Align4edu

Alignment Collaborative for Education - ACE

Archives for November 2023

William (Bill) Hoffer recognized by the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce

Non-Profit Volunteer of the Year, 2023

Alignment had the opportunity to name Bill Hoffer as the non-profit, Volunteer of the Year at the annual Thanksgiving dinner hosted by the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce. The event each year recognizes community leaders that significantly contribute to Elgin’s non-profit organizations. As the Hoffer Foundation website states “It’s not just plastics its personal”. Nothing could better describe Bill and the Hoffer Family’s commitment to the Elgin community. That commitment is evident in the raising and donation of millions of dollars to the community’s non-profit organizations, local charities, and families.  However, you could debate that even more important is the human investment.

The Alignment Collaborative for Education was fortunate and blessed to have Bill Hoffer as a founding member from concept to implementation. Now almost a decade later, this organization serves over 8,500 students a year with a 100% commitment from Bill that all students should have the opportunity to graduate academic and career ready.

You will find Bill at the annual Explore event visiting with 2,700 8th graders, and he is the first to open the doors to Hoffer Plastics to show high school students all the career opportunities available in the manufacturing industry. That work does not stop with the Alignment Collaborative. Bill has invested his leadership skills in growing Advocate Sherman Hospital to be a leader in providing world class healthcare. He, his wife Taffy, and his children continue to invest in the community’s children and youth as evidenced by the new Boys and Girls Club facility in South Elgin along with the YMCA, United Way, Habitat for Humanity, etc.

Bill believes in the power of education to change lives and to shape the future prosperity of a community, the region, and the state. It is befitting to be able to recognize Bill for those many contributions.

Flender hosts “Introduce A Girl to Engineering” night benefiting Bartlett and Streamwood students

On November 16, 2023 Flender Corporation hosted “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” night, exposing girls from Bartlett and Streamwood’s STEM programs to an array of career opportunities in engineering. Students were ‘hands on” with Flender’s engineering team, learning how to assemble gear boxes as well as experimenting with wind turbine blade modeling. The girls had the opportunity to incorporate their knowledge of physics, aerodynamics, blueprint reading, materials engineering, etc. Students also had an opportunity to tour the entire Flender operations seeing how gearboxes over 6 ft tall are assembled and overhauled for the wind turbine industry.

Nancy Coleman commended Flender for continuing to offer this program to introduce more high school girls to various engineering disciplines. “This program of Introduce a Girl to Engineering has been a showcase event for Flender for over a decade with girls meeting and working one on one with other female engineers to understand what educational and career pathways they chose to prepare for the profession.”

Thank you to the entire Flender team and especially its HR Team for planning and executing this event. We look forward to continuing the event and expanding it to other high schools.