Thousands of students benefit from $4.5 million donation

Bill Gates developed his first computer program when he was 12 years old. Mozart was writing musical pieces at age 4. Most of us, however, take a more roundabout route to finding our talents and putting them to use as a career.

Providing positive direction in the wide-open spaces of career possibilities

In his late 80s, Mr. Schwab, a retired lithographer approached Dolores (De) Klocke , then Guidance Counselor at North Side High School, about the need, for career support for young people - something he had been thinking about for years. Klocke contacted her friend and fellow guidance counselor at Northrop High School, Tom Gordon, to put together ideas for a comprehensive approach to the issue.

Mr. Schwab and a group of his friends listened to the ideas suggested by Klocke and Gordon and agreed to underwrite various activities at North Side and Northrop High Schools. Each year, the activities grew and the direction became clearer, culminating in the establishment of the Schwab Foundation. Gordon eventually became executive director of the Schwab Foundation's Pursuits Program and Klocke a consultant to the program. Both of them remain in those respective positions today.

In 1992, Mr. Schwab died, leaving his entire estate of $4.5 million to the program. Today, the endowment has grown considerably and is overseen by a five-person board of directors, comprised of an attorney, a banker, an accountant, and one representative each from the medical and educational communities. The makeup of the present board closely mirrors the original group of Mr. Schwab's friends and associates that first met with Klocke and Gordon in 1987.

Pursuits is not one program but rather a comprehensive support and coordination system for schools and other agencies that are involved with career development.

"We bring research and products to educate counselors and teachers about what is available, and we discuss underwriting opportunities," Gordon says. "We are probably the only entity in the area that pulls all counselors together for the common purpose of career guidance."

Approximately 16,000 students are included in the broad purview of Pursuits throughout Allen and Whitley counties. The program is currently active in 11 middle schools and 22 high schools of all types: public, parochial, private, and alternative.

The basic components of the program include assessment, feedback and followup for the students. The assessment instrument commonly used is called the Career Planning Survey (CPS), which identifies interests, experiences, and abilities. Feedback is provided several weeks later with the results of the CPS and an invitation to students and parents to attend Career Planning Seminars. These seminars are designed to show students how their abilities match various career options. The follow-up component is the guided process available to students through the many activities and experiences of the Pursuits Program and other agencies concerned with career development. Pursuits provides an overall view, professional support, coordination, and financial underwriting to some of the activities.

For example, the American Association of Business and Professional Women conducts an event called "Reality Store" for children in grades 8-12. During this event, the students experience the simulated life of a person in a certain profession, learn what salary range that choice might bring, and discover how a budget and other decisions would be affected by that projected income. Students go from table-to-table to meet with actual insurance agents, bank personnel, real estate brokers, and other representatives from "real life" institutions to discuss the consequences of trying to match budget realities with a certain desired life style.

"The students find the experience extremely enlightening," Klocke says. Pursuits can evaluate the impact of an effort such as this and encourage its continuation and replication. Other ideas, such as students building a portfolio of products throughout their school career, using the Internet, shadowing and internships, for example, are encouraged and developed with the overview of the foundation.

Schools are required to comply with Indiana Workforce Development Legislation (Public Law 19-1992) to provide career development guidance. Many schools and school. systems use the Schwab Foundation's Pursuits Program to meet these requirements. Other school systems and schools have their own programs but use Pursuits to support those efforts, provide research, networking and occasional underwriting.

A key goal of Pursuits is to involve parents in the career educational experience with their children. Gordon says that to motivate parents to be part of the process, a program must include "essential activities like choice of subjects, financial aid or state mandated testing, such as ISTEP, which will determine whether or not a student can graduate."

These bread and butter issues involve substantial consequences and usually spur parents to become involved. Parental participation is central to the operating philosophy of the program.

"Career development is a whole gamut of experiences and abilities to deal with situations, conflicts, etc.," Go on says. "It doesn't just occur in job situations, it occurs in life. It's a combination of mind and experiences, skills and interests. It's a lifestyle."

The program is firmly rooted in the notion that career ideas are formed over a period of time.

"They (the students) get information as a process, not in a single moment," Klocke says. "Things are coming in and the process goes on all the time, whether it's shadowing, assessment tests, internships or other experiences."

Discussions with parents are a key element in this range of influences.

Of critical importance to many parents is the issue of the affordability of post-secondary education. To answer questions concerning this matter, Pursuits underwrites a program called College Cost Estimator conducted by Murray and Associates. This informative session, available for both middle and high school students and their parents, explains ways to meet the daunting challenge of seemingly unaffordable college tuition. A meeting like this conducted privately can cost up to $250 per family, but through the cooperation of the Schwab Foundation and Murray and Associates, the program is available at no charge in the presentations held at the schools.

This program can correct a mistake made by some parents who discourage college because of the fear of its cost.

"Some parents make the decision as early as elementary school and the kid decides, 'Well, I guess I'm not going to college,' even though many opportunities exist for low-income students,"' Gordon says. Because the child has this outlook, they fail to make decisions or take courses that would put them on a successful pathway to college admission. The College Cost Estimator experience can turn this notion around in one meeting, according to Gordon. "It's like a light bulb goes on. Parents realize their child can do it."

Pursuits is clearly a proud partner of this program. Not every student is steered toward a college education, of course. Pursuits supports career options that are enhanced by vocational or technical training and includes many program opportunities that guide students in that and alternate directions.

The range of activities that comprise the Schwab Foundation's Pursuits Program is wide, varied and growing. Publications, videos, grants, newsletters, achievement awards, career games and a highly informative website produced in partnerships with many community agencies form a huge network of career development. Collaborators include the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, JobWorks, junior Achievement, 21st Century Scholars, Area 14 Vocational Education, Fort Wayne Newspapers Inc. and many others. Of course, key players besides the parents are the schools. The Pursuits program has learned that the more integrated career development is in the classroom, the more impact it has.

As the Schwab Foundation looks to the future, its executive director envisions the possibility of expanding Pursuits to GED students and perhaps even those already established in careers looking to make a mid-life change. All these efforts have resulted from the simple notion of an retired engraver, Olin Schwab, who never even graduated from high school and who came to the conclusion that "young people today have more options. It would be better if they would find their niche before they go and squander their lives floundering around."