The Larkin High School Career Panel was held as an all day event on March 7, 2019. In partnership with Junior Achievement (JA), Alignment recruited an industry panel composed of banking and finance, education, healthcare and public safety. Thank you to Berto Valdez from PNC Bank, Rose Diaz and Fatima Reyes from the AVID CNA program, Kathy Potts and Matt Jacobucci from the Elgin Police Department, and Ronald Raglin from School District U-46 for serving as our career panelists and to Edgar Montes from Junior Achievement. The event attracted over 400 students, including freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors.
What’s New
Waste Management Donation
Vaughn Küerschner, Public Sector Representative of Waste Management, met with Alignment’s Executive Committees on February 26, 2019, to award a check of $5,000 to support Alignment’s work to improve early education offerings, build schools with trauma informed care cultures, and offer all students the opportunity to benefit from educational pathways graduating academic and career ready. Alignment greatly appreciates this donation and Waste Management’s continued support of its work for the last three years.
Nicor Energy Grant Funded
The Alignment Collaborative for Education received $5,000 in funding under Nicor’s The Path to Social Mobility and Enhanced Opportunities Includes Education and Career Readiness grant program. Alignment’s role is to build business and community partnerships that collaboratively offer students within School District U-46, opportunities to participate in a comprehensive career education and work readiness program. This program prepares students to gain industry recognized credentials while still in high school so that students upon graduation can immediately enter the workforce and have the necessary foundation for post-secondary education and training. We greatly appreciate the support of Jim Griffin, Nicor’s Vice President of Operations and member of Alignment’s Governing Board.
Elgin High School’s Welding Program Receives the Elgin Development Group’s Workforce Development Award for 2019
Elgin Chamber hosts annual meeting, award ceremony Feb. 20th
Daily Herald, February 14, 2019
The Elgin Area Chamber’s annual meeting and High Five Awards Ceremony will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20 at Gifford’s Kitchen & Social, 2300 Bushwood Drive in Elgin. The event was rescheduled from Jan. 30 due to the extreme cold.
The event will combine the glitz and pageantry of the High Five Awards with the 111th annual meeting into one high flying and fun reception.
The event begins at 4 p.m. with networking until 5 p.m. followed by the program.
This brief program features the formal installation of board members: Nancy Abuali of Radius International; Ian Lamp of Lamp Construction; and Michael Wong of SmithAmundson.
It will be followed by a presentation of the Elgin Area Chamber and Elgin Development Group’s success stories for 2018 and concludes with the recognition of our High Five Award winning members and organizations who helped contribute to the chamber’s success in 2018.
The following awards will be presented:
- Ambassador Award: Dr. Lee Plasmier
- Small Business Award: Herb’s Bakery
- Large Business Award: Motorola
- Showcase Business Award: Newhaven Display
- EDG Workforce Award: Elgin Area School District U-46 Welding Lab at Elgin High School
- EDG Business Development Award: iHerb
- Leadership Award: Mike Warren, ROI
- Nonprofit Award: YWCA Elgin
- Emerging Leader Award: Steve Kroiss, 79 Ratio
- Partnership Award: WRMN Radio
EPEL Opens Second Laundromat as a Non-Traditional Learning Space
The Elgin Partnership for Early Learning (EPEL) opened its second laundromat early learning space at Blue Kangaroo in Elgin. The space is dedicated to families as an opportunity for early learning in non-traditional locations. Amber Peters, the Executive Director of EPEL, commented “that meaningful learning can occur in unconventional settings where families come together to work and play.”
The possibilities are endless: U46 eighth-graders explore career options at expo
Rafael Guerrero – Contact Reporter
The Courier-News
Amanda Jackson says she hopes to have a career in music one day but that didn’t stop the U46 student from checking out other job possibilities Wednesday at the Explore 2018 career expo.
The eighth-grader said stops at exhibitor booths for professions such as nursing were interesting, and made her consider other options she hadn’t thought of as job possibilities…
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