Big thanks to HARTING-North America in Elgin for sharing your day with more than 90 freshmen from the Bartlett High School STEM Academy. Students worked in teams on production questions and building a connector kit, listened to engineers talk about their work and took a tour of the facility where the company manufactures products for the connector industry. These connectors are used in mechanical and plant engineering, broadcast and entertainment, factory automation, power generation and distribution.
Student Ronit Nagarapu said he learned a lot about the different types of engineering jobs and the visit “solidified my decision to become an engineer.” Freshman Jessica Pearce said she’s not yet sure about her career path but valued the visit saying “I do think experiences like this will help me make up my mind.”
Kudos to the team at HARTING for helping arrange the visit.

The Elgin Partnership for Early Learning (EPEL) in partnership with School District U-46, Gail Borden Public Library and the Alignment Collaborative for Education hosted a Call to Community on April 12, 2019 as part of the Week of the Young Child. The event was held at Gail Borden Public Library from 8:00 to 9:45 am.
The Larkin High School Career Panel was held as an all day event on March 7, 2019. In partnership with Junior Achievement (JA), Alignment recruited an industry panel composed of banking and finance, education, healthcare and public safety. Thank you to Berto Valdez from PNC Bank, Rose Diaz and Fatima Reyes from the AVID CNA program, Kathy Potts and Matt Jacobucci from the Elgin Police Department, and Ronald Raglin from School District U-46 for serving as our career panelists and to Edgar Montes from Junior Achievement. The event attracted over 400 students, including freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors.
Vaughn Küerschner, Public Sector Representative of Waste Management, met with Alignment’s Executive Committees on February 26, 2019, to award a check of $5,000 to support Alignment’s work to improve early education offerings, build schools with trauma informed care cultures, and offer all students the opportunity to benefit from educational pathways graduating academic and career ready. Alignment greatly appreciates this donation and Waste Management’s continued support of its work for the last three years.
ACE is a member of the Alignment USA communities of collaboration and collective impact.

