BizVoice -- March / April 2018

31 Indiana Vision 2025: Outstanding Talent EDUCATION EQUATION Inside a nondescript warehouse in Goshen, groups of high school students are running a certified tree service, building pallets, and making and selling candles. From developing business plans to handling production and tracking profit and loss, they are overseeing operations and running businesses. Down the road in Wakarusa, other students work on the floor of a wire harness plant. In Noblesville, they are wiring electrical panel boxes. This isn’t an after-school program or an extracurricular activity. It’s school. And for many, it’s a second chance. These teens, and hundreds of others across Indiana, are enrolled in the Crossing School of Business & Entrepreneurship, a private school based in Elkhart with locations across the state. In addition to working toward their high school diploma, they are gaining needed job skills and training at local companies. Many earn valuable certifications. “We take education and make it relevant by running a business,” stresses Crossing School founder and CEO Rob Staley on a recent tour of the Entrepreneurial Training Center (ETC) in Goshen. “The magic we found is when kids can run a business and apply the skills they learn, this gives them relevancy and purpose and hope.” The school also provides ready, trained employees for Indiana companies through its job training programs. Skills for life Wearing jeans, work boots and a reflective vest, Staley is obviously dressed for work – and not the kind behind a desk. As we walk around the ETC, he points out equipment, stressing that students operate all of it, while telling the school’s story and greeting young men and women. He checks on lunch, donated by volunteers, and grabs a meatball sandwich after the students fill their plates and settle down in groups to eat. As a high school principal for 22 years, Staley says he realized “something was missing. The problem was making school relevant for some students.” While the principal at Concord High School in Elkhart County, he would visit expelled students who ended up in jail. “They described this school,” he shares. “They said they wanted something that was self-paced, where they would learn how to work, know how to run a business, and it would be a family.” Staley started the Crossing with six students and two teachers in 2003. The school now operates 12 campuses plus four satellite locations inside Indiana companies. All campuses provide academic courses through self-paced online instruction combined with small pull-out groups. Students progress through job skills training, from a business development class to hands-on experience, then on-site training at a company before a potential internship. Teamwork and leadership skills are important components of the program, as is faith-based character education. The school also focuses on “soft skills,” such as having a positive attitude, strong work ethic and good communication. By Crickett Gibbons Skills + Hope = Career Opportunities