VALPARAISO – Almost 60 percent of high school students want to go to a four-year college, said Stephen Gill, Northwest Indiana outreach manager for the Indiana Youth Institute.
The realities of that goal are much starker. During a presentation last week to about a dozen youth services workers and educators at the offices of the United Way of Porter County, Gill said one in 10 students finish a two-year degree on time, and three in 10 complete a four-year degree on time.
Those attending the program, including staff from the LaPorte County Juvenile Services Center, said incarceration and coming from a low-income background can be barriers to achieving the goal of completing college.
“We’re getting them to the starting line but once they get in, this is what’s happening,” Gill said, adding students may want to go to college because it’s the cool thing to do, but don’t know what that means once they get there.
The youth institute has a tool to help students figure out just that. The “Drive of Your Life” online assessment, for students as young as fifth grade, offers career evaluation. The program has a career assessment component, as well as information on salaries and what a day is like in different jobs, and resources for Indiana colleges.
The online tool for educators can be found at driveofyourlife.org/educator, while the one for parents and their children is at driveofyourlife.org. Another component, triptocollege.org, has information to guide families through the application process for Indiana colleges.
Gill gave a walk-through demonstration of “Drive of Your Life,” which also allows students to build a car while they build a career. The goal of the site, he said, is to offer a fun, interactive way to engage young people to think seriously about their futures.
“It’s going to be something that hopefully resonates with them,” he said.
“Trip to College” takes off where the other site ends, offering information on when applications are due for the state’s schools, test scores and grades.
“I think this is a really helpful tool, especially when it comes to providing hope to the students that you serve,” Gill said, adding the “Drive of Your Life” assessments are “where they could possibly start to dream, ‘Maybe I could be a lawyer, or maybe I could be a pharmacist,’ and that’s powerful.”
