Officials provide new tools to help boost enrollment at other Marion County schools based on Northwest’s success
February 4, 2019 – INDIANAPOLIS – Today, Mayor Joe Hogsett and Indy Achieves honored Northwest Middle School for successfully enrolling 100 percent of its eligible students in 21st Century Scholars – a feat no other school in Marion County accomplished in 2017. Indy Achieves awarded Principal Phil Shults and counselors with a trophy as Marion County Champion for top enrollment numbers on the first day of National School Counseling Week. Northwest Middle School’s success is at the core of a new online enrollment toolkit and additional staff support available from Mayor Hogsett and Indy Achieves to all Marion County schools. These resources are designed to help increase the number of applicants taking advantage of financial aid offered by 21st Century Scholars.
Currently Indiana’s most generous early commitment college promise program, 21st Century Scholars is an underutilized financial aid resource in Marion County with just 51 percent of eligible students enrolling to receive aid. Indy Achieves, housed at EmployIndy, is Mayor Joe Hogsett’s comprehensive education program established to make postsecondary degrees and credentials available to every Indianapolis resident. Key to reaching that mission is increasing efforts to help Marion County middle schools boost applications in 21st Century Scholars.
“As we continue to see the skills gap in Indianapolis increase at an alarming rate, we must remain committed to working harder, smarter, and more efficiently to ensure every student has access to the resources necessary to attain a postsecondary education, including financial aid,” said Mayor Joe Hogsett. “Our schools are vital to students and their families, which is why we not only find it important to celebrate successes like Northwest Middle School, but to learn from them. Their success can help us, and others, think creatively and strategically about how we can enroll more students in 21st Century Scholars.”
Household size and income are used to determine eligibility for 21st Century Scholars. Families must enroll before June 30 following the student’s eighth grade year, and students must graduate high school with at least a 2.5 GPA. The 21st Century Scholars program will award students up to approximately $10,000 annually for postsecondary education, which reflects the maximum tuition and fees for Indiana’s public colleges.
“The 21st Century Scholars program represents a significant ongoing commitment to ensure that every Hoosier student has access to the opportunities a college degree provides if they work hard in school,” said Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Teresa Lubbers. “We know that the efforts of school counselors and teachers are essential in spreading the word about our state financial aid programs and we are encouraged by the results of Northwest Middle School.”
“The innovative approach used by our school counselors at Northwest Middle School to ensure every student was contacted and every parent called, that home visits were made and incentives were awarded in order to achieve 100 percent enrollment in 21st Century Scholars, is truly to be commended,” said IPS Interim Superintendent Aleesia Johnson. “I applaud the efforts of the student services department and the entire school staff for making the dream of college a reality for all students regardless of individual barriers. I hope our best practices can be helpful to other schools.”
Through this effort, Indy Achieves is working to marshal additional resources, helping to provide school counselors with best practices for encouraging enrollment in their own schools. The Indy Achieves 21st Century Scholars Enrollment Toolkit includes steps for tracking eligible students, templates and resources, online links to valuable documents and Indy Achieves contact information. The information in the toolkit was gleaned from Marion County’s top schools enrolling 21st Century Scholars, including Northwest Middle School, and is designed to universally share tactics that have provided the best outcome for enrollment.
In addition to the Indy Achieves 21st Century Scholars Enrollment Toolkit, Marion County schools can receive staff support so that counselors can focus on outreach and lean on Indy Achieves to administer the data input.
For more information about Indy Achieves or the 21st Century Scholars Enrollment Toolkit, visit www.indyachieves.org.
INDIANAPOLIS – Today, Mayor Joe Hogsett joined leaders from Indy Achieves and Enroll Indy, as well as the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, to announce a unique partnership to streamline the 21st Century Scholars enrollment process for Indianapolis families.
For the first time, families of current 7th and 8th grade students completing Enroll Indy’s OneMatch application will be prompted to sign up for in 21st Century Scholars, a need- based early promise program that provides students up to four years of undergraduate tuition at any participating public college or university in Indiana. In 2017, only 52% of eligible Marion County 8th grade students enrolled in 21st Century Scholars. Hoping to engage more eligible students, this partnership between Indy Achieves and Enroll Indy strives to make the process easier for families.
“Today’s partnership advances the work we have been doing with the Indy Achieves program,” said Mayor Joe Hogsett. “We understand Indianapolis and its residents greatly benefit when everyone has the opportunity to obtain a quality education. It is my hope that this new partnership will continue to eliminate barriers, and increase our educational attainment rate.”
“Two of Enroll Indy’s core values are equitable access and community partnerships,” noted Enroll Indy Founder and Executive Director, Caitlin Hannon. “We believe that by forging strong partnerships throughout the city, we will reach more families and create more opportunities for all students. By working with Indy Achieves, we hope that families will take advantage of programs that will support their children beyond high school graduation.”
Statewide, 20,000 21st Century Scholars are enrolled in Indiana colleges and more than 100,000 are currently in the pipeline for postsecondary education. “Our most recent data indicate that 82 percent of all 21st Century Scholars go directly to college after completing high school and more Scholars are completing college than ever,” said Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Teresa Lubbers. “We have seen the success of the program in the lives of graduates and must continue our efforts at the state, county and school levels to enroll all eligible students.”
In addition to the announcement of today’s partnership, Enroll Indy launched Year Two of its OneMatch web-based application process and presented Year One results today. OneMatch serves more than 100 K-12 Indianapolis Public Schools and charter schools, and in its first year, OneMatch received more than 9,000 applications to Indianapolis schools. Students and their families can access applications online today at http://enrollindy.org/onematch/apply/.
EmployIndy posted its 2017-18 Annual Report on September 25th, showcasing the accomplishments of the first year of work of our five-year strategic plan. Read the intro letter from our President & CEO, Angela Carr Klitzsch below – and be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter to get EmployIndy info like this directly to your inbox.
ADVANCING THE WORKFORCE
Dear Ecosystem Partners, Supporters, and Influencers,
September annually celebrates and honors American workers and their impact on the well-being of our country. We at EmployIndy follow suit to commemorate another year advancing local workers on pathways that ensure self-sufficiency.
EmployIndy plays a pivotal role in the prosperity of our city’s economy and its underserved and underrepresented residents. Leading EmployIndy through notable transition to streamline investment towards a strategy of youth development, neighborhood prioritization and place-based workforce development, and career pathway creation for low- to mid-skilled residents, has been both gratifying and a worthy challenge.
The Marion County Workforce Ecosystem is made up of many unique stakeholders – the work of an intermediary to coordinate these critical partners is no small task. Parts of this local system have historically been fragmented, and our focus in year one of EmployIndy’s five-year Strategic Plan has been on building organizational capacity to unify and advance the system. In year two EmployIndy will continue increasing investment in programs, providers, and initiatives that ensure inclusion and equity to effectively increase labor participation as the economy continues to grow.
INDIANAPOLIS – Following bipartisan approval of initial program funding by the City-County Council last night, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced the appointment of Matt Impink as the executive director of the Indy Achieves initiative.
“Last night, a bipartisan, forward-thinking coalition of City-County Councillors helped to provide the initial funding for Indy Achieves, a comprehensive program to make college attainable for every Marion County resident,” said Mayor Hogsett. “I applaud their commitment to decreasing barriers to success and growing our city’s talent pipeline, helping to make the American Dream achievable for all who call Indianapolis home.”
In 2017, Mayor Hogsett brought together representatives from state and local government, institutions of higher education, workforce development and education nonprofits, as well as major corporate employers, to assemble recommendations aimed at improving access to post-secondary educational opportunities for all Marion County residents. Last month, Mayor Hogsett announced the recommendations of that group at Chapel Hill 7th and 8th Grade Center, and launched Indy Achieves.
Indy Achieves, a comprehensive program to make post-secondary credentials and degrees available to every Indianapolis resident, will be housed within EmployIndy, Marion County’s workforce development agency, as a standalone organization with an expected staff of nearly a dozen once fully launched. It will be funded exclusively through an annual appropriation by the City-County Council that will not require any new taxes, as well as through agreements with both Ivy Tech and IUPUI who will financially participate in the program.
As executive director, Matt will guide Indy Achieves’ mission to improve access and completion of high quality degrees and credentials for Marion County students. This will entail offering aid to students through existing scholarships, marshaling private and philanthropic resources to provide wraparound services for residents pursuing a post-secondary degree, as well as monitoring Indianapolis’ workforce needs to ensure the model remains effective.
“Matt’s experience with education and community development have fully prepared him to take on the role of preparing our children for scholastic and professional success through Indy Achieves,” said Mayor Hogsett. “Indy Achieves is bold in both concept and execution, and we’re grateful to have Matt’s leadership at the helm helping to guide Marion County students toward a meaningful role in our 21st-century workforce.”
Prior to being appointed, Matt served as Director of Policy and Civic Engagement at the Indy Chamber where he led the Chamber’s efforts to expand mass transit, grow internship opportunities, and develop an inclusive growth agenda for economic development. Prior to that, Matt worked as a researcher at the IU Public Policy Institute, a community organizer at Stand for Children Indiana, and consultant at Lumina Foundation for Education.
Matt began his career in public education as an 11th grade U.S. History teacher while serving in Teach for America. Matt graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Public Affairs degree from IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI. As a proud Indianapolis native, he serves on the board of directors for Southeast Neighborhood Development (SEND), Indiana INTERNnet, and Latino Youth Collective.
For more information about Indy Achieves, visit IndyAchieves.org.
INDIANAPOLIS – On April 19, 2017, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced the creation of the Indianapolis Promise Task Force. Charged with assembling recommendations on how to improve access to post-secondary educational opportunities for all Marion County residents, the Task Force met regularly over the last year with representatives from state and local government, institutions of higher education, workforce development and education nonprofits, as well as major corporate employers.
Today, Mayor Hogsett announced the recommendations of that group, and launched Indy Achieves, a comprehensive program to make post-secondary credentials and degrees available to every Indianapolis resident.
“More than 60% of jobs in our state require a post-secondary credential or degree, but only 42% of our residents currently possess one,” said Mayor Joe Hogsett. “Indy Achieves will bring together existing resources to send the message that no matter whether you are a current high school student, or an adult looking to move your career to new heights, everyone in Indianapolis can achieve the education they need to compete in a 21st Century economy.”
The Indy Achieves program will have three major responsibilities:
(1) administer the Indy Promise scholarship, which will guarantee free tuition, books, and fees for every Marion County 21st Century Scholar recipient beginning in 2019; (2) administer the Indy Achieves Completion Grant, which is expected to provide more than a million dollars a year in grants to Marion County students of all ages who are pursuing high-demand degree programs; and (3) marshal private and philanthropic resources to provide wraparound services for Marion County residents pursuing a post-secondary degree, including increased participation in state and federal scholarship programs, on time FAFSA completion, and postgraduate connection to employment through groups such as EmployIndy and Ascend.
All of these programs will be available to Marion County residents who are attending Ivy Tech Community College Indianapolis or IUPUI.
“Marion County is a donor county, and Indiana is a donor state — and I’m proud the program will be funded by bringing those tax dollars back to Indianapolis and putting them to work on behalf of taxpayers,” added Mayor Hogsett.
Indy Achieves will be housed within EmployIndy as a standalone organization, with an expected staff of nearly a dozen once fully launched. It will be funded exclusively through an annual appropriation that will not require any new taxes, as well as through financial agreements with both Ivy Tech and IUPUI who will financially participate in the program.
“As we continue to guide Marion County’s workforce to meet the talent needs of employers, we are excited to house Indy Achieves within EmployIndy’s walls,” said Angela Carr Klitzsch, President and CEO of EmployIndy. “Our ever-growing ecosystem of connections and partnerships will provide a solid foundation for this important program.”
In addition to these programs, both Ivy Tech and IUPUI have agreed to strengthen and launch services for Indy Achieves students aimed at increasing on time college completion. Coupled with the Indy Promise Scholarship and Completion Grant programs, Mayor Hogsett announced a goal of raising Indianapolis’ college attainment number to 65% by the year 2027.
“Ivy Tech is proud to be an educational partner with the City of Indianapolis in this important program,” Dr. Lee, Chancellor of Ivy Tech Indianapolis. “Indy Achieves will help remove educational barriers and is in line with Ivy Tech’s goal of helping more Hoosiers attain high-value degrees and certificates.”
“At IUPUI, we are looking forward to working with the City of Indianapolis, EmployIndy and Ivy Tech Community College to expand the talent pipeline in Indianapolis and create opportunities for more Marion County residents to pursue college degrees,” said Nasser H. Paydar, Chancellor of IUPUI. “Working together, we can eliminate educational barriers at the same time as we prepare students for success in the classroom and ultimately in the workforce.”
To view the full recommendations of the Indianapolis Promise Task Force, click here.
For more information about Indy Achieves visit IndyAchieves.org.
INDIANAPOLIS – Following bipartisan approval of initial program funding by the City-County Council last night, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced the appointment of Matt Impink as the executive director of the Indy Achieves initiative.
As executive director, Matt will guide Indy Achieves’ mission to improve access and completion of high quality degrees and credentials for Marion County students. This will entail offering aid to students through existing scholarships, marshaling private and philanthropic resources to provide wraparound services for residents pursuing a post-secondary degree, as well as monitoring Indianapolis’ workforce needs to ensure the model remains effective.