Looking for a specific grant?
Page Tools
Statewide middle-college expansion focuses on health care
By DUANE M. ELLING
Keeping young people in Michigan — as residents and workers — is widely viewed as crucial to the state’s future. To accomplish this, experts say, local educational and workforce development bodies must help youth explore and prepare for promising careers in existing and emerging industries.
Yet the state’s economic struggles threaten this goal. Limited resources mean fewer new programs to train Michigan students for jobs that offer a competitive wage, long-term stability and opportunities for advancement.
“It’s like trying to fix a car’s engine — on a shoestring budget — while you’re driving,” said Chuck Wilbur, senior adviser on education and communications to Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
“Fortunately, the state has home-grown institutions like Mott Middle College [MMC] working to help us meet the challenge.”
MMC, an alternative education program in Flint, is mentoring six middle-college initiatives around the state focused on preparing students for jobs in health care. That sector was chosen because it is expected to offer strong employment prospects for at least the next several years.
MMC began in Flint in 1991 with the support of a start-up grant from the Mott Foundation. The program is part of the Genesee Intermediate School District (GISD) and provides an educational option to youth throughout Genesee County. The students selected for MMC are capable of academic success, but are at risk of dropping out of school or aren’t achieving up to their academic potential.
The program — among the first of its kind in the country — encourages young people to take charge of shaping and pursuing their educational goals, and helps them develop effective learning and communication skills. Its location on the Mott Community College (MCC) campus also offers students the opportunity to earn college credits while completing high school.
The program’s track record has made it a highly respected ambassador of the middle college model. Today, communities around the country are coming to MMC for help in creating similar educational and employment pathways for young people.
The Mott Foundation has made $2.94 million in grants for MMC, including $1.97 million toward technical assistance to school districts across the U.S. interested in replicating the model.
In Michigan, that mentorship role includes working with the new health-care programs.
These initiatives were born out of a study released in December 2004 by the state’s Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth. The commission, chaired by Lt. Gov. John Cherry, explored strategies for increasing the number of Michigan residents who earn college degrees and other post-secondary credentials, and aligning those educational opportunities with careers in growing industries, including health care.
Officials soon identified the middle college model — and MMC’s approach in particular — as a promising strategy for helping young people explore such careers and complete the advanced education and training required.
In early 2006, via a competitive grant application process, the state selected six sites for the new initiatives. Those sites — the city of Detroit and the regions of Clare-Gladwin, Delta-Schoolcraft, Genesee, Washtenaw and Wayne counties — have since begun enrolling students.
While the programs are focused initially on high school age youth, each hopes eventually to provide outreach and educational opportunities to younger students.
Even as the sites’ applications were being reviewed, says Zoe Starkweather, MMC already was providing them with technical assistance and support.
Starkweather is the grants and development coordinator for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD), which launched its initiative — the Early College Alliance — in collaboration with Eastern Michigan University, the St. Joseph Mercy Health System and the University of Michigan Health System. Other partners include Michigan Works!, the Ypsilanti Chamber of Commerce and several area schools.
She says MMC helped the participating communities understand the strengths and challenges of the middle-college model, and how the new initiatives can complement existing educational and workforce-development programs. MMC also has worked with the local initiatives to connect high school and college curriculums within a health-care framework, as well as develop appropriate program budgets and policies.
That support, Starkweather says, has proven vital.
“MMC, by sharing its experiences, insights and solutions, is helping us leverage our limited resources into world-class programs. As a result, we’re breaking new ground with the middle-college model without having to reinvent its basic structure.”
Dwight Sinila, a consultant in areas of grants coordination and school support at the Michigan Department of Education, agrees. He says MMC’s approach to education — working with students holistically, helping them address their unique personal and emotional needs, as well as academic growth — and its ability to share effectively those lessons is proving to be “a winning combination for the new initiatives.”
“Each is blending the proven attributes of MMC with the needs and requirements of their local school districts,” he said. “That’s resulting in programs specifically tailored to the needs of area young people and of local industries.”
Starkweather says MMC, via planning and networking activities, also has helped the participating communities explore and nurture partnerships around the new initiatives.
“The middle-college model is itself collaborative, bringing together people who focus on high school and post-secondary education,” she said. “The new initiatives are building on that strategy by creating meaningful collaborations across the public and private sectors.”
Those thoughts are echoed by Richard Shaink, president of MCC. Genesee Early College — the health-care careers initiative in Genesee County — was launched by the Genesee Intermediate School District (GISD) in collaboration with MCC, Baker and Kettering universities, and the University of Michigan-Flint. Other key partners include the Genesee County Health Department, the Genesee Area Skills Center, the Greater Flint Health Coalition, Genesys Health System, and the county’s 21 school districts.
“The collective skills and resources of these local partners are essential to successfully launching, maintaining and growing these programs,” Shaink said. “By stepping up to the table, we’re helping to save many young people who might otherwise fall through the cracks.”
Thomas Svitkovich, GISD superintendent, agrees. He says the six middle-college programs are fortunate to have MMC as a resource with a history of building coalitions.
“The success of these new initiatives depends on collaboration and dedication among the various partners, as well as their shared vision of helping young people to create a new future in Michigan.”
Chery Wagonlander, MMC principal, says the middle colleges are reaching across neighborhoods, schools and families to create educational and employment opportunities for youth from all walks of life. And they are a particularly important economic strategy, she believes, for low-income and underserved households.
“Finding a job that will support a family depends more and more on having the right mix of skills, education and experience. For young people who lack that background — and, as a result, believe they might never have a stable, secure future — these initiatives offer new hope.”
Wilbur believes that, with MMC’s help, they also will present a blueprint for moving the whole of Michigan forward. He says there are already conversations under way about creating similar middle colleges that target other emerging industries, including biotechnology and advanced engineering.
And as such initiatives move forward, says Wilbur, the state likely will turn again to the resources and expertise offered by MMC.
“It’s incredible to have this national resource in our own backyard. And now we’re tapping it for the benefit of families across Michigan.”