Today on Education Counts Michiana adaptive arts for all students community roar connectivity bus and Benton Harbor.

Hands on Science and Research in Laporte.

New Life Creations in Marshall County Education Counts Michiana is underwritten by Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Investing in Education and Economic Development for centuries, supporting the past current and future development of the Michiana region community foundation of Elkhart County.

Inspire Good.

Kosciusko County Community Foundation Where Donor Dreams Shine.

The Dekko Foundation.

Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County Crossroads United Way Serving Elkhart, Lagrange and Noble Counties United Way of Saint Joseph County Marshall County Community Foundation Ready to Grow Saint Joe Early Childhood Coalition and a Gift by Elmer and Dolores Tepe.

Thank you.

Welcome to Education Counts Michiana.

I'm your host, James Summers.

Education Counts highlights programs and initiatives that are impacting how we teach, how we learn, and how we embrace education.

This program explores ideas in all education sectors.

Preschool through lifelong learning.

K-12 to post-high school and job advancement.

Training with the philosophy that we should never stop seeking knowledge.

Find additional resources.

At WNIT.org and on the Education Counts Facebook page.

First up, the Arts for All Adaptive Arts believes in helping students of all abilities find their performance in artistic expression through traditional and adaptive means.

The program incorporates students choices and then instructs using creative ways to help immerse and engage students in their art form so they can be playing an instrument, painting or dancing within minutes of the first lesson, Shanthini Ode videographer Greg Banks.

Editor Adaptive Arts was founded because of the need in the community to provide art, training, education and performance opportunities to the special needs community.

I found out that need because as an entertainer, professional musician in the area and I was approached by a mother with a child who had Down's syndrome and asked me if I would teach guitar to her child.

And that was the first time that I was, you know, the awareness a me was raised that we don't have classes that are teaching education and music to people of different abilities.

Once the awareness was raised and I started offering the saying, you know, the first lesson, the word got out very, very quickly.

And then before I knew it, I had a program of about 60 people.

That's how great the need was.

I've known Jetta for a number of years now.

She's an amazing local musician.

You may know her from Jett and the jelly beans.

So she was running adaptive arts programing.

And during the pandemic, she was she had to close her bricks and mortar location.

And I thought that jazz program was so important to the community that I wanted to bring it here.

So I reached out to her and the rest is history.

So we're so happy that she kind of serves a population that didn't have any voice in the cracks in our community.

There we go.

So we started out with adaptive guitar because that was the interest of the person asking.

And we grew that program to be quite successful, and I think it was just natural questions coming in from other parents.

What do you teach other instruments?

It's like, well, yes, I do.

I've been a music teacher for quite a few years actually, and so it was just really by need first.

And then as awareness grew that somebody was teaching compassionately in the special needs community and and actually teaching how to play music, not just staging it or going through the motions.

Questions started coming out about dance, theater and these are just broad areas of interest that I've had a lot of training in over the years.

So one thing led to another and they stopped being individual classes and started becoming more like a program.

So right now we're not going to focus on that, this being a stage for an audience.

We're going to focus on this being our classroom for theater.

Well, I love going to adaptive speak because I love being with my teacher Jetta Cruse.

And it's been so much for fun.

I've been with her for a long time too, and I love being in theater and vocal and dancing.

Most of acting is at what comes out of our mouths.

It's how we are using our bodies to tell the story.

Soldiers expand their play.

While I am part of the theater division and fundamentally it is an amazing time.

It starts off with a few miscellaneous games in order to get whatever acting down and over that particular point.

Then we get on to the actual production and fundamentally at that point we map out our lines and we get all the positives and negatives, you know, the typical stuff a class would actually go through.

I decided I would never hurt another creator without a good reason for it.

That really transferred very conversational and personable.

You drew me in.

I don't want to use limiting terms like disability.

I want to say we are adapting to what our body needs to do to be able to accomplish what it is that we want to as a goal.

So I'm really not only just trying to offer classes and raise awareness that people of all abilities do not need to be marginalized or totally focused on what they can't or the challenge that they have.

There are a whole person.

So our language needs to be supportive of that, right to that class.

And so it's, it's.

It's my favorite because I like to sing a lot.

When John Kroc allocated the money to build this Kroc Center and 25 more like it across the country, one of the things she said was that talent doesn't discriminate, but sometimes opportunity does.

And what she wanted to do and what we get to do here every single day is make sure that kids and families get to experience things, get to explore passions, get to learn new things that otherwise they might not have an opportunity.

We love Jetta because she's a best teachers, number one.

Number two is terms.

Three, we always stick together.

Jetta is amazing.

She's been a good teacher to us.

I get choked up a little bit talking about it.

And after 20 some odd years of doing this, you see it's the people that you fall in love with.

You know, if they never play a symphony, if they're never in big motion picture production, that's okay.

But here's the great thing.

They might be I'm not going to put those limits on them.

Oh, is he tap in the plate and he just hit a home run?

People transform right in front of my eyes, not just of the person learning in the student, but as the audience watching.

If you have a group of people on stage and they may have Down syndrome or autism, maybe they have some other form of challenge.

And then all of a sudden, that's what people see when they're on stage and then they rock out a show.

That's not what people remember.

They don't see a disabled person.

They see a human being as an artist up there.

That's the power of transformation.

That's the power of adaptive arts.

That's truly what we're doing here.

Ladies, take a bow.

Okay.

Is that good for you?

Learn more about the program at WNIT.org.

Connectivity.

Benton Harbor Schools has launched an innovative program titled Community Roar to help residents stay connected to the district.

Families also receive educational assistance from the school district and other community partners.

The bus has been equipped with a mobile computer lab and Internet connectivity to allow community members to participate in continuous learning series.

Kristen Franklin Videographer.

Greg Banks Editor.

We're really excited today because we get to launch our Community Bus initiative, which is titled The Community Roar.

I think if you take a look back at what our families need, it's a wide variety of things.

But what we were finding out after a course of many dialogs with a lot of families and community partners, was that there is a lot of really good things for us, a lot of really cool things happening within our schools and within our within our community that we really wanted to be able to share with more and more families.

And they were having barriers to be able to receive that information.

When we look at the data from our parent nights, parent engagement nights, I was seeing a trend that there were parents that the turnout was relatively low for for the number of students that we have.

And with today's society, we know that parents are working different hours.

We know that some parents go to school online.

So what better way than to think out of the box and take the information to them?

So if they can't make it due to any issues that they have, if they're working at the moment or if they have childcare issues or transportation issues, what better way then is to bring it to their home and have them to get on the bus?

Our community bus, which is a more of a moving lab, so that we can take that information and make sure that they get that information in a timely fashion.

So when they get on the bus, what they can expect is we will have computers and any monitor and we will have Wi-Fi.

Our people from our district that are doing the teaching, they can expect to be given a lesson.

So if there's a lesson on power school or if there's a lesson on on how to apply for FAFSA or where to go and find the little libraries that we have throughout the district, we will be disseminated that information via teaching them from the bus.

So the purpose of the Wi-Fi on the bus is to just try to make sure that all of the things that we communicate, you know, most of our communication is digital these days.

We do still have phone calls home and letters home and things like that.

But a lot of our communication within the school and outside into the community is still on that digital platform.

And so if you have a barrier to get that information right, if you have barriers to WiFi at your home or if it is challenging for you to utilize a computer or something else that actually impacts your ability to be involved and to take part and even if you wanted to.

So we brainstormed and thought of some ways that we can take this initiative and take it to the community.

So what we are doing is any information that we disseminate from the school or if they're in a CTE courses that we're beginning to offer or anything new throughout the district.

So it's not just the high school initiative, it's a district initiative.

So any one of our schools that we're offering something, we want to be able to make sure that all parents and all students have access and have equal opportunity to access those programs that we'll be offering.

The purpose of these beginning sessions is really to help with digital literacy and to really help with being able to help everybody.

Just stay informed and know what resources they really have so that the future of the bus is to make sure that everyone has equitable access to two community activities to the school and to their needs that they have.

We're really excited to have, you know, community be able to see the bus for the first time and be able to just experience something that we're really proud of.

Learn more at WNIT.org Learning in the Lab, Chemistry Professor Sharon Jenkins transformed students at a STEAM Camp into scientists, inspiring them through science.

The Laporte Library played host to the camp with third and fifth grade students learned from real experiments.

Jenkins believes kids can participate in real publishable research.

Kristen Franklin, videographer.

Greg Banks Editor.

You and your partner are listening and making sure that you do things just the way Professor Jenkins is doing.

And that makes sense.

Are you ready to start?

I feel ready.

Thumbs up.

Thumbs up?

Well, our fall break, STEAM Camp is one of the camps that we do throughout the year.

STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

It's a little bit different this year.

We have a professor from out of town.

Her name is Sharon Jenkins, and she's actually doing a science experiment with the kids today.

We have students from all over the county who are going to be doing what we call the vitamin C project.

I have a company called I Rise and I Rise goes out into the community and do research with kids.

I've spent my whole career doing research with college students, and in that timeframe we would bring young kids to campus at Purdue when I was at Purdue, and we would do projects with them.

And I realized how kids were not afraid of chemistry.

They were not afraid of science.

They had no one had told them that it was hard, right?

So the sky was the limit at what I could do with them.

Right.

And so that inspired me to say, hey, why not try research with kids?

So Professor Jenkins wrote a book and we have these in our branch locations.

And so the kids can check them out, they can read them, and it just goes over the process of what we're doing in the experiment in the STEM camp.

Well, the title of the book is called Zakiah and Professor Jenkins.

And the whole premise of the book is Zakiah is a little girl who loves science, and her mom has a friend called Professor Jenkins.

And so she gets to come and do research with me in a lab as my assistant.

And in the book, she's doing something called the Vitamin C Project.

It's a real research project that she does with me in the book.

Kids can literally follow along in the book and do the same research, and then we're going to test that for vitamin C. That's going to be cool because it bubble up and all that kind of cool stuff, and we've designed it so that kids can do it at home, basically.

And so in this project, the students, the kids are actually going to determine how much vitamin C is in orange juice, apple juice and various types of juices.

And what they learn is certain types of fruits and juices have a lot of vitamin C and some do not.

Actually, we're going to make a solution out of that.

So Jenkins is using a Zoom link today to reach our other branch locations out in the community so that more kids can be involved in the steam camp this time.

You or your partner, whoever didn't do it last time, let the other person do it into your cup.

Here we go.

And you know what to do?

Not drop the number, but count the number of drops that it takes to turn it blue.

You ready?

They're actually doing something called an iodine titration, which is really college level stuff.

Right.

But I've brought it way down so that kids can kind of understand what's going on when they're doing a titration, but they're doing something very simple.

It's just adding drops of iodine to a juice, right.

That has starch in it.

And when the amount of iodine and the amount of vitamin C is what we call maybe equivalent, then the solution will turn blue.

Right?

And then they'll know to stop adding iodine.

So the more iodine it takes to turn a solution or a juice blue, then the more vitamin C that that solution will have.

May we have more vitamin C or less vitamin C?

More.

Good job.

Remember that you're pulling at straws when you're trying to get more minorities and people of color into STEM fields.

Right.

So you got to start them out.

Young.

And the purpose is to expose them to it early so that they can get some type of, you know, guidance and inspiration about around science prior to getting into high school.

Right.

By the time they get to high school, a lot of times they're already afraid of the math.

And someone has already told them that this stuff is hard.

Right.

But when you get them in the third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade is just another subject to them.

And if you when you make it exciting and you make it applicable to something that they can understand, they take on, and hopefully what will come out of this is young people who are inspired to become scientists.

Hey, say what they love science class.

So they're excited to learn.

So what we hope is that we're inspiring young scientists, kids who are going to see this as something that they can do.

And I hope that the book will help inspire even even parents in school systems and libraries and and more just the general population, the community, to get involved in inspiring our kids to want to be involved in more science activities.

Find out more about the science experiments at WNIT.org.

outreach through.

Art.

Art can be transformational for viewers and creators.

The Marshall County Jail is hosting a program that teaches inmates to process and express themselves and ultimately be moved through art classes.

Participants learn to find their voice through art making.

Kristen Franklin Videographer.

Greg Banks Editor here at the Marshall County Jail.

We started doing that last creation art program in October of 2020.

It's part of the Jail Chemical Addictions Program, or Jacob we like to call it.

What I like about it is I really think it gives the guys and the girls option or an opportunity to kind of turn turn their stress off of their situation and maybe some things going on with their family, that type of stuff where they can just kind of quiet their brains for a couple of hours.

That's why it's a coping skill.

My goal with it is that they they enjoy it.

They learn a new skill, and then they take this as a coping skill that they they take with them when they're no longer incarcerated and utilize that at home.

Everything about good mental health really depends on language.

Language is the basis for all of it.

And art is a new language, and it's a form of giving them a vocabulary that is safe and it's fun at the same time.

It's also really connected to the brain, and it helps to rewire the brain.

So it helps in terms of depression.

And, you know, so many people who are incarcerated have to feel some amount of depression and it helps them express themselves.

It helps them to put them in a different place.

Art is great for therapeutic reasons, and it just is a wonderful way for the guys to find out things they didn't know about themselves.

And a lot of them discover they they're actually quite talented.

We've done pastels, we've done acrylics, and so much of it is textural.

And we know that there's a different message that goes from using the hand left or right to the brain that is different than using like a computer or just talking even.

So it offers just a wide variety of opportunities for them to grow internally and externally.

The ladies are a little bit more comfortable with emotions, at least initially.

The guys kind of let it come out in their artwork, but they don't talk about it as much until it's like a one on one session.

What I see anyways is like it's kind of an open class where they're talking with each other and they're talking about things going on and it comes out in the artwork where the guys, it's like sometimes it's pure quiet in the guy's class because they're so focused on what they're doing.

And so it's interesting to see how there's there's a difference there, but I think it's helping both.

I want the guys to really express themselves.

I want them to to create things that they feel, that they are feeling and that speak to them.

I want them to be able to bring out their creative side through their art.

And maybe the art will tell a story and help them tell a story or help them to maybe resolve some some issues they have.

And it really is a way for them to kind of emotionally connect to the artwork and okay, you know who Pablo Picasso is.

You know, we don't just color.

We talk about art philosophy.

We talk about different artists.

We talk about how art helps us to feel escape.

And that's a big one, I think, for a lot of the women that it gives them a form of of transporting some other place where there's beauty and safety.

I think oftentimes in the criminal justice system, people as people start feeling like they're not being treated like humans.

A program like ours, and especially the art class, and they're getting to interact with, you know, fantastic people from the public.

It really brings this human side out where it's like, okay, I get it.

You made some mistakes or some poor choices and you are an inmate.

I can't take that part away.

But you know, you're also human and I can treat you respectfully and you can treat me respectfully.

And what that really does is, is practice for them.

So that I mean, if you can sit down and have a conversation with me and it's respectful and we're both just two human beings talking.

When you leave here, you can act that same way, and that's going to help you be successful in life.

This is Elizabeth and this one in the art show.

I'm not a huge fan of that, huh?

But it looks nice, doesn't it?

It looks better framed for the finished paint isn't really even what this is about.

It's about more the process and the journey that they have as they're painting and what their experiences are, as are pain.

Because they ends up being a pain that they're most of them are proud of.

And but in general, it's more of the process and the journey they have through the painting.

Check out WNIT.org for more information on all of these stories.

Thank you for joining us on Education Counts Michiana Engage with us on our website Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Do you know of an initiative in education that's making a difference shared with us the success of every student matters Education Counts Machina is underwritten by Pokagon Band of Potawatomi by investing in education and economic development for centuries, supporting the past, current and future development of the Michiana region community foundation of Elkhart County inspire good.

Kosciusko County Community Foundation where donor dreams shine.

The Dekko Foundation Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County, Crossroads United Way serving Elkhart, Lagrange and Noble Counties United Way of Saint Joseph County Marshall County Community Foundation Ready to Grow Saint Joe Early Childhood Coalition and a Gift by Elmer and Dolores Tepe.

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