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Alignment Collaborative for Education - ACE

Career Education

Elgin Backs Education Initiative as Economic Development Tool

Elgin approved a three-year $60,000 contract with the Alignment Collaborative for Education to continue with its efforts in early education awareness and providing career pathways for School District U-46 students.

The city was a founding member of Alignment Collaborative for Education, known as ACE, when it was created in 2015 to coordinate efforts among the 11 communities in School District U-46, business, and community leaders to promote early education, provide resources for students dealing with trauma, and create programs for career readiness.

The group’s focus has been in those three areas since its inception. It has become known for its partnerships with local business and programs to help U-46 students develop job skills, Executive Director Nancy Coleman said. However, the nonprofit has also been dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ learning and mental health, she said.

Coleman doesn’t like the term “learning gap,” but U-46 is aware of the learning loss students have had in the last year due to the pandemic. There’s also an increase in trauma among students due to the coronavirus pandemic, she said. “Children are in an environment now that they are not used to, that they are not comfortable with, and we are seeing an increased effect of trauma in those children.”

Statistics show one out of four children in the district was dealing with trauma before the pandemic, district officials said. “I think that situation has escalated way beyond that, but we are doing what we can in the community,” Coleman said.

The collective has continued working on its goals throughout the pandemic and is doing some events surrounding career readiness like career panels with experts in different fields, industry workshops, internships, and an upcoming senior job fair.

“Our whole goal behind all of this work is to build Elgin’s future workforce,” Coleman said. “We don’t want that workforce leaving Elgin, so we want to be sure they know about the opportunities here.”

Councilman Toby Shaw appreciates the work the group is doing and the results it’s getting. But he feels it’s not the city’s role to fund U-46 programs.

“Yes, I believe in the mission. Yes, I understand what you are doing. It’s the right mission but just not the right funding source,” he said.

“When we started this, the goal was partly to help U-46, but it was really as an economic development tool,” Mayor Dave Kaptain said. “I can tell you personally by meeting with business leaders this has brought millions of dollars of investment back to the city of Elgin. The businesses that come here see the need for training and education for a workforce.”

“This is an economic development tool. It pays great dividends for us,” Kaptain said.

By GLORIA CASAS
MAR 30, 2021 AT 5:07 PM
ELGIN COURIER-NEWS

Original article: https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/elgin-courier-news/ct-ecn-u46-contract-st-0330-20210330-jgvj4melvngczcbaycva526adm-story.html

HARTING Roadshow Truck Visits Larkin High School

Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and STEM Academy students had the opportunity to visit with Harting’s engineering and human resources teams. The Harting Technology Group is a global leader in providing connectivity solutions with 14 production sites and 43 sales companies providing data, signals, and power to meet industrial technology solutions.

The Harting Team brought its Roadshow Truck to Larkin High School to share their connectivity technology and engineering applications with over 180 students via Zoom. Students had the opportunity to meet members of the engineering and human resources teams to learn more about careers at Harting, including specific engineering disciplines, product development applications, global sourcing, and customer support roles.

Thank you to our partners at Harting for making this work-based learning experience a reality for our U-46 students!

Alignment Hosts University Admission Workshops for U-46 Students

Alignment College Panels

Throughout the pandemic it has been more important than ever to continue offering the students of U-46 the opportunity to learn about educational and career paths available to them. We are proud to say that Alignment has been able to provide the students with four university panels and two step-by-step admissions workshops hosted by Elgin Community College.

The participating universities were chosen based on attendance rates for U-46 students over the past five years. The panels included representation from Aurora University, DePaul University, Illinois State University, Judson University, Loyola University, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University, Southern Illinois University, University of Illinois, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Iowa, and University of Missouri.

We are so grateful to all our panelists and the participating high schools. We were able to reach over 1,000 students and enjoyed listening to the thoughtful questions and conversations they had with the representatives. In addition to the college panels, the ECC workshops were able to shed light on the complicated and important topics of admissions and financial aid.

Each panel was recorded and made available to students at all high schools. We look forward to providing U-46 students with more opportunities in the near future.

Alignment Launches Engineering and Architecture Career Panel

Alignment successfully delivered its first career panel for the Fall Semester hosted by Bartlett High School featuring engineering and architecture careers.  Our panelists for the event included Elgin Sweeper, HLR Engineering, Judson University and Purdue University.

We greatly appreciated the collaboration with the BHS STEM Academy and Administration to recruit 160 students to participate in the panel.  The students made us all proud by preparing very specific career questions about the fields of mechanical engineering, civil engineering and architecture.  The combination of industry professionals along with senior level students proved very effective in addressing the students questions about future career opportunities.

Alignment will host an additional 14 panels representing 16 industry clusters hosted by the various high schools and the Dream Academy.  Recordings of each panel at the host high school will then be shared with all the high schools.

University Panels Launched in October

Alignment College Panels

Alignment in partnership with School District U-46 high school counselors will host 12 universities during the Fall Semester to provide assistance to U-46 students with the admissions process.  Institutions that will be represented include Aurora University, DePaul University, Illinois State University, Judson University, Loyola University, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University, Southern Illinois University, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana, University of Iowa, and the University of Missouri.

Alignment Hosts College Panels for U-46 Juniors and Seniors

Elgin Community College, Judson University, Northern University and Roosevelt University joined Alignment to provide a live introduction to the admissions and college search process.  Each institution’s admissions representative shared:

  • The admission requirements for their institution to include GPA requirements, standardized test scores, and placement testing.
  • Sources of financial aid and scholarship funding available to freshmen students.
  • The institution’s programs of study and how to access more specific information about individual programs.
  • Critical dates within the academic calendar for admissions, financial aid and scholarship applications.
  • Best advice to students participating in the college search and decision process.

Students were then given the opportunity to ask individual questions on an assortment of topics. Feedback from students, high school counselors and the admissions representatives was overwhelmingly positive with plans to implement virtual college panels in all U-46 high schools in the fall.

Dream Academy, Larkin and Streamwood graduating seniors also benefited from a Virtual, ZOOM experience of the ECC Admissions Office meeting multiple ECC representatives.  The step by step workshop covered all necessary requirements to enter ECC in August to include the application process, placement testing, advising, financial aid, apprenticeships, and college work study programs.  Students had the opportunity to ask multiple questions to help clarify the college admission process.  Thank you to ECC and our partner universities for sharing their time and expertise with our U-46 students!