Strengthening Academic Achievement for Indiana’s Teens

indiana-youth-institute-logoFor every 100 students who start college as full-time in Indiana, 34 percent complete a degree within four years, and nearly 69 percent complete within eight years, but 31 percent either take more than eight years or never finish their degree according to a 2014 Indiana Commission for Higher Education report.

Indiana’s school counselors face significant barriers to changing these statistics. According to a 2013 study from the National Institute of Education Statistics, Indiana’s student to counselor ratio is 541:1, the ninth highest ratio in the nation. Advising such large numbers of students can be challenging, especially if counselors do not have all the resources they need to counsel students on their postsecondary options. Ninety percent of counselors who responded to an IYI survey admitted they did not have all the information needed to help students succeed.

To help counselors and other youth-serving professionals be better informed and better serve Indiana students, IYI is bringing experts to Indianapolis for the Postsecondary Counseling Institute presented by Kroger (PCI) on June 23 and June 24. Designed for counselors, youth workers, mentoring organizations, teachers, youth ministers, family service providers and others who work directly with children, the sessions at PCI will allow those who serve students to gain more knowledge on college applications, financial aid and pathways to careers, including apprenticeships, certificate and degree programs that take less time to earn than a four-year degree.

Dr. Jane Bluestein will provide the opening keynote on the first day of the event, discussing how to build win-win relationships with teens to further their education. Bluestein is the president of Instructional Support Services, Inc. and she will present effective strategies for minimizing conflict in relationships and building cooperation, accountability and self-management for young adults. She will show youth workers how to build safe social and emotional climates in the schools and environments where they work by understanding how best to defuse conflict and opposition as well as setting and maintaining positive boundaries.

Kent Pekel will be the keynote speaker the next day focusing on strategies to strengthen academic motivation and persistence. Pekel is the president and CEO of Search Institute and will talk about why young people lack the motivation and capacity to complete challenging tasks and achieve goals both inside and outside of school. Fortunately, a growing body of research demonstrates that when schools, youth programs and families act intentionally to influence motivation and persistence, it is possible to significantly increase both motivation and capacity. He will present a new resource called the Perseverance Process that bridges the gap between research and practice. It distills the research on motivation and persistence into a set of actionable strategies to better motivate teens and equip them for postsecondary success.

There also will be more than 20 workshops and panel discussions on postsecondary education and workforce readiness including:

Financial Aid: What All Students Need to Know
Why is it Getting So Hard to Get into Indiana’s Four Year Institutions?
How Schools, Communities and Businesses Can Partner to Foster Student Success
Certificates – Back to the Basics: Works Councils, Technical Education and Postsecondary Opportunities
Liberal Arts Still Have Value—A Panel from the Independent Colleges
Military 101: Understanding Your Options
Instilling PRIDE to Promote a Great Work Ethic: The Importance of Soft Skills
Training and Skill Development through Apprenticeship Programs
Encouraging Young Children to Explore College and Careers

The conference is to be held from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. June 23 and from 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. June 24 in downtown Indianapolis at the Westin Indianapolis Hotel, 50 S. Capitol Ave., Indianapolis, 46204. The cost is $100 to attend. Online registration closes June 12, but attendees can register onsite after that date. More information about PCI may be found online at www.iyi.org/pci.

Registration includes breakfast and lunch for both days, plus a digital copy of College Board’s “College Counseling Sourcebook” 7th edition. Continuing Education Units (CEUs), including Professional Growth Points and NASW Continuing Education Hours, are available at no extra cost; details can be found at www.iyi.org.

The Indiana Youth Institute promotes the healthy development of Indiana children and youth by serving the people, institutions, and communities that impact their well-being.