News from Wayne Township Adult Education

A Time of Gratitude

As we reflect back on this program year, the spirit of Thanksgiving is strong at Wayne Township Adult Education! We are blessed by amazing students, passionate partners, generous donors, and a team of staff that loves our mission. As we give thanks this November, we want to lift up our funders—the City of Indianapolis TIFF Funding, Hendricks Power, Hendricks County Community Foundation, Morgan County Community Foundation, Wayne Township Education Foundation, just to name a few. We are blessed with funders who have a heart for students and who want to see them succeed. We also want to thank our employer partners such as Duncan Supply, Rolls Royce, and FedEx, as well as our community partners such as the school corporations in Morgan, Hendricks, and Marion Counties, barrier-busting community resources such as the Immigrant Welcome Center, the Wayne Township Trustee's Office, and the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic, and our local community churches for supporting our program. Without our valuable partners, our success wouldn't be possible. We are also thankful for the staff and volunteers in our organization that love helping our students grow and reach their goals. It has been a true joy to serve our community alongside these partners and supporters, so we say THANK YOU!

--Christy McIntyre,
Program Coordinator for Wayne Township Adult Education

An exciting new in-demand, high-wage career is right around the corner! We are currently seating for popular certification classes such as medical assisting, dental assisting, HVAC, computer support, and many more. Go to adulted.info/careers to see the entire list! What's even better is that these classes and certifications come at NO COST to students! Simply visit adulted.info/scholarship and follow those two steps you find to be eligible for the funding to pay for the career certification you choose. We pay for the certification, and YOU pay with your commitment, attendance, and successful completion of your certification. Together we can make sure YOU have the future you've always dreamed of!

Many people who didn't finish high school were actually very close to finishing. Many actually have really high scores, but just don't have the time to take a class or the money to pay for the testing. HSE Boot Camp solves that problem! In just three days, students have the chance to not only earn the HSE, but also have it paid for through our scholarships! How is this possible? Those with qualifying scores (NRS levels 4, 5, and 6) have a chance to participate in our 3-day, intense power review and testing sessions, and those who pass will have earned the HSE! To see if you qualify for our December HSE Boot Camp, go to adulted.info/decemberbootcamp. Our Boot Camp classes fill quickly, so if you're interested, make sure you sign up soon.

Many students come to us with some life barriers that have made their journey a struggle. As our temperatures start to plunge this year, we are reminded that one of those barriers is not having a coat to stay warm. The amazing life coaches from Wayne Township had a vision for how to overcome that barrier: a coat drive.
For __ weeks, students and staff at Wayne Township Adult Education collected coats of all sizes for those students and their family memberswho may be in need of a coat this season. 160 coats later, that vision became a reality. The coats were taken by our life coaches to be professionally cleaned then distributed to students in need. Wayne Township Adult Education is a family. And the staff and students who destroyed this barrier together proved that! A special thank you goes to the life coaches, staff, and students who came together to make sure that we could all stay warm this winter! This act of love proves once again that WE ARE WAYNE!

Michelle Scheker, who is from the Dominican Republic, lived in Indianapolis for 19 years before she began taking English classes in the Wayne Township Adult Education English Language Learning (ELL) program.

Michelle has a positive outlook on her life now that she challenges herself each day to learn something new. She says, " My life was pretty boring until I came to English class. I was not learning new things. I was doing nothing in the mornings and now I am doing good things for myself. I feel more productive." She also shares that her ELL class helps her to be more comfortable at her work since she can better understand the English. Her hope is to get her HSE certification so she can eventually work in real estate to buy and sell "fixer-uppers" in Indianapolis.

She credits Dinah Michels,her first ELL teacher, and Becky Pulliam, her Level 2 ELL teacher, for helping her to learn. "They are wonderful teachers. They have a lot of patience."

Esther Nounagnon arrived in the United States 6 years ago from Benin, West Africa. Due to her family situation, Esther reluctantly left 3 of her four children, ages 12, 9, and 7, in Benin to live with her mother-in-law. While that was a struggle for her, Wayne Township Adult Education has been a source of hope for her.

She credits Wayne Township Adult Education HSE classes with helping her to have better communication skills. "My classes have taught me to talk, to write, and to know the words better than before," says Esther. Esther has been happily attending HSE classes at Wayne Adult Education since April 2017. Her hope is to not only earn her HSE, but also continue into career training for medical assisting. She credits teacher Linda Reynolds with a big part of her success. She said, "Linda asks questions about what I need. If I miss a class she calls and wants to know why I am not in class. She cares about each of her students." It's the connection to Linda that keeps Esther attending class when life's difficulties make it hard for her to attend. "Esther has a lot of potential, and she brings so much to our class - she is a joy to teach!" quotes teacher Linda Reynolds. Linda plans on helping her to realize her dream of earning her HSE and moving on to medical assisting so that she can have pride in her success when she reunites with her children later on.

Wayne township Adult Education has helped me to greatly improve my language proficiency. Now I can write and speak more clearly and effectively. On this amazing journey, I have also obtained my HSE as well as my pararo certification to become a classroom paraprofessional. In Jim Bradshaw’s class, my life was changed due to the passion and dedication that Mr. Jim showed every day in my English class. That’s the dedication that also inspired me to work in the classroom and help people learn as well, so I joined Carla Lewis in her parapro class. In that class I learned about what it takes to effectively assist with children in the classroom as a paraprofessional. The skills I learned in that class helped me to achieve my parapro certification.

Now that I have this certification, I can get a better job - a job that I will enjoy. I am not afraid to speak my mind to anyone who speaks English because of the confidence I now have. I greatly appreciate Wayne Township Adult Education for giving me the opportunity to accomplish my dream.

Before I came to Wayne Township Adult Education, I struggled with English and had difficulty communicating and writing. Now I feel much more confident and can communicate much more effectively. I am looking forward to working for Wayne Township Schools as a paraprofessional with my certification. I also plan on continuing my education, as I would like to take an MOS class to increase my computer skills. The encouraging staff at Wayne Township Adult Education keeps inspiring me to push forward and do even more when I set my career goals. Thank you to the teachers and staff at Wayne Township Adult Education!

-Jesenia Licona