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March/April 2015 – BizVoice/Indiana Chamber
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the culture of Wabash County. It’s not about
the mechanics; it’s about changing the
perception of the value of education and
accessibility of education.”
Steensma, a Fort Wayne native who
worked at the University of St. Francis before
taking his talents to Washington University,
was asked whether he was committed to the
Promise for the long term.
“Do you know Clint? How can I not be?”
he replies. “We’re a good team. I’m a scientist,
a statistician, and Clint’s a visionary. I want
to see this manifest in real lasting change not
just in Wabash County, but in Indiana and
society at large. I believe in the power of
education. But that’s not why I have invested.
“I think this program has as much ability
to improve the
health
of society, the
health
of communities as the economy,” he emphasizes.
“The more educated the citizenry is, the more
future-oriented their outlook is, the healthier
they are. When you’re talking about 20% of
our GDP going to health care, that is going to
make a huge difference in the viability of a
community to retain industry and retain jobs.”
Steensma shares a quote from Nicholas
Freudenberg, a public health professor at City
University of New York.
“If medical researchers were to discover an
elixir that could increase life expectancy, reduce the
burden of illness, delay the consequences of aging,
decrease risky health behavior and shrink disparities
in health, we would celebrate such a remarkable
discovery. Robust epidemiological evidence suggests
that education is such an elixir. Yet health
professionals have rarely identified improving
school graduation rates as a major public health
objective, nor have they systemically examined their
role in achieving this objective.”
Making a difference
All involved say the Wabash County
Promise has had a unifying effect among the
three public school districts and the county in
general. And they are bullish about the long-
term potential.
Grant, who says she envisions the
Community Foundation continuing its support:
“For all the 529 benefits, I also think the time
was right to have this – the loss of jobs, closing
of plants, decline that began in 2008. Education
is an answer; education is the driver for
economic development and prosperity.”
Kugler, where the YMCA has launched a
matching program for employee contributions:
“Early on, we knew this (the Promise) could
be done beyond Wabash County. But if you
don’t understand the methodology and
background, the effort would not be successful.
The program needs to be owned by the
community.” An additional round of pilots will
take place in 2015, with further evaluation to
follow.
Phillipsen acknowledges that it is becoming
more and more of a challenge to find employees
with the needed skill sets. At Ford Meter
Box, where associates can contribute to
accounts through payroll deduction, the
program is slowly growing.
Hands-on activities and learning are part of the Walk Into My Future event at Manchester University for Promise participants.