Kokomo — When Russena Comer began working as a guidance counselor at Kokomo High School in 1985, she noticed there were many students not interested in furthering their education past high school.
“It was the prevalent attitude among Kokomo youth that kids could go directly to a local factory, get hired on and make a comfortable living, so why take school too seriously, especially if you didn’t particularly enjoy the rigors of the classroom?” she said.
She said the more academic students went on to college, for the challenge or because they knew a college education meant higher income levels over their lifetime. Others wanted to get away from home, or use college scholarships.
But in an industrial town, she said, “kids could look around and see what the income from a factory job could provide. One could live in a nice house and drive a new car. Beginning work at the factory right out of high school gave those kids a four-year jump on their earning power that those seeking a four-year college degree did not have. After all, the college student had to pay out expenses for four years.”
Comer, who retired as assistant principal in 2009, said she started to see a change in that attitude later in her career.
“All of this has changed for the citizens in Howard County,” she said. “High schools are faced with new challenges today as they explain to students that the jobs their grandparents and other family members had are a relic, probably never to return to Kokomo. Much education needs to be done about the value of graduating from high school and seeking additional education either at a community college such as Ivy Tech, a regional branch such as Indiana University Kokomo, or a college or university in another city.”
Throughout the Kokomo area, education leaders and college enrollment and recruiting officials say they are seeing more interest in attending college. The potential college students include not only students who once might have sought factory employment straight out of high school, but their parents, many of whom have lost factory jobs.
At IU Kokomo, Tyana Lange, director of enrollment management, thinks this new attitude is driving some of the record-breaking enrollment.
“The high school students are especially recognizing that it used to be 25 years ago a high school diploma meant you had access to an entry-level position. Now that’s a bachelor’s degree.”
She said IU Kokomo has a counselor who visits high schools, and she is getting more interest than in years past.
Lange previously worked at Kettering University in Flint, Mich., another automotive factory town impacted by the economy. She said some of the older generation hold out hope of getting good-paying automotive jobs for their children or grandchildren, but “in genera, I think most people are recognizing our future is going to be based on the knowledge economy, and it’s going to be important to have an education.”
She said parents and students need to start thinking about going to college and possible careers when the children are young, not waiting until they are juniors and seniors in high school.
Mike Federspill, Ivy Tech Kokomo’s director of admissions, said he sees many incoming students who haven’t decided what they want to do with the rest of their lives. He said students need to be thinking in advance about college or some kind of training beyond high school.
“We are definitely finding folks are realizing they need more than a high school diploma to find a job that does more than pay the bills,” he said, adding that he doesn’t find many high schoolers anymore who think they can get a factory job right out of high school and be set.
“I really truly think the high school-age kids around our area don’t have that attitude.”
At Ancilla College, a two-year Roman Catholic school in Donaldson, Director of Admissions Tony Booker said he is seeing more interest not only from students directly out of high school, but those not of traditional high school age.
He has recruited for schools in Detroit, western New York and northwest Indiana, which are all areas with large industry, and has seen manufacturing jobs people used to count on disappear.
“Not only are students realizing they need to have some form of higher education after high school, realistically, the parents and non-traditional students realize they need more skills and more education. They are the ones getting laid off.”
He said many of those laid off from manufacturing jobs have children, and are letting those children know they won’t be able to count on the factory jobs.
Booker said two-year colleges are growing because of this trend, because these students want to get into the work world quickly.
“They know they need some kind of career training. They don’t see themselves sitting in a classroom for two years taking all these general education classes and then getting into their majors for two years,” he said, adding that Ivy Tech in particular is “booming” because of this.
Ancilla, a private school, is benefiting from Ivy Tech’s record enrollment, because the state school can’t admit everyone who wants into its programs.
Booker said about 80 percent of Ancilla’s graduates do go on to a four-year college, after gaining confidence from their success in a two-year program.
“They come here and they’re nervous and they think they’re going to be sitting in a classroom with a bunch of 18-year-olds. They come here and find a lot of people who look like them. They gain confidence in the classroom, and because of that confidence, they go on and get their bachelor’s degree.
Eastern High School guidance counselor Ron Wyatt, a 33-year educator, said he is noticing an increase in the numbers of his graduates pursuing some kind of education after high school.
“I have seen [students] I would not have predicted would go to college, going to Ivy Tech and Vincennes University,” for two-year programs, he said.
He tells students that while four-year college may not be for everyone, “doing something after high school is for everyone.”
As an adjunct faculty member at Ivy Tech, he also sees students who used to work in the factories, but they’ve lost their jobs and are going back to school to be employable in another field.
Wyatt said he used to have high school students tell him they could go straight to Chrysler or Delphi because “my dad knows somebody,” but he doesn’t hear that anymore.
“Definitely, those days are over,” he said. “They don’t say that any more. I don’t think they’re counting on it. I think they’ve gotten the message.”