Q&A with Michael Galvin of Junior Achievement of Southwestern Indiana
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In September, Michael Galvin was named senior director of operations for Junior Achievement of Southwestern Indiana. He previously spent two years as superintendent for the Metropolitan School District of North Posey County.
JA helps young people connect what they learn in school with life outside the classroom throughout fifteen counties in southwestern Indiana and southeastern Illinois. Galvin spoke with Inside INdiana Business about the transition from education and his goals for the organization.
Tell me about your extensive career in education.
I’m a native of Evansville. I attended North High School, went through the University of Southern Indiana for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, got my principal’s license through Indiana State University, and then my superintendent’s license came from Western Kentucky University.
My first teaching job was at Harwood Middle School on First Avenue. I was there for about five years teaching 8th grade reading and then 7th grade language arts. I transferred to Lincoln Elementary School, which fed into Harwood, and it was a year-round school at that time. I taught fourth grade there for two years and second grade for one year.
When I started interviewing in Evansville and South Gibson, I got the Fort Branch principal position. It was a K-8 building, which is what I grew up with in the Evansville system. I was there for 15 years. Looking back, that was probably the most fun I had in my education career. A lot of the changes happened. Public Law 221 [which created a performance-based accountability system] came into effect. A lot of accountability laws came into effect.
When I left Fort Branch, I took a superintendent’s position at Twin Lakes in Monticello, Indiana. That was the first time we had left home. It was a big experience for us as a family to leave where we had grown up, our church, our friends and everything.
We were there for four years. Then the opportunity came open for us to come back home to North Posey. We made the jump back down here and got right back into our church and our friend group. Our parents were getting older, and we needed to be closer to take care of them.
What are you most proud of in your education career?
We introduced the Leader in Me program in Fort Branch, which is based on Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” We built that into our culture. I really enjoyed that experience. We had a great staff that was trying to do what was in the best interest of kids and to make school enjoyable not only for the staff but also for our kids as well. We did a lot of great things with that, really allowing and emboldening our kids to become leaders within the building.
As I look back, the superintendent’s position allowed me to expand my strategic talent and build on that strength. In both districts that I oversaw, I was able to financially improve them. I was able to build out a facilities plan to address some of the concerns. We put in some instructional changes as well.
Why make the move from North Posey schools to Junior Achievement?
COVID really took a lot out of me. My wife thought I had 10 more years in me. But I walked into the house one day and said, “Hey, I’m thinking about retiring.” She looked at me and said, “You aren’t going to retire. We have an eight-year-old kid.” But as we talked more about my position and the way the pension system is set up, I said, “This is an opportunity for me to go do something else.” Then the question became: What is that something else?
I talked to my friend who is in business and asked how to get my name out there and what I could do with an education degree. I had also taught some at the college level. He texted me this position for Junior Achievement a few days later. I knew Marcia Forston really well; she’s our director. So I gave her a call and talked about the position, and it seemed like it was something that I would be interested in doing.
What’s the mission of Junior Achievement?
The mission of this organization is to create an integration for kids to understand business concepts, entrepreneurial skills and financial skills.
What we saw come out of the Indiana Legislature last year was a lot of college and career requirements in schools. All high schools are now supposed to provide a career fair. They’re supposed to provide financial literacy classes. Junior Achievement is able to come in and partner with our schools as well as our business partners, bring everybody to the table and offer those services to our kids. That’s an exciting opportunity for us.
A lot of times when you hear about Junior Achievement, it’s in the elementary program or activities like our recent JobSpark event, which involved 8th graders from Vanderburgh and surrounding counties. More than 4,000 kids were shown opportunities with our business partners in the area for employment down the road.
But that needs to be a continuum of where we’re starting with elementary, and we’re teaching those skills all the way through. That’s really what JA does. That’s the mission, to teach them financial and entrepreneurial skills as well as college and career-ready skills.
Why is Junior Achievement important for young people?
We understand that a lot of the careers that kids in our schools are going to have—haven’t even been created yet. So we teach them 21st Century skills and prepare them for that future: helping them to be punctual, have good attendance, be respectful and understand what teamwork means and critical thinking.
Our business partners and volunteers are going into schools and connecting with kids. An 8th grader who attended JobSpark spoke with someone from [Traylor Bros. Inc.] —which builds bridges all around the world—and was so impressed she wants to do a job shadow next summer. That is a real-world experience for kids.
What are your short-term goals in this new role?
The short-term goal is to oversee the operations of the organization. We are in the process of building a new facility, the Discovery Center, and that’s going to be able to offer some things that we’ve not been able to offer in the past, such as BizTown and Finance Park. Those kinds of things are going to give kids scenarios to go through and have some experiences with that.
The other thing is looking at that continuum and working with our different components—whether it be our development team, our marketing team or our student impact team—to help connect them to schools. The interesting thing I’ve heard from our team as I’ve come on board is they like having the vision of a superintendent: understanding what we need in schools and then being able to package what we’re offering through Junior Achievement.
What are your long-term goals in this new role?
The long-term goal is to get the Discovery Center done. We’re talking with our board and looking at financials. We’re excited about it. Hopefully, within the next six to seven months, we can get that started, and there’ll be an announcement.
One of the things that attracted me to this position was the Discovery Center. I’ve been so blessed by the different resources that this community has to offer. I wanted to be able to give back to the community that has poured so much into me. This was an opportunity for me to be able to do that.
When I left education, I still wanted to have a connection with kids, and this role allows me to do that. So my long-term goals are to continue to be involved in what’s happening in our kids’ education in this community.
What do you want people to know about Junior Achievement?
Coming out of COVID, people kind of forgot about Junior Achievement because we weren’t able to go into the classrooms. We’ve talked a lot about remarketing what Junior Achievement is: that mission to help kids understand financial, entrepreneurship, college and career skills.
We’re hearing so much from our business partners that the labor just isn’t there. How can we work with them to help build that pipeline coming out of our schools, continue to provide that labor and have a successful community? It’s important for Junior Achievement to be at that table and part of that conversation.
How can people get involved in Junior Achievement?
They can contact our Junior Achievement office, and we will get them plugged in. There’s a lot of different opportunities. We have business partners that came to JobSpark. We have our Adopt a School program, where different organizations or businesses can support our school programs that teach skills within the classrooms. We can plug people in wherever they’re interested in getting involved.