SPRINGDALE -- The child care room at the new Goodwill Training and Education Center was far from finished, school officials said during a tour this past week. But the room did have colorful mats and tiny chairs, places where a mother could read to her child.
Officials of Goodwill Industries of Arkansas will unlock the education center at 11 a.m. Wednesday. The center will provide students two ways to improve their education.
The Excel Center will allow a student to finish high school core courses and earn a high school diploma -- not a GED. The Goodwill Center also offers professional career training and certifications through its Goodwill Academy for students with a diploma or GED.
Both are under one roof at 2100 Old Missouri Road.
Springdale's 32,000-square-foot education center has two hallways, with the Excel Center's classrooms on the north side of the building, and the academy's contained in the south hallway.
A common area in the middle gives students a place to mingle, study and eat.
"I see walking across the building from the Excel Center to the academy like walking across the stage at graduation and on to the next phase of life," said Edie Stewart, senior vice president and chief mission officer of Goodwill Arkansas.
Removing barriers to education is one of the most impactful services the school can do for students, Stewart said. Enrollment in a Goodwill program comes with free on-site child care, life coaches and remedial instruction, as needed.
Students who also are parents need to find and often pay for child care when they are in classes. The child care room is steps away from the excel classrooms, and parents can sit with their children between classes or take them to lunch in the commons.
The child care room also will have plenty of children's books on hand for reading to the children, said Jake Gibbs, the Excel Center director. An adult sharing a story, modeling reading, is an important early childhood skill leading to literacy, he said.
Stewart pointed out the excel program support services are free to all students.
"And what is always astounding is that these services are free because of everything people donate to Goodwill," Stewart said. "Ninety-five percent of the sales at Goodwill stores across the country pays for Goodwill's programs."
Goodwill receives no federal or state funding to operate its schools, she said.
"What you donate changes people's lives," Stewart said.
Classes in Springdale will begin July 24, with 25 to 30 students each in the Excel Center and academy, said Jake Gibbs, director of the Excel Center in Springdale.
The Goodwill Center capacity is 350 students, and officials certainly hope to get there.
The faculty has been recruiting students from across Northwest Arkansas through other organizations, industry workplaces, flyers in grocery stores, even Goodwill stores.
"What's unique is that nobody has to come here," Gibbs said.
The unlocking ceremony Wednesday will include comments by state Secretary of Education Jacob Olivia, lunch and tours.
The next day will be geared toward students, with introductions to staff, tours and tailgate-themed food.
Melvin Wilson, 37, of Little Rock is a 2019 graduate of Little Rock's Excel Center. He since has completed several certifications through the academy. Wilson now works for the Goodwill education program as a recruiting coordinator for both locations.
"Completing my education is the single most important thing I did in my life -- besides my kids and wife," he said. "I grew up in a tough neighborhood. I survived gangs; I survived inner-city drama. But then I wondered what to do with my life."
Adult education
Gibbs said classes at the center will feel much like a traditional high school experience for students. The center offers classes in language arts, math and science, all of which will be taught to the state's high school curriculum standards. The center also offers remediation classes and individual tutoring as needed.
"This is a mature learning environment," Gibbs said of the excel program. Students must be 19 years to enroll.
"They come in here prepared to spend their time learning. They expect their instruction to be useful and applicable.
"They don't need super cool fun experiments in the science lab," he continued. "Instead, the point is learning traits like critical thinking and collaboration."
Many students have barriers -- like work schedules -- that become reasons or excuses for not going to school.
Goodwill officials also are working with Ozark Transit to provide students a way to get to and from the center, she said.
The child care room will take children from 4 months old to school age on a drop-in basis, Gibbs said.
"We know -- 100% -- that some of our students are food and housing insecure," Stewart said.
The school offers support through its life coaches. The coaches can work with other community agencies to meet students' life needs like food and clothing, but also can help them map out their educational needs and plans for after graduation.
"And we're very deliberate in ensuring English language learners are able to take advantage of these resources with life coaches and other school support staff who are bilingual," Stewart said.
Each student will take a computerized assessment test when he enrolls, which will place the student in the classes he needs.
Some students come without skills. Others have been out of school for a long time, Stewart pointed out.
Many come with reading skills on the sixth-grade level, but they need to read at least at an eighth-grade level to complete the Goodwill curriculum, Gibbs said.
"Many of our students have taken the GED three or four times," Stewart said. "It blows their minds -- maybe it's test anxiety. Sixty percent of our students are not able to pass the GED."
The Excel Center does not offer GED training -- only high school diplomas.
Wilson, the Goodwill graduate of Little Rock, was one of these students.
"I took the test several times, but it wasn't for me," he said. "There was no dignity in it."
Excel Center teacher Rachel Jessen was in her classroom Wednesday afternoon, preparing for the upcoming session. She will teach social studies and reading and is state-certified to teach English as a second language.
Jessen said she appreciates the opportunity to empower her adult students to take the next step in their lives.
"They don't know what to do," said Jessen, who has taught adults for several years. "Life happens -- maybe a family situation -- and they need a new start.
"This is a better solution," she said. "We focus on the whole person."
Working days
Protective hoods for welding were lined up Wednesday along the front board of the welding classroom in Goodwill's academy. Next door, welding equipment waits in the welding shop.
"The purpose of the academy is to give people an opportunity to earn industry-certified credentials and diplomas," Gibbs said.
The school is accredited by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
In addition to welding, the academy offers beginning classes in construction trade -- including carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning -- as well as industrial maintenance and several levels of certification required to drive a forklift.
Other students will be working for certification as clinical medical assistants, clinical health environmental service technicians and pharmacy technicians.
And with support from the Google company, students in business technology classes will receive instruction in the entire Google suite of programs, Stewart said.
The school also is "nimble" and creates programs in response to industry needs, Stewart said.
For example, Baptist Hospital in Little Rock was having trouble with patients' rooms being cleaned properly, Stewart said. A space in the Little Rock academy was turned into a hospital room, with the hospital providing the bed.
During the students' final skills assessments, Goodwill put an actual person in the bed.
"Students learned how to clean around the patient and things they could and couldn't say with a patient present," she said.
Academy classes do come with some costs because of equipment and supplies, but any costs would be under $3,000, Gibbs said.
Also, students will need to pay for their licensing fees for their new careers.
The Google technology program is paid by the company, industry pays for some classes and scholarships are available for other programs.
Edie Stewart (left), senior vice president and chief mission officer of Goodwill Arkansas, and Excel Center teacher Rachel Jessen talk Wednesday about Jessen's vision for her classroom in the Goodwill Training and Education Center in Springdale. Visit nwaonline.com/photos for todays photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Caleb Grieger)
Lane Gammel (left), Goodwill Industries of Arkansas director of communications, and Jake Gibbs, Excel Center director, discuss their vision Wednesday for a shared community space within the Goodwill Training and Education Center in Springdale. Visit nwaonline.com/photos for todays photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Caleb Grieger)More News
NoneTo enroll
Website: GoodwillAR.org/Academy
Phone: (479) 595-8818
Email: Academy@GoodwillAR.com
Source: NWA Democrat-Gazette