I just love hearing aboutthat.
So, going through your bio andyour different jobs that you did
(20:59):
, there was one thing that I sawyou talked about these
additional designations, and soyou're a certified coach,
trainer and facilitator ofsimplex creative problem solving
yeah uh, it's a certified proside change management.
(21:19):
So I was curious about that andI went to look up this pro side
and I watched this video and Igot to tell you I got lost.
I didn't really understand it.
So I was just curious to askyou a little bit about that,
because I just didn't, so itlost me.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
So the transition, I think, is important.
I was the chancellor here onthe Richmond campus and I had
been at the campus for a coupleof years.
We made a transition fromcampus president to chancellor
in the summer of 2019.
We had a couple of good years.
I was I transitioned into thevice president of operations for
the state and the the part ofwhat we did was we worked
(22:03):
directly with the chancellorsaround the state to you know who
were running campuses, and soit became really important to us
that we put we were able to goin and work with folks and have
tools sort of in the tool beltto be able to work through
whether it was coaching ofpersonnel or whether it was just
(22:26):
project planning or changemanagement or creative problem
solving.
And so we went through andSimplex.
Creative problem solving issomething President Elsberman
brought to Ivy Tech and has thatand it's a really great sort of
way to get large groups offolks to focus in.
(22:47):
It's a lot of what strategicplanning.
We write our strategic planningprocess through that.
The change management is reallyimportant when you have large
groups of folks who are going togo through rapid amount of
change and so theircertification process and that
(23:07):
gives you.
It's a lot of logical steps.
So, for instance, if you said,hey, we have 500 employees and
we're going to go through a hugechange in an industrial
framework, maybe it's adifferent product or if it's a
different sector that you'regoing to get into, change can
(23:28):
create some issues workforceissues, management issues,
production issues, all kinds ofthings like that.
So there are some natural stepsand what this crew has done
with ProSci and I would agreewith you it's a pretty technical
sort of approach to it, butwhat it does is it gives some
(23:48):
really specific items,research-based items, to a lot
of practicality.
So, in other words, if you'regoing to make a big change in
the organization, the singlemost important part of that
initial part of that is initialcommunication.
Don't implement a change andexpect everybody to come and be
on board with it if you let themknow after the change has
(24:11):
already been taken place.
So when they start to noticewhat's going on, now that seems
like a pretty like.
Well, of course, chad, thatdoesn't need.
You don't need anycertification to figure out that
.
That's the thing.
But there are things and waysto go about that that lead to
success in large organizations.
So when we went through thattraining.
(24:32):
What we were basically sayingis if you're going through a
change, we can help you gothrough that and we can give you
practical tools to do that.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Well, really it doesn't surprise me on the
communication part, becausesometimes we've had several of
our recruiters out of our office.
Over the years have hadopportunities to move on to some
local companies in HR roles.
It's a natural progression ofone, that I'm always been uh
(25:06):
very happy for them that theywere making a uh, a professional
, progressive step.
And I've, uh, most of the timeI try to meet with some of those
folks and they leave and youknow, try to get some feedback
about time working with me andwhatever, and and I've had a few
times say, hey, you know reallylike working for you and and
(25:28):
your company and.
But I just asked for, hey, canyou give me a little bit of help
with how I can, I can improve?
And I'd say that communicationis a as a topic and sometimes I
think you know I've I've done agood job it, but I'm finding out
that there's always room forimprovement in that area and I
(25:50):
assume that maybe you wouldmaybe agree with that.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, I think the principle of probably you know,
as you learn to say whatevermessage that is, to do it until
you know, you say it and youkeep saying it, and when you get
sick of saying it, say it again, right, you know?
I mean this idea that thatindividuals in your organization
are going to pick up on it inthe same way that any of us are
(26:16):
going to do that, that everyindividual is critical in that.
And then I think what's I thinkthe deal with communication
today is?
There's so many channels tocommunicate and sometimes that
becomes super annoying, right?
Like you know, we talked aboutbefore we got on here that,
without a doubt, our phones,even though they're silenced and
(26:37):
on, do not disturb, they areringing, even though we're not
going to answer them, you know,and the messaging coming on.
But we live in a world whereour workforce has to have
constant communication and theyhave to have it in a variety of
ways, and sometimes that's adirect messaging, but sometimes
it's subtle messaging and, yeah,so I think that there's no
(26:57):
question that you know, wealways are looking to improve
that sort of process and I thinkwe're challenged with it every
day.
How does that?
Speaker 1 (27:09):
How does text messaging affect all that?
because I've got to tell you,when we communicate and this is
I'm not speaking this as anegative or positive, but we get
a higher level response fromjob seekers through text
messaging that's not not phonecalls and uh, and some sometimes
(27:31):
with our, our business in the,in the software that we have,
the operator company, the textmessaging part of our operations
software is good in that if Isend you a text it puts a copy
of that text on their employeerecord.
So if somebody goes, if youwere to call in, I could go and
(27:54):
say, oh yeah, so-and-so, sent atext to this person, that's why
they're to this person, that'swhy they're calling in or that's
why they're messaging back andso.
So it's nice to have thatdocumentation, but you just
don't get some of the theinteraction with people and
sometimes I I just don't know.
I mean it's, it's a tool thatwe need to use and are using
(28:16):
more and more every day, but Ijust don't know where it's going
.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Well, I suspect that my guess is that the next
transition for all of this isgoing to be how we can more
efficiently use artificialintelligence in the messaging
world.
I think you're seeing thatproduct line coming out.
I think that that's a verysimilar operation for you.
You as we do the amount ofcommunication to access
(28:47):
different educationalopportunities, those things.
We're going to be trying to bemore efficient, more efficient,
more efficient, because that'sultimately what we talk about is
that text messaging is good.
Language is super important tothis.
If you talk to folks, my twodaughters will say the following
sentence I talked to fill inthe blank, which translate, that
(29:13):
is, I have text messaged them,I have sent them a message on
Instagram or something to thatname.
Talking is not what we wouldconsider talking, and so does
that mean the communication isany worse or it's not good?
You know, it's just the methodthat is predominant, and I think
(29:35):
, as we as organizations andinstitutions, we have to adjust
to that, and I suspect the next,the next piece of that and it's
already in there, right there.
You know, when you go to awebsite and they say, hey, do
you have any questions?
You know you have to ask 12questions before you actually
get to a human being.
Most of that is generatedthrough the.
You know hundreds of thousandsof responses that take place.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
At the Richmond campus.
When Ivy Tech wants tocommunicate with students, how
are you doing?
I mean, how is Ivy Techcommunicating with students?
And how are educatorscommunicating?
Are they using text messaging,or are they still doing?
(30:19):
Are they sending emails?
How's that?
How's all that?
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I think.
I think the answer would be inas as many ways as you can
possibly have.
I think if we know one thingabout that is if you're going to
, you know if you're going todepend upon one way to message.
Email was so predominant in ourmessaging system just probably
(30:44):
pre-COVID, for certain, it waspredominantly the messaging.
I think we've moved intotexting, we've moved into that.
But I think the communicationcycle, whether it is outsourcing
, you know, to a call center forsome things through the website
itself for some things, directmessaging I think we're probably
(31:09):
, as most educationalinstitutions, a little bit
behind on how to engage withthem from the platform
standpoint.
You know like an Instagram, but, um, you know like an like an
instagram, like that, but youknow a tiktok, that, that sort
of thing.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
That's more messaging as in advertising at this point
, not direct like hey, come andapply you know where, where we'd
say that I said no if you had,if, if ivy tech had some type of
uh um, communication platformthat you use kind of universally
to communicate.
If I have a class I'm teaching,how do I communicate with my
(31:47):
class if I want to get theminformation?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Now that goes through our learning management system.
So that part of it for theclasses itself and that so.
So if I'm a, let's say, I'm aninstructor and I've got a class
and I want to, I need to cancelclass.
I can, I can get on therebecause most things are
submitted through that learningmanagement system and and and
(32:12):
that's where the course buildsare.
Even if it's, even if it's aface-to-face course, the, you
know, everything is based uponthat part of it and that's no
different than K-12 environment.
So if you, you know, powerschool would be something that's
a learning management system,same thing that takes place, you
know, it's just, it's somethingthat happens and goes on
(32:35):
consistently and it's way mosteducational institutions do that
the last time that that Iparticipated in a class was 34
years ago and I was finishing upmy master's at ball state and
uh, I, I don't think we had evenemail, uh, and probably not
1990 yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
And I don't even remember how things were
communicated.
I was a graduate assistant inthe political science department
at Ball.
State.
And if class was canceled,they'd send my grad ass play on
words there over to theclassroom and say, hey, Dr
Bolzer's not, we're not havingclass today.
(33:17):
Here's your assignment and passit.
Gave it to them and sent themon their way.
Or worse, they'd make me show avideo or a movie.
Well, we'd have to reel up amovie yeah sometimes you can
never get it reeled properly andI was like losing my mind.
But yeah, I mean, yeah, I justand and it's I still remember,
(33:42):
like yesterday I remember inclass or doing that.
But technology I mean, Iremember doing papers.
It was on a mac word processoryeah so's just.
It's just changed so much it'sso hard to keep up with it all.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
It is absolutely hard to keep up with it and I think
the challenge from aneducational standpoint is to
ensure that you know it is a.
It is a divide and I think thatfor the education educational
community, if you talk aboutartificial intelligence or you
talk about some of the you knowwriting stuff that goes on, you
know you can spend all your timetrying to make sure that that
(34:26):
you know you don't have somebodythat just says write me a paper
on you know political studiesand you could do that Like you
and I can get on our phonesright now, get into a system and
it'll write a five paragraphessay on whatever and you turn
in.
You can spend as an organizationan inordinate amount of time
trying to figure out and ensurethat you're not doing that right
, like that's a criticalcomponent of not having that
(34:48):
take place.
But the reality is we are alsochallenged with ensuring that
folks are doing that, havingfaculty and staff who can
improve communications withfolks who can improve the way
they're doing their business tomake sure they're more efficient
in there.
Nothing is ever going toreplace the human-to-human
(35:09):
contact that is necessary toprovide education.
However expanding that andusing the technology to reach
more and more folks isabsolutely what we ought to be
doing, and I think it doeschange fast and is and and it
certainly is not in my level ofexpertise, but it's it's
(35:30):
something that I think is anexciting time for the future of
uh, of the educators and theeducation opportunities.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
So we better get to it, let's talk about Switzerland
.
So tell me about your timethere Is it, cemets, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
CEMETS or CEMETS it's just an acronym.
I had to write the acronym theCenter for Economics and
Management of EducationalTraining Systems, so the CMETS
is really what that is.
What happened was, when I cameback to campus, I got heavily
(36:33):
involved in what is called theRural Alliance Zone.
It's a rural collaborativebetween career and tech
educational system where theywere transitioning those, or
transporting those folks, toMuncie in order to access the
career center.
And the Muncie Career Center isgreat, but the schools were
(36:54):
like we'd like to take, at leastin some areas, take our own
control of our own environment,and to do that, though, they had
to change.
They had to share students forlack of better terms, and that's
a tough environment because youknow you have to account for
ADM and this and that and theothers.
(37:14):
So, anyway, we got heavilyinvolved because those career
pathways they were developingwould come through Ivy Tech in
order to get thosecertifications.
Healthcare was our primaryfocus initially, but we've
expanded that along the way.
That group of folks has been.
(37:36):
The consulting group that theybrought in is empower schools,
and empower schools decided thatthey would like to go to this
C-METS summer Institute, andit's it's a, it's an intensive
program.
And they said oh, by the way,it's in Zurich.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
And.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
I was like well, that sounds like a pretty good deal.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
You know, that's not a bad bad deal.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
I didn't realize that I would be going to class, but,
like I, we went for a day and Igot to see a little bit of it.
But I uh.
It's funny, on my phone mypictures stop about 48 hours in
because the rest of the time wasin class.
It was not nearly as scenic asI thought it would be I.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
I did try to look this up a little bit and did it
start off with some online stuffyou had to do and then you?
There Is that how that was.
Did I read that right?
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, we did 15 hours prior to.
So I think when we initiallysigned up, I don't think we all
fully encompassed what it wouldbe.
We essentially took a collegeclass, so it was 15 hours of
online work.
We did lots of meetings aboutthis and really what they're
trying to do is they bringgroups of folks from all over
(38:47):
the world.
So when we were there, therewere folks from Washington, the
state of Washington in theUnited States, indiana but there
were from Nepal, washington inthe United States, indiana but
there were from Nepal, fromSerbia, from Cuba, from and I'm
trying to think I think I'mmissing one, but there are
(39:07):
countries and there was anothergroup prior to that that did
also have some folks fromIndiana, but they were, but it's
a.
The educational system inSwitzerland is seen as one of
the top five in the world andthey have some unique properties
, and the University of Zurichhas basically said, hey, we're
going to not only are we goingto study this on how our system
(39:29):
works, we're going to help othercountries with their
educational reform.
And so what?
The how that connects to Indianais Indiana, through what's
called Indiana iLab, theFairbanks Foundation is, and and
then, ultimately, through theIndiana Department of Education,
(39:49):
has made some adjustments tothe high school program with
these concepts in mind, and sowe are not an educational system
like Serbia, which has a lot ofdifferent issues.
But we are clearly different inour approach in the United
States about educational, theway we go about secondary
(40:12):
education, and that is theconnection piece of why we went
to explore more of this Now.
Are we into?
You know, the folks from Nepal,for instance, are trying to do
national reform.
So the Secretary of Educationfor Nepal was in the room and
(40:32):
there were, you know, there werelots of folks, lots of
government officials, who weretrying to figure out ways to
improve their educational system.
We're obviously not in thereform business from Randolph
County or from Wayne County inthis area were that would help
(41:03):
us do our small bit and leveragethese new outcome or these new
products from the IDOE and fromiLab to enhance the student
experience here and on theground in these rural counties.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
So after you came back from that, I I were you one
of those pictures they haveonline yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Yeah, I thought I might have saw it.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, I was in the back there, yeah yeah, so I, I
think I saw you, yeah, but itwas.
I think, wow, that was probablypretty cool to get to go to
that, because it looked like avery diverse group of people and
, like you mentioned, fromgovernment yeah, from different
governments and all over theworld.
So that had to be a pretty coolexperience.
(41:45):
Uh, how did you guys deal withthe language?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
so yeah, so, with the exception of the other
countries, spoke English,including and, so they, that's
the default language that'sspoken in the institute.
There were times where that youknow, they were certainly
(42:11):
English wasn't used, but in thepresentations and in all that,
and there are, and many of theprofessors that that part of
that and that's who instructedthe courses, were professors and
industry leaders and a lot offolks from from Zurich, um, and
Switzerland, broader Switzerland, that understand this process,
(42:33):
um, but that's who did that?
They, they all spoke englishand and, and, except for the,
the cuban delegation had atranslator so what's your?
Speaker 1 (42:43):
so you went.
Yeah, you invested quite a bitof time before you're, you know,
15 hours or whatever beforehand.
So what's kind of the takeawayfor you right now, at this point
?
That experience?
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Yeah, so one.
I left that experience and wasa huge believer.
It is certainly a differentsystem and it is not something
that we would replicate here inits entirety, but I do think it
answers this fundamentalquestion, and this is applicable
to the work that you do andit's applicable to the work we
(43:17):
do at Ivy Tech.
We get asked a lot by employers, or we have frustration by
employers, that individualsdon't know how to work.
They may have technical skills,they may have certifications,
they may have whatever, but wehave this.
We, along with finding folks to, to, to be employed, how to
(43:43):
work doesn't seem to be as asprevalent, uh, of a skill base.
Um, well, you know, and folkskind of talk sometimes with
skills, uh, soft skills orprofessional skills or something
like that but the reality is, Ithink working is something that
has been pushed a little bitfarther.
(44:06):
So, for instance and I thinkthis is, you know, it's a, it's
a reality my, when we talk aboutthe first job, my recollection
of the first job happens andwhen I turn, I think, a fifth
grader, fourth grader, fifthgrader, that sort of area, I
think we are less likely to getthose, you know, during school,
(44:28):
for folks to have jobs and thatsort of thing.
Those ages have been pushed alittle bit farther up and a
little bit older, and so teenyou know numbers of teens that
have been employed in part-timejobs and that sort of thing, and
the reality is that continuesto go down uh, in, in, uh in the
United States and Indiana, andso what that does is does.
(44:52):
Does it make any difference?
That I learned when I was 16years old to do a uh uh ice
cream cone with a curl.
You know the Dairy Queen curlon it?
No, but here's what I learnedis I had to be there on time, I
had to work through the thing, Ihad to produce a quality
product and I had to clean upwhen I was done and, and there
was a certain amount of timethat we had to do all of that,
(45:21):
Um, had to do all of that.
We learn those things byworking and there's almost
nothing that you can do toreplace that.
Now I would say I would suggestthat when we talk about
basketball, I think peoplethrough sports or band or
different sort of activities.
There's lots of ways that youcan do it without actually being
a job.
But what Switzerland did wasthey had in the 70s a really
(45:43):
poorly rated school system, andwhat they essentially have done
is, over the last 25 years, theyhave reformed their educational
system to essentially embedwork into the educational
experience.
And there are a few students,but there are very few, that go
completely academic.
And when we say academic, thatmeans sit in the classroom, get
(46:05):
a lecture, take a test, it'sresearch-based, You're going to
go on and go to the university.
We have the same formula, butwe kind of integrate a bunch of
things in there and rarely do wedo work.
What they've done is said okay,with the exception of those
folks that are going to go on acompletely academic track.
(46:27):
There are vocational andprofessional training programs
that are embedded in the courseof their educational experience,
and that is really the keything.
It answers that fundamentalquestion.
If you're going to have folksthat do work really well, you've
got to teach them to work, andthe best way to do that is to
actually work.
And so they have a largepercentage I think probably 85%
(46:53):
of the students that go throughthe program and don't write that
down in a pen, write that downin pencil because it's not
exactly right but that they gothrough and they are embedded in
internships and work-basedlearning consistently through
their secondary experience, andthat means from finance to
(47:14):
service industry.
When we think about internshipshere, lots of times we think in
industry or you know, some sortof the hands-on automotive
construction, that sort of thing.
This is finance, where we metstudents that had been in
banking for three years in theSwiss banking system.
So you know they have anunbelievable story to tell when
(47:37):
it comes to that.
But that's embedded, it's anatural part of the educational
system, and so what Indiana hasdone is try to, at least in part
, begin the process of that sortof reform through work,
mandatory work-based learningprograms within the high school
diploma.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Well, both of my boys they graduated 10-plus years
ago out of high school andneither one of them really
worked until after high school.
(48:21):
They were both super involved indifferent things, especially my
youngest son, peter he, hetried everything when he was at
centerville, he tried uh he wasinvolved in all kinds of um
activities uh, some sports, somethe arts or whatever, and you
know, I I liked that they weredoing those things and I wasn't
so much concerned about, youknow, them having to go and work
(48:43):
, uh, because they were beingproductive with their time in a
positive way.
But there was probably somelike to your point they're not,
they weren't working earlier intheir age, uh and uh.
So I that part makes some senseto me.
(49:03):
Another thing that youmentioned about um being the
hands-on aspect of it.
We recently had to purchase.
We had a client that wanted usto put a certain type of
timekeeping system at their sitefor our employees and it wasn't
, was not a system that we hadexperience with, and so we
(49:27):
bought, we bought these twounits and had them installed and
it works off a web-based.
You go in and you work throughthis web-based program and it
was really kind of cool.
This company, latham, wasactually the timekeeping company
.
We had virtual training withthem and the training was really
(49:51):
good.
He would not do anything for us, he made us sit at the keyboard
and and navigate every part ofit, and I really appreciate that
they were.
That takes more time to do,because I've been another
training where they're okay, youclick here, you click there,
you do this, but they, theirapproach to this teaching us,
(50:15):
was making us do every click,every move and I was impressed
with that training part of itbecause I felt like the the
primary staff person that wasgoing to be involved with it
really learned it well from thebeginning.
And so I really like thatlearning aspect that that
company brought to the trainingpart.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Yeah, and what we know about our students are when
they are in work-based learningenvironments and again, in a
variety of situations, and againin a variety of situations, we
talk about our kids.
My daughter, Mallory, is anacting major and she is just in
(51:00):
her third year in the CCMprogram down at the University
of Cincinnati.
But she did an internship.
We didn't even describe it, Ithink, as an internship, but she
worked at the theater and thoseexperiences trained her to be
on time and to do things andbeing in performances do that
stuff and what we know is thatif you want to develop those
(51:21):
social-emotional learning skills, having those interactions is
critical.
Those things are going tocontinue.
The more human interaction, themore talking you have to do,
the more personalities you dealwith, the more you learn things
like resilience and timemanagement and all the
(51:42):
professional skills that wedesire.
You cannot sit in a class andlook at a PowerPoint and have
somebody say you know.
You cannot sit in a class andlook at a PowerPoint and have
somebody say, you know, here iswhat a good time management
system is.
No one pays attention to that.
I've never met anyone that says, boy, I'd really like to do
that.
You can't learn professionalsystems like that, professional
skills, unless you're working,and I think that's the you know
(52:04):
as I listen to the stuff thatyou do and your organization.
I think we all know that right,like we inherently know that,
and those experiences arecritical, I think, for the
educational purposes.
We've always kind of sort ofpushed that over to the well,
those are the folks who are notgoing to go to college.
(52:26):
I think the message from thesystem that we're in, or the
Swiss system, is integrated intoeverything and you'll have a
much better product.
It'll take a while.
It's not something you can justsnap your fingers and make
happen, but having thosestudents in there, just you know
your kids, my kids.
The more they learn how to dothat, the less we have to worry
(52:48):
that they're going to have tolearn it when they get their
first job we see, we're exposedto these, uh, these concepts,
these ideas of learning, and wereally love them, but
implementing them are verychallenging.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
I mean, how, how do you get it started?
How do you get off the you know, get it going?
Because it seems like thatfirst step or two is always the
hardest.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
Yeah, the most critical thing, I think, is in
it starting small.
For instance, if you thinkabout the razz 32, the, the
rural group up in randolphcounty, having spaces and places
in which they can, thatstudents can get real hands-on
experience in healthcareopportunities or IT
(53:35):
opportunities or in differentareas and then create and look
for work-based learning.
You know, and lots of folkswould say they're familiar with
the term internship, or you know, and lots of folks would say
they're familiar with the terminternship, or you know, or a
job shadowing or whatever.
But a lot of times when thattakes place, that's a really
(53:57):
it's not as integrated as awork-based, a full-fledged
work-based learning opportunity.
And for companies that you know, like in Switzerland, they're
all paid to do those.
So when they're in high schoolthey're making money.
Now it's a low wage but they'remaking money and it's a part of
the educational process.
The retention in that over timeis really good.
(54:21):
So I think the answer to yourquestion is how do you do it?
You start small, right, youstart small, you have sectors
that you identify and you try tomove forward, but most of all,
you need to be able to create apicture for employers and
industry.
That one they're leading theeducational process, not
(54:42):
educators.
And number two, the return oninvestment, is there's a little
expenditure early and researchthe research that the University
of Zurich says it takes aboutthree years of investment in
that and it flips from being anexpense to a revenue producer
because the employees that youhave are more dedicated to your
(55:04):
operation, they're more valuableand the training time goes way
down.
They're more valuable and thetraining time goes way down, and
that ultimately you create theculture that you want to have in
that experience, and so that'spart of it is start out small,
be successful and then study itand create the ROI for employers
.
When we put industry beforeeducators, education, it turns
(55:29):
out lots better.
I think we have a wonderfulhealthcare and nursing staff.
Our nursing program has grownby 30% in three years.
We are being guided almostevery day and helped by Reed
Health in their efforts to havebetter trained employees.
(55:50):
So when we look at the stuffwe're doing at Ivy Tech, that's
what we have to do and we haveto convince other industries and
sectors to continue to do that.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
That kind of starts to wrap up.
It does make me.
You talked about the nursing.
What are some of the currentvocation trends that are out
there right now?
I mean healthcare.
I don't see that slowing downanytime soon, but are there some
other areas that people wouldfind interesting to hear?
Speaker 2 (56:20):
Yeah, I think the smart manufacturing is going to
be critical for any group inthis area.
I think the biotech um, whichwe're going to be dipping our
toes in in this area with theliberation labs and and some of
the stuff that's going on there,we're starting to see where
we've helped develop a trainingprogram.
(56:42):
Uh, for that, that operation um, that that is a potential
expanding marketplace and thatcould take an entire another
episode to talk about thepossibilities for that.
And then I think IT is reallywhere we've got to look and,
(57:03):
honestly, educationalinstitutions that are really
challenged by this, educationalinstitutions that are really
challenged by this.
There's some basic entry-levelIT opportunities that come about
and we have excellentprogramming in that.
But that area of our worldsmart manufacturing and
(57:24):
technology embedded inmanufacturing is, and technology
embedded in manufacturing ismoving at a very rapid pace but
it is slow compared to IT.
And just for the things that wetalked about, the fact of the
matter, you saw, purdue is doinga.
They just announced a master'sprogram in AI.
I think that that and I don'tthink I can't remember if that
(57:47):
was Purdue or Purdue Global.
My point is how we engage withthis really big moving, you know
, which is about two years oldnow.
I think that's going to be huge.
Cybersecurity is a huge area ofemphasis, but that educational
(58:09):
process is not traditional inany way, shape or form.
You know this idea that you'regoing to go to high school
graduate, you're going to spendfour years in college.
I mean that stuff's out thewindow.
There's ways to get trainedreally quick in a variety of
ways and we're getting up tospeed, but we've got to continue
to really press the gas pedalin order to keep up in that area
(58:32):
.
Speaker 1 (58:34):
How's the enrollment numbers?
Speaker 2 (58:37):
I'm glad you asked that this is the best stuff that
we can talk about this yearwell, not the current year, but
23- 24,.
We've gotten all of ourofficial numbers and our
analytics and our metrics are in.
We are at a five-year high inenrollment.
We're just under 4,400 students, which is huge, a five-year
(59:02):
high in enrollment.
Our retention numbers are alsothere at longer than five years,
but we'll go with a five to sixyear high and our completion
numbers that we just got done,we just got loaded up last week,
will also be the highest we'vehad.
(59:22):
That will be about six or sevenyear high and six or seven
years ago or maybe I guess itwas eight years ago we were a
part of another region.
So as an independent campusit's the highest number we've
had.
So it's really really, reallygood.
Speaker 1 (59:42):
So if I had a child who was graduating in the spring
of 2025 and they were not, theyjust weren't really sure what
they wanted to do and how, howdo you, how do you, how can you
(01:00:05):
communicate with, with my childin a way to kind of just explore
with them maybe an area theymight want to go into or should
go into?
I mean, I don't even know ifyou have enough staff and time
to do it, but I mean, how canyou explore with potential
(01:00:25):
students that would come to IvyTech and trying to guide them
into at least a starting pointwhere they can kind of get a
feel for what they should, howthey should pursue some training
or education?
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
It's a great question and I think what we have really
done is blur the lines betweenhigh school and higher education
.
What I would tell you is, ifyou've, if you're in our five
county service areas so Rush,wayne, fayette, union and
Randolph, if you're in our fivecounty service area we have
(01:01:03):
about 2,300 what we call K-14students.
So they're in our dual creditprogram, so they're taking
college credit courses within,embedded within their high
school experience.
So we have 2,300.
That's with about 6,000 highschool students in those five
counties.
So you know, that's a good,yeah, that's a really good
number.
(01:01:23):
And if you think about that,that most of those dual credits
come in their third and fourthyear of high school, that even
the percentage grows really high.
Number one I would be reallydisappointed if in 10 of our 14
schools, we have embeddedpersonnel that visit the school
on a regular basis, that theytalk with the students, they
(01:01:44):
help guide them through, andwhat we're really trying to do
is provide a credential for thestudents to have the opportunity
to earn a credential of somesort.
So, and that can be an IndianaCollege Corps, which is the
equivalent of first year ofcollege, or it can be, it could
be a welding certificate orsomething in health care or
(01:02:07):
variety, depending upon whatschool they're in and the career
opportunity.
But the but the idea that theyhaven't met with or been around
someone from Ivy Tech, I wouldbe really surprised, especially
in those 10 schools Getting inand getting involved in that
number one.
There is a part of it that someof the classes that they're
(01:02:28):
taking are hands-on enough thatthey're going to you know there
may have an opportunity to dothat as a career.
Lots of folks this past summerwe had nearly 60 high school
students come in and work ontheir CNA certification.
So those are 60 students thatare from, you know, sophomore to
seniors, free of charge, had anopportunity to earn a CNA and
(01:02:55):
had really good passing rates onthat.
So about 85% of our studentspassed, which they get to go to
work in healthcare.
So our assumption is they havea healthcare track which we can
help to facilitate through thatand they have a connection out
the campus.
I think our high school work isreally good.
And then I think the finalthing that I would say is, as we
(01:03:17):
go through this, the number ofopportunities that Ivy Tech,
because we do such a good jobstatewide from a financial
standpoint, and locally from afinancial standpoint.
From a financial standpoint,and locally from a financial
standpoint.
Every year for the last fouryears we've offered free summer
to high school students.
So any high school student thatwants to take a college class
on the Ivy Tech campus or on ourIvy Online or whatever,
(01:03:43):
whatever modality can come inand take a course free of charge
.
One summer course for the summer, free summer, which means if
you want to take six now, wedon't recommend that.
But one or two courses, yeah,typically happen.
You can do a free summer andour goal in that is one,
(01:04:04):
accessibility, but two is thatgap, filling the gaps for folks
who are not quite at thatcredential piece.
Our operation is critical thatwe get and I think the DOE
Department of Education, I thinkthe high schools, they're being
measured more and more on thenumber of folks who get a
(01:04:27):
completion out and more on thenumber of folks who get a
completion out.
It's economic development, it'stalent retention and access.
It's really important becauseit's something that we know
lends itself to individualscontinuing on with their
training and education andthat's a huge deal.
But that's happening in so manyschools in our area.
Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Do you know how many?
I mean how successful was the,the free summer course or two
this past summer?
I mean how many, how many didit?
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
That's uh.
Um, well, let me just say thisUm, I don't.
I can't give you a raw numberoff top of my head I didn't do
my homework.
That way.
Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
I think we plan on talking about that, but let me,
it's interesting to me yeah, soso we did uh.
Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
So the a year ago we did, we did the program um and
the way we figured things upwhen you pay for and when it's
free, it's somebody's payingright and we we take it out of
some operational stuff that wedo and and the state does as
well, and, and so what we?
(01:05:35):
what we figured was that when we, if a campus any of the 19
campuses in the system increasedby 25%, we would know that that
was a.
That was a pretty goodthreshold and it kicked into
some other monies that wereavailable along the way, and we
did that.
In about the first two weeks wehad moved on Melissa
(01:05:58):
Kircher-Smith is our directorthere and I think we probably
were 30% higher than we were theprevious year.
The word is getting out,Credentials are becoming more
important and, as that happens,access to that is really
important, and we think thatit's just one of the ways that
we can do that I wasn't aware ofthat program and I think it's
(01:06:20):
an excellent idea.
Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
If someone's coming right out of high school, they
can and take a one or twocourses, maybe for free, and I
would think that would be.
If that went well for them,then they would maybe you're
hoping, I think that they wouldencourage to go ahead and enroll
for the fall and move forwardyeah, and I think even uh, even
more important in that is that'sany high school student.
Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
so what?
The other thing is, if asophomore wants to come in and
take a biology class or wants totake a welding class, that's
available too, which answers alittle bit of the first part,
which is how do we get?
If we wait until they'regraduating, we're done, it's
over, and and we're finding thatmore and more and more in the
(01:07:04):
employment side the recruitingprocess not unlike every
athletic team that we know, ifyou're waiting until they
graduate to recruit basketballplayers, they're gone.
It is getting earlier andearlier in the cycle, and the
same thing is happening here.
And so our, you know, in anideal world, we would have a
sophomore take a class free ofcharge that's in line with what
(01:07:26):
they're trying to do get acompletion, and then our part,
as they graduate, would be tosay here's what that completion
gives you opportunity.
Does it give you an opportunityto open up in a workforce
sector, to go directly intoemployment?
Does it?
Is it a way for you to enrollin ivy tech?
or is it something you can takeand go to iu bloomington?
Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
it's.
It also, I think, helped thatif somebody there was, say I was
on the on the fence aboutwhether or not I wanted to go to
a certain field.
Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
Well, let's just take this summer course.
Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
And you'll find out if you do have a passion for it.
Speaker 2 (01:08:00):
And almost every one of our students get to, gets to
be a part of our career linkprogram, which has we have a
embedded career coach.
They have lots of tools interms of assessment on on what
they can do that help to set upthose work-based opportunities
that can help say, hey, this iswhat the lead is.
Almost every one of ourstudents get that.
(01:08:22):
Probably the exception of that,although they do a lot of mock
interviews and stuff for the endof it, we are for the end of
the healthcare experience,because those healthcare
students kind of sort of knowwhere they're going, especially
if they're in a nursing program.
But we do embed that andthey've got some really cool
(01:08:43):
technology that they roll out tokind of show, hey, this is what
you're going to be doing.
And so Aaron Suits runs ourprogram for that and that is an
embedded part of theirexperience from day one.
Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Great.
Well, I think that wraps it upfor us, so I appreciate you
taking the time and sharing, andit's exciting to see how your
campus continues to grow andexpanding and what you're
offering to.
You know people in thecommunity who want to further
their education in one way oranother and like the idea about
(01:09:22):
the free summer courses, and so,anyway, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
Yeah, let me let me plug one more thing.
On October 29th Tuesday,october 29th we're going to
unveil our open up, grandopening for our healthcare floor
that we've renovated over thecourse of the past year
High-tech sim labs it's reallycool 430,.
We're going to do a littleribbon cutting and those kinds
(01:09:46):
of things and some unveilings,but the community is welcome.
We welcome love for people toget involved and see the really
cool stuff.
Uh, it's going to be as good assimulation space and health
care space as there is in thestate of indiana.
Speaker 1 (01:09:59):
There you go.
So hey, thank you so much thankyou, enjoyed it yep michael
allen from manpower.
We are a national brand, yetlocally owned franchise.
We are familiar with thechallenges businesses face.
It's tough recruiting andretaining qualified employees.
That's why working withManpower is a smart,
cost-effective solution.
Our entire focus is talentacquisition.
(01:10:20):
We'll manage your hiring andtraining and provide ongoing,
customized support.
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uniquely positioned to helpeliminate the hassles and save
you time and money.
Let us help.
Contact Manpower today.
Michael Allen from Manpower.
We are a national brand, yetlocally owned franchise.
We are familiar with thechallenges businesses face.
It's tough recruiting andretaining qualified employees.
That's why working withManpower is a smart,
cost-effective solution.
Our entire focus is talentacquisition.
We'll manage your hiring andtraining and provide ongoing,
customized support.
Since 1966, we have been yourcommunity-invested partner,
(00:24):
uniquely positioned to helpeliminate the hassles and save
you time and money.
Let us help contact Manpowertoday.
Hello and welcome to the Hubpowered by Manpower of Richmond,
with offices in Richmond,portland and Newcastle.
I am your host, michael Allen,and here on the Hub we interview
local businesses, communitypartners and very special guests
(00:45):
.
And interview local businesses,community partners and very
special guests, and our missionis to share and spotlight unique
and untold stories of companies, organizations and people who
are making a difference in ourcommunity.
So today's guest is Chad Bolzer.
He's the chancellor of Ivy TechCommunity College.
Uh, in the campus, and wetalked about this before we
(01:07):
started recording and I didn'tknow whether to call you, like
Chancellor Bolzer, dr Bolzer.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Chad, chad would be fine.
Let's not break that up Allright?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, hey, welcome to the hub today.
Thank you so much for joining.
When I looked over your bio, itoccurred to me that we've
really kind of known each othera pretty long time A mix of
socially, professionally.
However, we really haven't satdown and had super real long,
(01:40):
intimate conversations, so I waspretty excited about getting to
do that with you today.
And, uh, it was I believe it waskind of during golf league, uh,
that you and I are both in.
Uh, you mentioned a workingtrip that you'd recently uh been
on to, uh, zurich, yeah,switzerland, right, and um,
(02:03):
you're excited about the tripand you kind of came up about
maybe coming like today andtalking about it, and so we're
definitely going to get to thatpoint.
But before we do that, I'd liketo talk to you a little bit
about just some things about youpersonally.
And before we even get to that,I want to start with.
Our tradition here is we askeverybody about their very first
(02:27):
job.
Yeah so can you tell me aboutthat?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, so I was a paper.
I did a paper out back inClinton, Illinois.
That was the first official job.
I think I had certainly hadjobs before that.
But yeah, the paper route forthe Pantograph, which was the
area newspaper out of normalIllinois, and we did that every
(02:50):
day before school, seven days aweek and did that for about
three years and honestly it wasa great experience.
I'm not sure my parents wouldsay it was a great experience
because I think they had tomotivate us because it was an
early morning, you got up earlyand it had to be out on the
(03:11):
doorsteps by 6.
But we learned a lot of stuffthere and I know that Sunday
editions were a lot bigger backthen and that was a struggle and
collecting, going around doorto door and collecting with
those tickets, that kind ofshows how old and how long.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That was, but I remember that, yeah, it was a
great job.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
It was a great job because not that we made a ton
of money from it, but thataligns with the first savings
account we took place, where wekept track of that and kept
track of our money and how muchwe were being paid.
I think that was all goodexperience, learning how to work
.
So when you said, we did yourbrother, help you.
(03:57):
So Clint and I had Clint, twoyears younger, some folks.
He's been around and he played,graduated from Richmond High
School but has also been aroundthe community in a professional
standpoint.
He's now in St Louis but he was, you know, part with.
(04:17):
We split up the area and it wasabout a eight block area.
We did it on our bikes and itwas was, uh was quite a deal.
We would have a you know alittle bit of competition in the
morning who could get it donethe fastest.
But there was that qualityversus uh, you know, uh time, uh
who could get them on the,because if you didn't get them
on the porch in the right areathere were several people that
(04:39):
would oh yeah, there's a phonecall.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Oh, there's no doubt about that.
So was it the traditional thebig bag?
Oh, yeah, yeah, the big, yeahthat bag.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I, that bag probably was the first thing in my life
that I ever threw away um withgreat, uh anticipation, because
you can only do it was.
It's hard, it's getting upearly and that's where sort of
stuff is.
Is was fun and you know andwork and you learn to do that.
But sundays, that bag.
There's nothing quite like thatexperience and you know that.
(05:11):
You did it all year long, soyou know that rainy days or cold
days or whatever were just asuh, just as much part of the
process as good days did youhave to roll the papers?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah, before before
you went out.
Yeah, they came to your house.
Yeah, big stack of, big stackof papers yeah they would drop,
they would drop those off.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
I and look, I I think about 4, 4, 30 in the morning,
and then we had we, we had tohave them out on on doorsteps by
six wow, yeah, do you remember,like, how many you guys had to
deliver?
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I mean, I don't remember the exact number.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
but if you, if you and I, were to drive to Clinton
Illinois, I would be able totell you exactly the paper out
and I promise you I'd be able totell you the homes that were
the most difficult to get theirtickets paid.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well, I like that story about the papers Cause I
mean that was kind of a.
I like that story about thepapers because I mean that was
kind of a traditional, kind of ayoung person's job.
I mean I haven't had anybodytalk about paper delivery.
A lot of it is like fast foodwhich is a lot of us.
(06:18):
I don't know if you ever didfast food.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, dairy Queen, I can still put the swirl on a ice
cream cone if you'd like to.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, I think that's really cool
.
Thanks for sharing that uh theuh.
So, going on past that, tell usa little bit about it.
You touched on it, but whereyou grew up, where you went to
school?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Clinton, illinois is a yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Central Illinois.
My dad was a school teacher, uh, and then a school
administrator, um, and and didthat his entire, uh professional
career.
Um, we grew up, um, our myselfand the family and mom and two
brothers uh, we were in Clinton.
Clinton is exactly in themiddle of Central Illinois.
(07:09):
If you were to bisect placesthat people do know Normal and
Bloomington, normal, decatur,springfield and Champaign, if
you took a line, it's actuallyright in the center of it.
And what most people wouldremember about or know about
Clinton, illinois, is that ithad a nuke.
(07:30):
It still has a working nuclearpower plant.
So the jokes about the Simpsonsand all of that stuff a small
town of about 10,000 folks witha nuclear power plant and a
really cool man-made lake, tocool, the power plant was what
we lived in, lived there and sogrew up there, graduated high
(07:51):
school from there.
My brothers both were in schoolwhen my dad had made a career
decision that he wanted toexpand out of the school
district the only schooldistrict he had worked in and he
applied at three placesColumbus, indiana.
There was another place inIllinois, I think, sparta,
(08:12):
illinois and Richmond, indiana,and at that time I had just
graduated high school, and sothen.
So we moved over here and mybrother both my brothers
graduated from Richmond HighSchool.
We were heavily into basketballand athletics and so I went on,
went to school in Missouri,lindenwood College, played there
(08:35):
and graduated from there.
And Clint eventually played hereat Richmond and then followed
me down there and was a part ofthat, played there as well.
He's a lot better player than Iwas.
That was a quick exit for me.
Once they recruited my brotherand then I, you know, after I
had bounced around from smallcollege basketball programs for
(08:59):
about four years and then or sixyears, sorry then uh came here,
uh, in 1998, 1998, to be thehead boys basketball coach and
teacher at richmond high schoolthe uh when you go to clinton,
illinois, is that, would youlike to take 70 and yeah?
(09:21):
well, yeah, 70, 70 to 74 andthen at 74 it um at the even
less, uh, larger.
No, it's a smaller town, farmercity.
Uh, you, would you jump off ofthere and you go, uh, you go in
on, uh, I believe it's, route 10.
Yeah, so it's, it's truly afarm community.
(09:44):
It was agriculture all the wayaround the pretty small town
based solely on that industry.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Well, for about three , three and a half years I would
travel to Illinois quite a bitbecause my oldest son, sam he,
went to college in Illinois.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, greenville College, yeah, it's Greenville
University now but I don't knowhow far that was from where yeah
, so if you go on 70 and so thatwould be, um, when we went from
richmond to st louis, we wouldgo by greenville college and, in
fact, lindenwood college whereuh was.
Uh went to school.
We played at greenville, okay,um, so been on that campus many
(10:22):
times, and both as a player anda coach.
Okay, all right, very familiarcool, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
And then I actually my youngest son lives in crystal
Greenville, so been on thatcampus many times and both as a
player and a coach, veryfamiliar.
And then actually my youngestson lives in Crystal Lake,
illinois.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Oh my gosh, yeah, I had several friends that I went
to college with from CrystalLake.
In fact, my first recruitingtrip as an assistant basketball
coach for Lindenwood because Igot hired right after I
graduated my first recruitingtrip was to Crystal Lake.
I think it was Central at thetime, crystal Lake South, and
(10:52):
they had a junior college workout there, and so I went up and
watched a bunch of players andspent a day and a half up there.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
It's a nice area, very nice area.
Yeah, did you go to Lindenwoodbecause of basketball,
basketball.
Yeah, were you recruited.
I mean, how did thatopportunity come up?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I actually was a better football player than I
was a basketball player, I don't, so I was going to.
I had full intentions of goingto DePaul over in Greencastle,
indiana, all right, and I wouldhave been an excellent clipboard
holder and wore a baseball capfor four years, but I love
football and love playing it.
It was a great opportunity.
(11:34):
I played in an all-star game inbasketball in my summer and was
offered a scholarship.
Lindenwood was an NAIA school,so they were able to offer
athletic scholarships and I wasoffered a scholarship.
Lindenwood was an NAIA school,so they were able to offer
athletic scholarships and I wasoffered an athletic scholarship,
and it was one of thosesituations where it was
essentially I went to school ona full scholarship for four
(11:56):
years and that was too.
I loved DePaul and loved thethought about playing for Coach
Marissus and had a real fondnessfor that.
But free was free.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
So you said, your brother followed you there.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah two years later we recruited Clint and I was
still playing at the time andnot very well.
To be honest with you, I was atypical high school basketball
player.
It wasn't bad, but not goodenough, and the better we got,
the less chance it was that Iwas good enough to play.
And so Clint came down and hewas excellent.
I mean, he's a really goodplayer.
(12:35):
He was a good player here atRichmond.
He was a really good collegeplayer, all-region kind of
player and that sort of allowedme to take my exit and start the
coaching track that I wouldeventually be on for a few years
.
Did you guys get to play alittle bit together when you
were there?
Yeah, a little bit, a littlebit, but mostly the way I would
describe it is him playing andme watching.
(12:57):
Yeah, it was.
As I.
I don't have any problemadmitting the stair step of the
hierarchy of playing.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
You came to Richmond to work for Richmond Community
Schools in 98.
Yeah, I'm assuming that wasbecause of the connection that
you made being here when youmoved here.
I mean you came here, but thenyou went off to college, but you
did have a Richmond connection.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, I spent my summers here and I actually
worked as a groundskeeper onwhat used to be the grounds crew
for Richmond Community Schoolsin the summers and there were
some great folks there who Ilearned to pour concrete and
finish concrete there and do alot of the maintenance work.
That was a part of that.
(13:54):
It was a great program, met alot of folks in there and really
did feel like Richmond was home.
I applied honestly, this is thetruth.
I was an assistant coach forMilliken University and we had a
nice program and it was a goodprogram at the time.
But I was 28 years old.
(14:15):
Richmond High School has had along-standing tradition of
pretty experienced coachescoming in.
Not many 28-year-olds get hired.
There were some tough times foryou know, six or seven years
after Coach Griff had retired,and so I think there were some
(14:37):
wanting a new face, kind ofthing, and so I so, um, I always
tell people that I, uh Ieventually was the athletic
director.
I never hired myself.
You know like I it was.
It was, you know, and Ray Wolpe, who is still the principal.
There was the AD and and Ithink you know I think things
worked out pretty well, uh, butI came here, uh, as as probably
(14:59):
too young for the position,frankly, um but uh, 10 years, 10
years, a pretty good basketballand I think we turned things
around and set the stage forwhat I think were really good
years after that.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
I don't trying to kind of think of where I would
have been, you know, when youwere coaching.
I remember going to the games alot when I was during, like the
woody austin and chad austinyears but I kind of lost
connection because I didn't goto richmond high school so I
(15:34):
didn't have this natural uhconnection to going to games and
such.
But I just don't remember, Idon't.
I know that during that timeyou guys were able to get an NCC
championship again after apretty long drought.
I don't remember the players whowas kind of, when you look back
, who was kind of the reallytalented some of the really
(15:56):
talented players that you hadduring your tenure.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Well, the one that everyone will remember in
Richmond that had anyassociation was Dominique James.
Dominique played for us forfour years and ultimately went
on to Marquette and he wasrunner-up to Mr Basketball and
those were really really goodbasketball teams.
You know, dominique had theunfortunate and our team had the
(16:20):
unfortunate luck, as it is andthat happens to teams.
We were in the same sectionwith Muncie Central that ended
up going to the statechampionship two years, so they
beat us three years in a row inthe championship, so those were
a part of it.
That's the group that probablymost people would remember from
(16:41):
my time.
We did win the conference hisfreshman year, which was the
first group that had reallychanged the dynamic of the
program where we went from.
There were not a lot of winsover a four or five-year period
and then my first year, wereally struggled and only had
(17:01):
five wins that first year, butthat group was a freshman and
that had Marcus Jewett and TylerStewart, chris Yant, jermaine
Crumby, donald Crawley thosefolks People probably would
remember in terms of that crew.
They were a really solidbasketball team and um, um and
(17:25):
won the league.
Uh, for the first time in 2002had won for the first time.
It's 88.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
It's ironic you mentioned on it, cause I was
talking about him not long ago.
I just didn't associate thetime that you were coaching.
And I.
The question came up likewhat's he doing today?
Do you know?
Yeah, yeah, do you know what'sgoing on with him?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah, so he is married with a family.
He played overseas for about adecade.
Never was able to crack intothe NBA.
You know he was not, was stillis about 5'10" very small,
unbelievable athlete.
He got caught up in being apoint guard when the transition
(18:12):
of there were longer guards inthe NBA and really, from a
shooting perspective, that wasthe beginning of the transition
about, you know, to the extraemphasis on the three-point line
.
He is now with his family,three kids.
They live in Tennessee.
His wife is or was played atKentucky and Indiana State was
(18:39):
an excellent point guard.
He would never admit that.
She might have been better thanhim, but she's an unbelievably
talented person and so they haveput together a business.
In fact they just broke ground.
They started a trainingbusiness outside of their house,
(19:00):
on a half court kind of intheir backyard sort of thing
started training folks, createdhe is a very faith-based young
man, he and his family a verystrong Christian ministry and as
a part of that ministry theyhave given their talents to
(19:23):
training folks and puttingpeople together.
They have a daughter, jensey,who's going to be an excellent
player.
She's in third grade and theyhave a thriving business.
In fact, they just broke groundon a facility that they're
building on their property.
That's a great story?
Yeah, it really is.
And, as I tell people, he wasan unbelievable basketball
(19:48):
player and I mean he got theabsolute, very best out of there
.
He got it.
You know, he had a greatexperience, got a degree, had a
great career.
But what he's done now sincethat time his ability to, one,
be an entrepreneur, two, to havea creative ministry and, three,
to touch doing what he loves todo, to touch the amount of kids
(20:11):
that he does it's amazing.
Uh and and.
To hear him speak about thatjourney is absolutely it's one
of the most inspiring things.
I've always thought he was a uh, a great person, person, um,
since I've known him in the inmiddle school, what he is as a
man uh is is inspiring.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
That's great well, I'm sure you uh probably
wouldn't take any credit, butI'm sure this four years that
you spent with him in highschool were uh help, was a
compliment to him and anencouragement to him.
So I just love hearing aboutthat.
So, going through your bio andyour different jobs that you did
(20:59):
, there was one thing that I sawyou talked about these
additional designations, and soyou're a certified coach,
trainer and facilitator ofsimplex creative problem solving
yeah uh, it's a certified proside change management.
(21:19):
So I was curious about that andI went to look up this pro side
and I watched this video and Igot to tell you I got lost.
I didn't really understand it.
So I was just curious to askyou a little bit about that,
because I just didn't, so itlost me.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
So the transition, I think, is important.
I was the chancellor here onthe Richmond campus and I had
been at the campus for a coupleof years.
We made a transition fromcampus president to chancellor
in the summer of 2019.
We had a couple of good years.
I was I transitioned into thevice president of operations for
the state and the the part ofwhat we did was we worked
(22:03):
directly with the chancellorsaround the state to you know who
were running campuses, and soit became really important to us
that we put we were able to goin and work with folks and have
tools sort of in the tool beltto be able to work through
whether it was coaching ofpersonnel or whether it was just
(22:26):
project planning or changemanagement or creative problem
solving.
And so we went through andSimplex.
Creative problem solving issomething President Elsberman
brought to Ivy Tech and has thatand it's a really great sort of
way to get large groups offolks to focus in.
(22:47):
It's a lot of what strategicplanning.
We write our strategic planningprocess through that.
The change management is reallyimportant when you have large
groups of folks who are going togo through rapid amount of
change and so theircertification process and that
(23:07):
gives you.
It's a lot of logical steps.
So, for instance, if you said,hey, we have 500 employees and
we're going to go through a hugechange in an industrial
framework, maybe it's adifferent product or if it's a
different sector that you'regoing to get into, change can
(23:28):
create some issues workforceissues, management issues,
production issues, all kinds ofthings like that.
So there are some natural stepsand what this crew has done
with ProSci and I would agreewith you it's a pretty technical
sort of approach to it, butwhat it does is it gives some
(23:48):
really specific items,research-based items, to a lot
of practicality.
So, in other words, if you'regoing to make a big change in
the organization, the singlemost important part of that
initial part of that is initialcommunication.
Don't implement a change andexpect everybody to come and be
on board with it if you let themknow after the change has
(24:11):
already been taken place.
So when they start to noticewhat's going on, now that seems
like a pretty like.
Well, of course, chad, thatdoesn't need.
You don't need anycertification to figure out that
.
That's the thing.
But there are things and waysto go about that that lead to
success in large organizations.
So when we went through thattraining.
(24:32):
What we were basically sayingis if you're going through a
change, we can help you gothrough that and we can give you
practical tools to do that.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Well, really it doesn't surprise me on the
communication part, becausesometimes we've had several of
our recruiters out of our office.
Over the years have hadopportunities to move on to some
local companies in HR roles.
It's a natural progression ofone, that I'm always been uh
(25:06):
very happy for them that theywere making a uh, a professional
, progressive step.
And I've, uh, most of the timeI try to meet with some of those
folks and they leave and youknow, try to get some feedback
about time working with me andwhatever, and and I've had a few
times say, hey, you know reallylike working for you and and
(25:28):
your company and.
But I just asked for, hey, canyou give me a little bit of help
with how I can, I can improve?
And I'd say that communicationis a as a topic and sometimes I
think you know I've I've done agood job it, but I'm finding out
that there's always room forimprovement in that area and I
(25:50):
assume that maybe you wouldmaybe agree with that.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, I think the principle of probably you know,
as you learn to say whatevermessage that is, to do it until
you know, you say it and youkeep saying it, and when you get
sick of saying it, say it again, right, you know?
I mean this idea that thatindividuals in your organization
are going to pick up on it inthe same way that any of us are
(26:16):
going to do that, that everyindividual is critical in that.
And then I think what's I thinkthe deal with communication
today is?
There's so many channels tocommunicate and sometimes that
becomes super annoying, right?
Like you know, we talked aboutbefore we got on here that,
without a doubt, our phones,even though they're silenced and
(26:37):
on, do not disturb, they areringing, even though we're not
going to answer them, you know,and the messaging coming on.
But we live in a world whereour workforce has to have
constant communication and theyhave to have it in a variety of
ways, and sometimes that's adirect messaging, but sometimes
it's subtle messaging and, yeah,so I think that there's no
(26:57):
question that you know, wealways are looking to improve
that sort of process and I thinkwe're challenged with it every
day.
How does that?
Speaker 1 (27:09):
How does text messaging affect all that?
because I've got to tell you,when we communicate and this is
I'm not speaking this as anegative or positive, but we get
a higher level response fromjob seekers through text
messaging that's not not phonecalls and uh, and some sometimes
(27:31):
with our, our business in the,in the software that we have,
the operator company, the textmessaging part of our operations
software is good in that if Isend you a text it puts a copy
of that text on their employeerecord.
So if somebody goes, if youwere to call in, I could go and
(27:54):
say, oh yeah, so-and-so, sent atext to this person, that's why
they're to this person, that'swhy they're calling in or that's
why they're messaging back andso.
So it's nice to have thatdocumentation, but you just
don't get some of the theinteraction with people and
sometimes I I just don't know.
I mean it's, it's a tool thatwe need to use and are using
(28:16):
more and more every day, but Ijust don't know where it's going
.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Well, I suspect that my guess is that the next
transition for all of this isgoing to be how we can more
efficiently use artificialintelligence in the messaging
world.
I think you're seeing thatproduct line coming out.
I think that that's a verysimilar operation for you.
You as we do the amount ofcommunication to access
(28:47):
different educationalopportunities, those things.
We're going to be trying to bemore efficient, more efficient,
more efficient, because that'sultimately what we talk about is
that text messaging is good.
Language is super important tothis.
If you talk to folks, my twodaughters will say the following
sentence I talked to fill inthe blank, which translate, that
(29:13):
is, I have text messaged them,I have sent them a message on
Instagram or something to thatname.
Talking is not what we wouldconsider talking, and so does
that mean the communication isany worse or it's not good?
You know, it's just the methodthat is predominant, and I think
(29:35):
, as we as organizations andinstitutions, we have to adjust
to that, and I suspect the next,the next piece of that and it's
already in there, right there.
You know, when you go to awebsite and they say, hey, do
you have any questions?
You know you have to ask 12questions before you actually
get to a human being.
Most of that is generatedthrough the.
You know hundreds of thousandsof responses that take place.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
At the Richmond campus.
When Ivy Tech wants tocommunicate with students, how
are you doing?
I mean, how is Ivy Techcommunicating with students?
And how are educatorscommunicating?
Are they using text messaging,or are they still doing?
(30:19):
Are they sending emails?
How's that?
How's all that?
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I think.
I think the answer would be inas as many ways as you can
possibly have.
I think if we know one thingabout that is if you're going to
, you know if you're going todepend upon one way to message.
Email was so predominant in ourmessaging system just probably
(30:44):
pre-COVID, for certain, it waspredominantly the messaging.
I think we've moved intotexting, we've moved into that.
But I think the communicationcycle, whether it is outsourcing
, you know, to a call center forsome things through the website
itself for some things, directmessaging I think we're probably
(31:09):
, as most educationalinstitutions, a little bit
behind on how to engage withthem from the platform
standpoint.
You know like an Instagram, but, um, you know like an like an
instagram, like that, but youknow a tiktok, that, that sort
of thing.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
That's more messaging as in advertising at this point
, not direct like hey, come andapply you know where, where we'd
say that I said no if you had,if, if ivy tech had some type of
uh um, communication platformthat you use kind of universally
to communicate.
If I have a class I'm teaching,how do I communicate with my
(31:47):
class if I want to get theminformation?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Now that goes through our learning management system.
So that part of it for theclasses itself and that so.
So if I'm a, let's say, I'm aninstructor and I've got a class
and I want to, I need to cancelclass.
I can, I can get on therebecause most things are
submitted through that learningmanagement system and and and
(32:12):
that's where the course buildsare.
Even if it's, even if it's aface-to-face course, the, you
know, everything is based uponthat part of it and that's no
different than K-12 environment.
So if you, you know, powerschool would be something that's
a learning management system,same thing that takes place, you
know, it's just, it's somethingthat happens and goes on
(32:35):
consistently and it's way mosteducational institutions do that
the last time that that Iparticipated in a class was 34
years ago and I was finishing upmy master's at ball state and
uh, I, I don't think we had evenemail, uh, and probably not
1990 yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
And I don't even remember how things were
communicated.
I was a graduate assistant inthe political science department
at Ball.
State.
And if class was canceled,they'd send my grad ass play on
words there over to theclassroom and say, hey, Dr
Bolzer's not, we're not havingclass today.
(33:17):
Here's your assignment and passit.
Gave it to them and sent themon their way.
Or worse, they'd make me show avideo or a movie.
Well, we'd have to reel up amovie yeah sometimes you can
never get it reeled properly andI was like losing my mind.
But yeah, I mean, yeah, I justand and it's I still remember,
(33:42):
like yesterday I remember inclass or doing that.
But technology I mean, Iremember doing papers.
It was on a mac word processoryeah so's just.
It's just changed so much it'sso hard to keep up with it all.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
It is absolutely hard to keep up with it and I think
the challenge from aneducational standpoint is to
ensure that you know it is a.
It is a divide and I think thatfor the education educational
community, if you talk aboutartificial intelligence or you
talk about some of the you knowwriting stuff that goes on, you
know you can spend all your timetrying to make sure that that
(34:26):
you know you don't have somebodythat just says write me a paper
on you know political studiesand you could do that Like you
and I can get on our phonesright now, get into a system and
it'll write a five paragraphessay on whatever and you turn
in.
You can spend as an organizationan inordinate amount of time
trying to figure out and ensurethat you're not doing that right
, like that's a criticalcomponent of not having that
(34:48):
take place.
But the reality is we are alsochallenged with ensuring that
folks are doing that, havingfaculty and staff who can
improve communications withfolks who can improve the way
they're doing their business tomake sure they're more efficient
in there.
Nothing is ever going toreplace the human-to-human
(35:09):
contact that is necessary toprovide education.
However expanding that andusing the technology to reach
more and more folks isabsolutely what we ought to be
doing, and I think it doeschange fast and is and and it
certainly is not in my level ofexpertise, but it's it's
(35:30):
something that I think is anexciting time for the future of
uh, of the educators and theeducation opportunities.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
So we better get to it, let's talk about Switzerland
.
So tell me about your timethere Is it, cemets, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
CEMETS or CEMETS it's just an acronym.
I had to write the acronym theCenter for Economics and
Management of EducationalTraining Systems, so the CMETS
is really what that is.
What happened was, when I cameback to campus, I got heavily
(36:33):
involved in what is called theRural Alliance Zone.
It's a rural collaborativebetween career and tech
educational system where theywere transitioning those, or
transporting those folks, toMuncie in order to access the
career center.
And the Muncie Career Center isgreat, but the schools were
(36:54):
like we'd like to take, at leastin some areas, take our own
control of our own environment,and to do that, though, they had
to change.
They had to share students forlack of better terms, and that's
a tough environment because youknow you have to account for
ADM and this and that and theothers.
(37:14):
So, anyway, we got heavilyinvolved because those career
pathways they were developingwould come through Ivy Tech in
order to get thosecertifications.
Healthcare was our primaryfocus initially, but we've
expanded that along the way.
That group of folks has been.
(37:36):
The consulting group that theybrought in is empower schools,
and empower schools decided thatthey would like to go to this
C-METS summer Institute, andit's it's a, it's an intensive
program.
And they said oh, by the way,it's in Zurich.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
And.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
I was like well, that sounds like a pretty good deal.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
You know, that's not a bad bad deal.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
I didn't realize that I would be going to class, but,
like I, we went for a day and Igot to see a little bit of it.
But I uh.
It's funny, on my phone mypictures stop about 48 hours in
because the rest of the time wasin class.
It was not nearly as scenic asI thought it would be I.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
I did try to look this up a little bit and did it
start off with some online stuffyou had to do and then you?
There Is that how that was.
Did I read that right?
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, we did 15 hours prior to.
So I think when we initiallysigned up, I don't think we all
fully encompassed what it wouldbe.
We essentially took a collegeclass, so it was 15 hours of
online work.
We did lots of meetings aboutthis and really what they're
trying to do is they bringgroups of folks from all over
(38:47):
the world.
So when we were there, therewere folks from Washington, the
state of Washington in theUnited States, indiana but there
were from Nepal, washington inthe United States, indiana but
there were from Nepal, fromSerbia, from Cuba, from and I'm
trying to think I think I'mmissing one, but there are
(39:07):
countries and there was anothergroup prior to that that did
also have some folks fromIndiana, but they were, but it's
a.
The educational system inSwitzerland is seen as one of
the top five in the world andthey have some unique properties
, and the University of Zurichhas basically said, hey, we're
going to not only are we goingto study this on how our system
(39:29):
works, we're going to help othercountries with their
educational reform.
And so what?
The how that connects to Indianais Indiana, through what's
called Indiana iLab, theFairbanks Foundation is, and and
then, ultimately, through theIndiana Department of Education,
(39:49):
has made some adjustments tothe high school program with
these concepts in mind, and sowe are not an educational system
like Serbia, which has a lot ofdifferent issues.
But we are clearly different inour approach in the United
States about educational, theway we go about secondary
(40:12):
education, and that is theconnection piece of why we went
to explore more of this Now.
Are we into?
You know, the folks from Nepal,for instance, are trying to do
national reform.
So the Secretary of Educationfor Nepal was in the room and
(40:32):
there were, you know, there werelots of folks, lots of
government officials, who weretrying to figure out ways to
improve their educational system.
We're obviously not in thereform business from Randolph
County or from Wayne County inthis area were that would help
(41:03):
us do our small bit and leveragethese new outcome or these new
products from the IDOE and fromiLab to enhance the student
experience here and on theground in these rural counties.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
So after you came back from that, I I were you one
of those pictures they haveonline yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Yeah, I thought I might have saw it.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, I was in the back there, yeah yeah, so I, I
think I saw you, yeah, but itwas.
I think, wow, that was probablypretty cool to get to go to
that, because it looked like avery diverse group of people and
, like you mentioned, fromgovernment yeah, from different
governments and all over theworld.
So that had to be a pretty coolexperience.
(41:45):
Uh, how did you guys deal withthe language?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
so yeah, so, with the exception of the other
countries, spoke English,including and, so they, that's
the default language that'sspoken in the institute.
There were times where that youknow, they were certainly
(42:11):
English wasn't used, but in thepresentations and in all that,
and there are, and many of theprofessors that that part of
that and that's who instructedthe courses, were professors and
industry leaders and a lot offolks from from Zurich, um, and
Switzerland, broader Switzerland, that understand this process,
(42:33):
um, but that's who did that?
They, they all spoke englishand and, and, except for the,
the cuban delegation had atranslator so what's your?
Speaker 1 (42:43):
so you went.
Yeah, you invested quite a bitof time before you're, you know,
15 hours or whatever beforehand.
So what's kind of the takeawayfor you right now, at this point
?
That experience?
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Yeah, so one.
I left that experience and wasa huge believer.
It is certainly a differentsystem and it is not something
that we would replicate here inits entirety, but I do think it
answers this fundamentalquestion, and this is applicable
to the work that you do andit's applicable to the work we
(43:17):
do at Ivy Tech.
We get asked a lot by employers, or we have frustration by
employers, that individualsdon't know how to work.
They may have technical skills,they may have certifications,
they may have whatever, but wehave this.
We, along with finding folks to, to, to be employed, how to
(43:43):
work doesn't seem to be as asprevalent, uh, of a skill base.
Um, well, you know, and folkskind of talk sometimes with
skills, uh, soft skills orprofessional skills or something
like that but the reality is, Ithink working is something that
has been pushed a little bitfarther.
(44:06):
So, for instance and I thinkthis is, you know, it's a, it's
a reality my, when we talk aboutthe first job, my recollection
of the first job happens andwhen I turn, I think, a fifth
grader, fourth grader, fifthgrader, that sort of area, I
think we are less likely to getthose, you know, during school,
(44:28):
for folks to have jobs and thatsort of thing.
Those ages have been pushed alittle bit farther up and a
little bit older, and so teenyou know numbers of teens that
have been employed in part-timejobs and that sort of thing, and
the reality is that continuesto go down uh, in, in, uh in the
United States and Indiana, andso what that does is does.
(44:52):
Does it make any difference?
That I learned when I was 16years old to do a uh uh ice
cream cone with a curl.
You know the Dairy Queen curlon it?
No, but here's what I learnedis I had to be there on time, I
had to work through the thing, Ihad to produce a quality
product and I had to clean upwhen I was done and, and there
was a certain amount of timethat we had to do all of that,
(45:21):
Um, had to do all of that.
We learn those things byworking and there's almost
nothing that you can do toreplace that.
Now I would say I would suggestthat when we talk about
basketball, I think peoplethrough sports or band or
different sort of activities.
There's lots of ways that youcan do it without actually being
a job.
But what Switzerland did wasthey had in the 70s a really
(45:43):
poorly rated school system, andwhat they essentially have done
is, over the last 25 years, theyhave reformed their educational
system to essentially embedwork into the educational
experience.
And there are a few students,but there are very few, that go
completely academic.
And when we say academic, thatmeans sit in the classroom, get
(46:05):
a lecture, take a test, it'sresearch-based, You're going to
go on and go to the university.
We have the same formula, butwe kind of integrate a bunch of
things in there and rarely do wedo work.
What they've done is said okay,with the exception of those
folks that are going to go on acompletely academic track.
(46:27):
There are vocational andprofessional training programs
that are embedded in the courseof their educational experience,
and that is really the keything.
It answers that fundamentalquestion.
If you're going to have folksthat do work really well, you've
got to teach them to work, andthe best way to do that is to
actually work.
And so they have a largepercentage I think probably 85%
(46:53):
of the students that go throughthe program and don't write that
down in a pen, write that downin pencil because it's not
exactly right but that they gothrough and they are embedded in
internships and work-basedlearning consistently through
their secondary experience, andthat means from finance to
(47:14):
service industry.
When we think about internshipshere, lots of times we think in
industry or you know, some sortof the hands-on automotive
construction, that sort of thing.
This is finance, where we metstudents that had been in
banking for three years in theSwiss banking system.
So you know they have anunbelievable story to tell when
(47:37):
it comes to that.
But that's embedded, it's anatural part of the educational
system, and so what Indiana hasdone is try to, at least in part
, begin the process of that sortof reform through work,
mandatory work-based learningprograms within the high school
diploma.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Well, both of my boys they graduated 10-plus years
ago out of high school andneither one of them really
worked until after high school.
(48:21):
They were both super involved indifferent things, especially my
youngest son, peter he, hetried everything when he was at
centerville, he tried uh he wasinvolved in all kinds of um
activities uh, some sports, somethe arts or whatever, and you
know, I I liked that they weredoing those things and I wasn't
so much concerned about, youknow, them having to go and work
(48:43):
, uh, because they were beingproductive with their time in a
positive way.
But there was probably somelike to your point they're not,
they weren't working earlier intheir age, uh and uh.
So I that part makes some senseto me.
(49:03):
Another thing that youmentioned about um being the
hands-on aspect of it.
We recently had to purchase.
We had a client that wanted usto put a certain type of
timekeeping system at their sitefor our employees and it wasn't
, was not a system that we hadexperience with, and so we
(49:27):
bought, we bought these twounits and had them installed and
it works off a web-based.
You go in and you work throughthis web-based program and it
was really kind of cool.
This company, latham, wasactually the timekeeping company
.
We had virtual training withthem and the training was really
(49:51):
good.
He would not do anything for us, he made us sit at the keyboard
and and navigate every part ofit, and I really appreciate that
they were.
That takes more time to do,because I've been another
training where they're okay, youclick here, you click there,
you do this, but they, theirapproach to this teaching us,
(50:15):
was making us do every click,every move and I was impressed
with that training part of itbecause I felt like the the
primary staff person that wasgoing to be involved with it
really learned it well from thebeginning.
And so I really like thatlearning aspect that that
company brought to the trainingpart.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Yeah, and what we know about our students are when
they are in work-based learningenvironments and again, in a
variety of situations, and againin a variety of situations, we
talk about our kids.
My daughter, Mallory, is anacting major and she is just in
(51:00):
her third year in the CCMprogram down at the University
of Cincinnati.
But she did an internship.
We didn't even describe it, Ithink, as an internship, but she
worked at the theater and thoseexperiences trained her to be
on time and to do things andbeing in performances do that
stuff and what we know is thatif you want to develop those
(51:21):
social-emotional learning skills, having those interactions is
critical.
Those things are going tocontinue.
The more human interaction, themore talking you have to do,
the more personalities you dealwith, the more you learn things
like resilience and timemanagement and all the
(51:42):
professional skills that wedesire.
You cannot sit in a class andlook at a PowerPoint and have
somebody say you know.
You cannot sit in a class andlook at a PowerPoint and have
somebody say, you know, here iswhat a good time management
system is.
No one pays attention to that.
I've never met anyone that says, boy, I'd really like to do
that.
You can't learn professionalsystems like that, professional
skills, unless you're working,and I think that's the you know
(52:04):
as I listen to the stuff thatyou do and your organization.
I think we all know that right,like we inherently know that,
and those experiences arecritical, I think, for the
educational purposes.
We've always kind of sort ofpushed that over to the well,
those are the folks who are notgoing to go to college.
(52:26):
I think the message from thesystem that we're in, or the
Swiss system, is integrated intoeverything and you'll have a
much better product.
It'll take a while.
It's not something you can justsnap your fingers and make
happen, but having thosestudents in there, just you know
your kids, my kids.
The more they learn how to dothat, the less we have to worry
(52:48):
that they're going to have tolearn it when they get their
first job we see, we're exposedto these, uh, these concepts,
these ideas of learning, and wereally love them, but
implementing them are verychallenging.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
I mean, how, how do you get it started?
How do you get off the you know, get it going?
Because it seems like thatfirst step or two is always the
hardest.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
Yeah, the most critical thing, I think, is in
it starting small.
For instance, if you thinkabout the razz 32, the, the
rural group up in randolphcounty, having spaces and places
in which they can, thatstudents can get real hands-on
experience in healthcareopportunities or IT
(53:35):
opportunities or in differentareas and then create and look
for work-based learning.
You know, and lots of folkswould say they're familiar with
the term internship, or you know, and lots of folks would say
they're familiar with the terminternship, or you know, or a
job shadowing or whatever.
But a lot of times when thattakes place, that's a really
(53:57):
it's not as integrated as awork-based, a full-fledged
work-based learning opportunity.
And for companies that you know, like in Switzerland, they're
all paid to do those.
So when they're in high schoolthey're making money.
Now it's a low wage but they'remaking money and it's a part of
the educational process.
The retention in that over timeis really good.
(54:21):
So I think the answer to yourquestion is how do you do it?
You start small, right, youstart small, you have sectors
that you identify and you try tomove forward, but most of all,
you need to be able to create apicture for employers and
industry.
That one they're leading theeducational process, not
(54:42):
educators.
And number two, the return oninvestment, is there's a little
expenditure early and researchthe research that the University
of Zurich says it takes aboutthree years of investment in
that and it flips from being anexpense to a revenue producer
because the employees that youhave are more dedicated to your
(55:04):
operation, they're more valuableand the training time goes way
down.
They're more valuable and thetraining time goes way down, and
that ultimately you create theculture that you want to have in
that experience, and so that'spart of it is start out small,
be successful and then study itand create the ROI for employers
.
When we put industry beforeeducators, education, it turns
(55:29):
out lots better.
I think we have a wonderfulhealthcare and nursing staff.
Our nursing program has grownby 30% in three years.
We are being guided almostevery day and helped by Reed
Health in their efforts to havebetter trained employees.
(55:50):
So when we look at the stuffwe're doing at Ivy Tech, that's
what we have to do and we haveto convince other industries and
sectors to continue to do that.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
That kind of starts to wrap up.
It does make me.
You talked about the nursing.
What are some of the currentvocation trends that are out
there right now?
I mean healthcare.
I don't see that slowing downanytime soon, but are there some
other areas that people wouldfind interesting to hear?
Speaker 2 (56:20):
Yeah, I think the smart manufacturing is going to
be critical for any group inthis area.
I think the biotech um, whichwe're going to be dipping our
toes in in this area with theliberation labs and and some of
the stuff that's going on there,we're starting to see where
we've helped develop a trainingprogram.
(56:42):
Uh, for that, that operation um, that that is a potential
expanding marketplace and thatcould take an entire another
episode to talk about thepossibilities for that.
And then I think IT is reallywhere we've got to look and,
(57:03):
honestly, educationalinstitutions that are really
challenged by this, educationalinstitutions that are really
challenged by this.
There's some basic entry-levelIT opportunities that come about
and we have excellentprogramming in that.
But that area of our worldsmart manufacturing and
(57:24):
technology embedded inmanufacturing is, and technology
embedded in manufacturing ismoving at a very rapid pace but
it is slow compared to IT.
And just for the things that wetalked about, the fact of the
matter, you saw, purdue is doinga.
They just announced a master'sprogram in AI.
I think that that and I don'tthink I can't remember if that
(57:47):
was Purdue or Purdue Global.
My point is how we engage withthis really big moving, you know
, which is about two years oldnow.
I think that's going to be huge.
Cybersecurity is a huge area ofemphasis, but that educational
(58:09):
process is not traditional inany way, shape or form.
You know this idea that you'regoing to go to high school
graduate, you're going to spendfour years in college.
I mean that stuff's out thewindow.
There's ways to get trainedreally quick in a variety of
ways and we're getting up tospeed, but we've got to continue
to really press the gas pedalin order to keep up in that area
(58:32):
.
Speaker 1 (58:34):
How's the enrollment numbers?
Speaker 2 (58:37):
I'm glad you asked that this is the best stuff that
we can talk about this yearwell, not the current year, but
23- 24,.
We've gotten all of ourofficial numbers and our
analytics and our metrics are in.
We are at a five-year high inenrollment.
We're just under 4,400 students, which is huge, a five-year
(59:02):
high in enrollment.
Our retention numbers are alsothere at longer than five years,
but we'll go with a five to sixyear high and our completion
numbers that we just got done,we just got loaded up last week,
will also be the highest we'vehad.
(59:22):
That will be about six or sevenyear high and six or seven
years ago or maybe I guess itwas eight years ago we were a
part of another region.
So as an independent campusit's the highest number we've
had.
So it's really really, reallygood.
Speaker 1 (59:42):
So if I had a child who was graduating in the spring
of 2025 and they were not, theyjust weren't really sure what
they wanted to do and how, howdo you, how do you, how can you
(01:00:05):
communicate with, with my childin a way to kind of just explore
with them maybe an area theymight want to go into or should
go into?
I mean, I don't even know ifyou have enough staff and time
to do it, but I mean, how canyou explore with potential
(01:00:25):
students that would come to IvyTech and trying to guide them
into at least a starting pointwhere they can kind of get a
feel for what they should, howthey should pursue some training
or education?
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
It's a great question and I think what we have really
done is blur the lines betweenhigh school and higher education
.
What I would tell you is, ifyou've, if you're in our five
county service areas so Rush,wayne, fayette, union and
Randolph, if you're in our fivecounty service area we have
(01:01:03):
about 2,300 what we call K-14students.
So they're in our dual creditprogram, so they're taking
college credit courses within,embedded within their high
school experience.
So we have 2,300.
That's with about 6,000 highschool students in those five
counties.
So you know, that's a good,yeah, that's a really good
number.
(01:01:23):
And if you think about that,that most of those dual credits
come in their third and fourthyear of high school, that even
the percentage grows really high.
Number one I would be reallydisappointed if in 10 of our 14
schools, we have embeddedpersonnel that visit the school
on a regular basis, that theytalk with the students, they
(01:01:44):
help guide them through, andwhat we're really trying to do
is provide a credential for thestudents to have the opportunity
to earn a credential of somesort.
So, and that can be an IndianaCollege Corps, which is the
equivalent of first year ofcollege, or it can be, it could
be a welding certificate orsomething in health care or
(01:02:07):
variety, depending upon whatschool they're in and the career
opportunity.
But the but the idea that theyhaven't met with or been around
someone from Ivy Tech, I wouldbe really surprised, especially
in those 10 schools Getting inand getting involved in that
number one.
There is a part of it that someof the classes that they're
(01:02:28):
taking are hands-on enough thatthey're going to you know there
may have an opportunity to dothat as a career.
Lots of folks this past summerwe had nearly 60 high school
students come in and work ontheir CNA certification.
So those are 60 students thatare from, you know, sophomore to
seniors, free of charge, had anopportunity to earn a CNA and
(01:02:55):
had really good passing rates onthat.
So about 85% of our studentspassed, which they get to go to
work in healthcare.
So our assumption is they havea healthcare track which we can
help to facilitate through thatand they have a connection out
the campus.
I think our high school work isreally good.
And then I think the finalthing that I would say is, as we
(01:03:17):
go through this, the number ofopportunities that Ivy Tech,
because we do such a good jobstatewide from a financial
standpoint, and locally from afinancial standpoint.
From a financial standpoint,and locally from a financial
standpoint.
Every year for the last fouryears we've offered free summer
to high school students.
So any high school student thatwants to take a college class
on the Ivy Tech campus or on ourIvy Online or whatever,
(01:03:43):
whatever modality can come inand take a course free of charge
.
One summer course for the summer, free summer, which means if
you want to take six now, wedon't recommend that.
But one or two courses, yeah,typically happen.
You can do a free summer andour goal in that is one,
(01:04:04):
accessibility, but two is thatgap, filling the gaps for folks
who are not quite at thatcredential piece.
Our operation is critical thatwe get and I think the DOE
Department of Education, I thinkthe high schools, they're being
measured more and more on thenumber of folks who get a
(01:04:27):
completion out and more on thenumber of folks who get a
completion out.
It's economic development, it'stalent retention and access.
It's really important becauseit's something that we know
lends itself to individualscontinuing on with their
training and education andthat's a huge deal.
But that's happening in so manyschools in our area.
Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Do you know how many?
I mean how successful was the,the free summer course or two
this past summer?
I mean how many, how many didit?
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
That's uh.
Um, well, let me just say thisUm, I don't.
I can't give you a raw numberoff top of my head I didn't do
my homework.
That way.
Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
I think we plan on talking about that, but let me,
it's interesting to me yeah, soso we did uh.
Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
So the a year ago we did, we did the program um and
the way we figured things upwhen you pay for and when it's
free, it's somebody's payingright and we we take it out of
some operational stuff that wedo and and the state does as
well, and, and so what we?
(01:05:35):
what we figured was that when we, if a campus any of the 19
campuses in the system increasedby 25%, we would know that that
was a.
That was a pretty goodthreshold and it kicked into
some other monies that wereavailable along the way, and we
did that.
In about the first two weeks wehad moved on Melissa
(01:05:58):
Kircher-Smith is our directorthere and I think we probably
were 30% higher than we were theprevious year.
The word is getting out,Credentials are becoming more
important and, as that happens,access to that is really
important, and we think thatit's just one of the ways that
we can do that I wasn't aware ofthat program and I think it's
(01:06:20):
an excellent idea.
Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
If someone's coming right out of high school, they
can and take a one or twocourses, maybe for free, and I
would think that would be.
If that went well for them,then they would maybe you're
hoping, I think that they wouldencourage to go ahead and enroll
for the fall and move forwardyeah, and I think even uh, even
more important in that is that'sany high school student.
Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
so what?
The other thing is, if asophomore wants to come in and
take a biology class or wants totake a welding class, that's
available too, which answers alittle bit of the first part,
which is how do we get?
If we wait until they'regraduating, we're done, it's
over, and and we're finding thatmore and more and more in the
(01:07:04):
employment side the recruitingprocess not unlike every
athletic team that we know, ifyou're waiting until they
graduate to recruit basketballplayers, they're gone.
It is getting earlier andearlier in the cycle, and the
same thing is happening here.
And so our, you know, in anideal world, we would have a
sophomore take a class free ofcharge that's in line with what
(01:07:26):
they're trying to do get acompletion, and then our part,
as they graduate, would be tosay here's what that completion
gives you opportunity.
Does it give you an opportunityto open up in a workforce
sector, to go directly intoemployment?
Does it?
Is it a way for you to enrollin ivy tech?
or is it something you can takeand go to iu bloomington?
Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
it's.
It also, I think, helped thatif somebody there was, say I was
on the on the fence aboutwhether or not I wanted to go to
a certain field.
Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
Well, let's just take this summer course.
Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
And you'll find out if you do have a passion for it.
Speaker 2 (01:08:00):
And almost every one of our students get to, gets to
be a part of our career linkprogram, which has we have a
embedded career coach.
They have lots of tools interms of assessment on on what
they can do that help to set upthose work-based opportunities
that can help say, hey, this iswhat the lead is.
Almost every one of ourstudents get that.
(01:08:22):
Probably the exception of that,although they do a lot of mock
interviews and stuff for the endof it, we are for the end of
the healthcare experience,because those healthcare
students kind of sort of knowwhere they're going, especially
if they're in a nursing program.
But we do embed that andthey've got some really cool
(01:08:43):
technology that they roll out tokind of show, hey, this is what
you're going to be doing.
And so Aaron Suits runs ourprogram for that and that is an
embedded part of theirexperience from day one.
Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Great.
Well, I think that wraps it upfor us, so I appreciate you
taking the time and sharing, andit's exciting to see how your
campus continues to grow andexpanding and what you're
offering to.
You know people in thecommunity who want to further
their education in one way oranother and like the idea about
(01:09:22):
the free summer courses, and so,anyway, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
Yeah, let me let me plug one more thing.
On October 29th Tuesday,october 29th we're going to
unveil our open up, grandopening for our healthcare floor
that we've renovated over thecourse of the past year
High-tech sim labs it's reallycool 430,.
We're going to do a littleribbon cutting and those kinds
(01:09:46):
of things and some unveilings,but the community is welcome.
We welcome love for people toget involved and see the really
cool stuff.
Uh, it's going to be as good assimulation space and health
care space as there is in thestate of indiana.
Speaker 1 (01:09:59):
There you go.
So hey, thank you so much thankyou, enjoyed it yep michael
allen from manpower.
We are a national brand, yetlocally owned franchise.
We are familiar with thechallenges businesses face.
It's tough recruiting andretaining qualified employees.
That's why working withManpower is a smart,
cost-effective solution.
Our entire focus is talentacquisition.
(01:10:20):
We'll manage your hiring andtraining and provide ongoing,
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