Today on Education Counts Michiana; International Soccer Academy of America, Computer Science Training by South Bend Code School, The August Wilson Project at South Bend Civic Theater, River Montessori High School.

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 causes.

Kosciusko County Community Foundation.

Where Donor Dreams Shine.

The Dekko Foundation.

Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County.

LaGrange County Community Foundation, Nipsco.

The Beim Foundation.

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.

The program explores ideas in all education sectors, preschools through lifelong learning, K-12, 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, soccer in school.

Specialized schools and academics are common in other countries around the world.

The International Soccer Academy of America has taken that model and created an in-person soccer high school in Mishawaka.

We take a look at what it's like to go to school where sports and academics combine.

Segment producer Brent Fox.

Welcome to the International Soccer Academy of America.

We're a high school specifically for soccer players.

We also have some students that aren't soccer players, but most of the students are about ninety per cent.

The goal is to get a high school diploma, whether that's a regular diploma, an honors diploma or a technical diploma.

But we would like to see most of our students go on and play college soccer.

In this way, they're going to work in towards an athletic or a sport that they love.

So they complete them in both sides.

And it's easier for us to work with them because we know what is the--the importance of that in their lives.

I wanted to come because I saw an opportunity that I didn't see in my public school.

I heard about it.

Ethan saw me play one time and then he just asked me to take a tour.

So I took a tour and I really fell in love with this place.

And ever since then it's kind of like, I don't really want to leave.

I just kind of want to stay here all the time.

One of the misconceptions is that you either have to be a soccer club or a high school, and so the mix of the two is hard to understand for folks who maybe haven't--aren't familiar with Europe or South America and how they do soccer.

So I think one of the things that we have to get people to understand and educate them is that, you know, the high school is solid and foundational.

That's the main component.

And the soccer is like the icing on the cake.

I wear so many hats, but my main role is to be a teacher and a mentor in the school, and that's what I do.

I love to just work with the kids one on one and just learn what kind of personalities they have.

I think my favorite class is, um, history.

Because after we're done with like whatever we do, we play like round-os and round-os is like a passing the ball game and somebody is in the middle.

So you just, like, play around with that at the end of class.

And I think that's pretty fun.

It's been really fun to be a part of, like being like the first--the first group to come here.

I feel like I've gotten better; better grades, better as a person, and I just really enjoy it.

I feel like it's more interactive with the students and the teachers and I get to go versus colleges and the actual college coaches get to see you play on the field and see how you are in real life.

Culturally wise, we are bilingual.

We are bicultural.

And they're a mix.

They are a mix of they were born here, but they have these backgrounds.

So they really feel comfortable just to talk to me in--in many ways.

Students here also have an opportunity unlike soccer players at any other high school.

Every student has the opportunity to go to Spain at least once in their high school career.

We pay for two to go every year and then the students can save up money over their four years or however long.

If they want to go every year, they can save up the money every year.

And we actually go to Villarreal, which is a city and a soccer club in Spain, and they're in La Liga, which is the top league in Spain.

And the students are able to go there, train with the--with the youth academy, get training one on one from the coaches twice a day, play in La Liga Academy Games.

So when we were there in November, three of our students were playing on Villarreal's Youth Academy team that was playing against Real Sociedad, which is another La Liga team.

Soccer may be in its name, but the International Soccer Academy of America aims to provide high quality education alongside a sports experience.

Overall I think the school's like--like really fun and different and very small.

So you don't like, like wide of varities like, I think this is a really good place to go.

It's just really, really together.

It's like a family here.

Everyone cares about you and cares about way what you do in the future.

What we're trying to do is what's working in every other country in the world, which is a specific type of academic environment because it creates specialists.

And then in this day and age when, you know everyone has access to everything, we really need a focused and specialized education to get ahead of the other competition.

Learn more about the program at WNIT.org.

Computer Science Training; South Bend Code School has a unique partnership with Niles Community Schools to provide training to librarians.

The training in computer science allows media specialists to train the students in this rapidly developing field.

Videographer Kristen Franklin, editor Greg Banks.

If you want to become a computer scientist or a gamer, you can learn how to code and it helps you.

Coding is basically the instructions that are given by a programmer to a computer or a device in order for it to do what we want it to do.

Like an app that's created on our phones.

It has to know that when we touch it, it goes on our screen.

It goes to that particular app and it does what we want it to do.

Or if you go to a computer and you're trying to create a website, which is another thing we do here during one of our classes, that it knows that when you give it this list of instructions, it knows what it's reading.

It just does what you ask it to do.

This is our third year starting the coding program.

We are partnered with South Bend Code School.

It's been a great partnership.

You know, we always believe it takes a village to raise our raise our kids.

I think any time that you can bring in outside partnerships to help our students succeed and be successful, that really can help our help our students.

Over the past couple of years, South Bend Code School has started working with more educators and more schools.

And the reason being that not just statewide but actually across the country, more school systems are requiring schools to be teaching their students how to code.

And that's a really high barrier for some of it's difficult.

It can feel difficult or intimidating learning how to code.

And so instead what we're doing is partnering with those schools to be able to teach their educators how to code, lower that barrier to entry, help coding seem less intimidating and more familiar and more fun.

And so we've gotten to do that here with Ring Lardner, and we plan to continue doing that with more schools in the future as well.

Okay.

So you're going to put each one would be you chose you know, you are a Ravenclaw.

They helped us design the class, the--the curriculum.

They've worked with me hand in hand to come up with the lessons and make it a fun way for our kids to learn how to code and know that they can do it actually, and not be so scared by it.

It's exciting because we talk about adolescent brain development.

There's an explosion that occurs when kids are in middle school.

And so what better programing than coding to have here where you're pushing kids their logical thinking, hypothetical reasoning, abstract thought as well as their metacognition?

Those are the skills that are developing in middle school.

And coding just absolutely pushes kids to the limits.

And our kids are phenomenal.

They're taking to it.

They love it.

They deserve it.

And I think it's going to build their success for the future.

I like the class because, uh, it's fun.

I like challenges and kind of challenging.

So the kids are learning a lot.

In sixth grade, students are learning how to code using Scratch, which is a block based coding program built by MIT.

And it's to introduce students to coding and really learn the critical thinking and logic skills that are needed behind text based coding languages.

And so then by seventh grade, they move into those tax base coding languages.

And so the kids are learning HTML and CSS, which are really just languages behind how to build a website.

So they're building their own websites and then by eighth grade they are continuing those skills and just adding on to them.

So instead, they're going to be, next year, starting to learn more about the ethics and computer science and, you know, the world that we live in.

What I'm seeing in the classroom is more curiosity out of the kids because they're absolutely taking a look at this and saying, wow, how does this work?

Let me figure this out.

Let me try something new.

And that absolutely transfers into the classroom when they're reading or doing math or science.

It kind of builds that stamina a little bit and say and--and with coding, you get actually an immediate result.

And so maybe in science, that result is immediate, but they expect that result now they're driving to it.

And so coding really helps support the kids saying, hey, there's--there's--there's actual there's substance to what you're learning and there's an end result here that you're going to enjoy.

If you feel more comfortable using a computer and feel empowered by that, you know, then you have even more opportunities available to you.

But then also the soft skills that coding teaches.

It teaches you how to think and how to process information and problem solve and things like that.

And you know, we all need that.

We need that no matter what kind of work we're doing, you know, as well as in our education.

There's a lot of more tech jobs available out in the world right now, and there's a shortage of people who can do it.

So I'm hoping by introducing this to them at a younger age, they'll feel more comfortable with it.

And they might see it may even open somebody's eyes toward a future in this particular industry.

They can be a programmer, they are a programmer, and they don't realize it until they walk out of here.

I'm like, You are a programmer.

You have created every one of these things.

You are a programmer and this could lead to a job down the road.

Learn more about the program at WNIT.org.

Montessori high school style.

The teachings of Montessori approach can continue beyond eighth grade.

The River Montessori High School in South Bend is taking those lessons and providing them to high school.

The small school set in an urban environment offers its students individualized learning opportunities.

The South Bend area has many different types of high schools, ranging from traditional to magnet and now Montessori.

This is a high school that is meant to be small.

It's a micro high school.

It's meant to be downtown as an urban high school to utilize all of our downtown resources.

We call it city as a classroom, and it's also meant to be Montessori.

Montessori schools typically run from early childhood to eighth grade.

But the founders of River Montessori High School want to apply this approach to the later teenage years.

We looked at South Bend and saw that we had Montessori available from the early ages to eighth grade and then not at the high school age.

And the college scene seems to be more naturally a Montessori setting.

And so we wanted to one kind of close the gap of Montessori that existed here in South Bend and also just make South Bend a nice Montessori hub for students that would like to have that experience through their entire educational career.

My reason was for the independent learning and being able to pursue the avenues that I like in learning like arts and creativity and being able to learn at my own pace and sort of like excel in the areas that I can excel in and then also have leniency in the areas that I need leniency in.

For ninth grade, I went to Penn High School, which was certainly an experience.

And so the school opened the year after that.

And so I had already been thinking 'Maybe I don't want to keep going to Penn.

And then Montessori school is opening and sort of Montessori promises a lot of freedom of choice in education.

I was like, sure, maybe this--this will be the place for me.

With the pandemic and everything, it was--I was feeling sort of like disconnected from my school.

I really enjoy learning, but I was sort of losing that love for learning.

And so my parents made the decision to come here instead and it's definitely helped.

I really enjoyed being--being a student here.

There are many high schools that are Montessori, and from what I've seen about it, it looks like a really good high school.

So I want to come here, try it out.

The River Montessori uses the Montessori method to--to really work on the social and emotional development of students.

And I think in the adolescent age is such a critical time to be including that in the curriculum.

And so Montessori's not just how we deliver academics, but it's also how we deliver those social-emotional skill practices to our adolescents.

Individualized learning is even able to provide further opportunities for personal growth.

They can expect to have a very unique experience in education by being able to build out some of their own education courses, focusing on their passions, their skills.

And so coming here helps students really have much more control over what their academic experience looks like.

In our physics class, I got to build a Rube Goldberg, and so I got to take a bunch of, like, trinkets and wood and sort of construct a thing that could eventually, with energy transfers, pop a balloon.

So that was super cool.

They got a good math program they use Alex and that's probably my favorite thing to do here.

We have some like big projects that we do at the end of, like, cycles and I really, really enjoy those.

Usually they're pretty relevant to my interests.

So it's like working with a group and we do like a big presentation and it's always really fun.

I really like that and I really, I get to do a lot of art projects and art is sort of my thing.

So I really like being able to do those.

I really like sort of the whole ethos of work.

So we have follow ups which basically mean we, you know, we learn the material in class and then we demonstrate that knowledge in some way with a follow up.

So there are options provided that you can use or you can sort of come up with something on your own so you can really dig into the aspect that you're most interested in.

We're in an urban setting on purpose because we really can utilize our city resources, like our great redeveloped downtown library and Music City Village and the Kroc center.

So all of these resources that are close to us, we're building into our curriculum and really using the city as part of our classroom.

We've gotten to go to the art museum and work with them with like pottery and other things like metal smithing.

I've gotten to work downtown with creative writing in like Chicory and the chocolate cafe, in the library we've gotten to workshop things, other spaces downtown.

River Montessori High School is using the Montessori approach not just to teach academics, it's using it to address social and emotional learning.

During those formative adolescent years.

Montessori in a high school setting really focuses on those social emotional development skills that really at the adolescent age is so very important.

And so that's not just--Montessori is not just being used here as an academic medium.

It's also being used to really help students practice those social emotional skills.

And that is just woven into the fabric of Montessori.

Find out more at WNIT.org.

History on stage.

The August Wilson's project is a ten year educational partnership with South Bend Civic Theater, in which Wilson's plays will be performed in chronological order, highlighting the African-American experience throughout the twentieth century.

South Bend Civic Theater is creating opportunities for students and adults to interact with the material on and off stage as well as in the classroom.

When people took themselves from the ugliness of the south and brought it north, we had to run at times away from people who you loved.

And so then you find yourself making these connections and being bound to other people just under the circumstances of migrating to the same places.

Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and that is the title of the second play in August Wilson's magnificent and groundbreaking ten play American Century Cycle.

We started this project back in 2019, and we'll be doing it all the way until 2030.

Each of the plays details another decade of the African American experience and the 20th century.

So the first one, Gem of the Ocean, is based in the Ought's, I guess you'd call it 1906.

This play, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, is based in 1911.

The next is Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which just had a beautiful film adaptation.

These plays take us into the experience, the real lived experience of Africans in America.

And I think that is a beautiful thing.

And we actually, when we were doing some of our academic programing, we do our best to try to get as many kids, high school kids, specifically to see these plays.

We hear from them, 'I see myself on stage'.

And how beautiful is that?

To be able to reflect someone's experience that may not have seen themselves represented on stage.

August Wilson focused on the African-American experience of the 20th century.

And obviously being an African-American, it's my story as it is all American stories.

So as I began to learn more about the canon of the ten plays of the century cycle, I saw a lot of myself in the characters and stories, and particularly in Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

It's a story of discovery.

So I also went through years of discovery and finding my own voice and song integrity through the culture and experience that I come from.

I think that it's a lesson that--that if we looked at more ideally now, we would see that we're all very similarly positioned and that all of us are coming from some different place or all of us are from a different place.

For me, I don't think I really appreciated how powerful the story was.

I really didn't have much empathy, I think, for the African-American experience in 1910, after the Civil War, after carpetbagging and reconstruction and--and a lot of the perils and challenges of being black in America.

And so that, I think, is something that caught me off guard, was how powerful the play was.

The first time I saw it put together, I was like, wow, this--this is a thing.

Well, it's been amazing.

I feel like, you know, Black Lives Matter, the kind of--the summer that we all kind of went through in 2021 brought the importance of this project to the forefront.

I think this theater has for a long time been dealing with critical race theory and, you know, talking about the importance of telling a diverse array of stories.

But I feel like we were a little ahead of the curve.

And that's I'm proud of.

I think this particular play, like several of them in the canon, focuses on the marginalization of African-Americans, which a lot of ancestry and a lot of cultures can experience coming to this nation however they got here.

And I think particularly with Jill Turner's Come and Gone, you actually have characters who are looking for a home, a place and a community.

This taking place in 1911, the beginning of the 20th century.

And we've got Jim Crow happening in the south.

So this is right before the beginning of the historical migration of the first wave of the migration.

But we have peoples coming from the South who have been freed, but also getting away from the brutalization that's happening in the South.

So it's a story of discovery and finding a place to call home and where there's love there, safety.

Like there's a whole world to be found there.

Everything imaginable under the sun can be found on Del Rey.

Where else can you take this journey of--?

At the--by the time we're done with it, you know, 20 to 30 hours of exploring life through the eyes of people within the eras that they're experiencing it.

And I think that's one of the greatest things we can do as a theater, is to represent and reflect that underrepresented experience.

Walking without seeking down, walking on top of the water .

From a character who's been enslaved and trying to find himself to people who've been in broken families through slavery.

And the follow on repercussions of that and how faith fits in with the journey of discovery.

There's just a bunch to that--that I find really striking.

You know, we're going to continue to bring black excellence to the stage, and I think also try to show black joy as we can, but--but truly take our audiences who may not have seen these stories, take them through the experience of the 20th century, through the eyes of, honestly, an underrepresented population.

And I hope that people take away what they bring to it, perhaps even looking into a mirror and seeing ways that they, in their own families, immediate homes and extended family and friends find ways to have we have tougher conversations that we can come together with more love and audacity for hope and promise in the future.

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

Thank you for joining us and Education Counts Michiana.

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The success of every student matters.

Education accounts.

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 Causes.

Pasco County Community Foundation Where Donor Dreams Shine.

The Dekko Foundation.

Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County.

LaGrange County Community Foundation, Nipsco.

The Beim Foundation.

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 Tepye.

Thank you.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.