Q&A with Lisa Noble and Chris Hollinden of Tell City Jr.-Sr. High School
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
In March, Tell City Jr.-Sr. High School was named a School of Excellence Award winner by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. The southwest Indiana school was one of 27 schools nationwide to receive the honor from the American College Application Campaign (ACAC).
All 86 members of Tell City’s graduating class of 2023 participated in the campaign, submitting 200 college applications. Lisa Noble, school counselor, and Chris Hollinden, assistant principal, spoke with Inside INdiana Business about the activities and programs they use to encourage postsecondary success.
What is the ACAC?
Noble: The ACAC was something we applied for back in the fall. We received notice earlier this semester that we would be awarded for our state. The goal is to increase the number of first-generation college students from low-income families pursuing college or some type of other higher education credential or training.
It’s an effort that coincides with our College GO! campaign that the state puts on annually, and Learn More Indiana is a big part of that, where we have an all-hands-on-deck approach in the fall to work with students on applying to college.
Tell me more about the Indiana College GO! campaign.
Noble: We’ve been doing that for several years now, probably since its inception. It used to be College Go Week, and now it’s turned into a season. Most applications roll out on August 1, so when we get into school, seniors know it’s go time in terms of applying if they are headed to a two- or four-year college.
Go Week is a celebrated week that’s typically the third week of September, and we have a week-long activity calendar. Learn More Indiana puts out a virtual magazine. There are various colleges that get on board with waiving application fees for that week so students can apply for free. All students, not just students with waivers based on whether they’re a 21st Century Scholar or if they are low income.
We really push that, and we highlight what schools those are so students can apply to more schools than what they maybe would typically. The average college application is anywhere from $20 to $40 each. And then we do different activities. We have dress-up days that week to highlight various things like college logos, military logos, team jerseys. We have different announcements to highlight the college-going culture. We do mascot trivia, scavenger hunts.
Hollinden: There’s also the Tour of Opportunity. We’ve done that now for about eight or nine years. We take 8th graders from all the county schools to Ivy Tech, Waupaca Foundry, ATTC Manufacturing, Perry County Memorial Hospital. We highlight the largest employers in our county. We want to show them the basic jobs but we also want to highlight some of the more high-level jobs that take further credentialing post high school.
We try to destigmatize the belief that a lot of kids have that you can’t get high-level professional jobs in our county. It’s just a good outreach chance for us to show our kids there are opportunities here locally, and you don’t have to take them, but if you want to live in this area, there are opportunities for you.
Noble: We are a sanctioned site for the Indiana Association for College Admissions Counseling, which puts us on the map for all of the counselors across the state at public and independent colleges. They give us a date, put it on the schedule and then the statewide counselors know when it is.
We average probably 30 to 35 colleges that come in the fall during Go Week to our fair, and then that gives our students access. We have a one-stop shop where the juniors and seniors can meet with them one-on-one, and we can schedule individual Zoom calls and visits.
What other types of college-prep programs do you have?
Noble: Through Marksmen Early College, we offer the Indiana College Core. All the state colleges in Indiana have to take this bundle of 10 courses or 30 credit hours. If you’re going to a state college, they’re required to accept it as is. It’s supposed to be a hassle-free bundle where you’re going to enter as a sophomore. Those classes are going to transfer in. They’re not having to retake the same course because they’ve already taken it in high school.
We’re almost at 10 years now that we’ve offered it. Once we realized it existed mid-year, we were able to automatically get three students through the first year. About 45% of our seniors will graduate with it this year.
Hollinden: From a financial standpoint, our parents are over the moon with it. It saves them a ton of time, being able to knock out electives before they go. We see a lot of our kids go down two paths. One is they’ll graduate college in three years with a solid degree. Or two, which has become more and more commonplace, some kids still want to go to college for four years, but they want to double major now. We’ve also had a couple of triple majors.
The ACAC said, “By meeting students where they are — in school, during the school day — the winning schools are removing many of the common obstacles students face in applying to college.” Why is that in-school distinction important?
Noble: As a corporation, we are close to 50% free and reduced meals. Parents are working. Parents are working out of town. There are other siblings in the home. There are a lot of different variables that keep people busy.
It’s just like homework. If you can help them while you have them, to make sure that not only that they’re learning something in the classroom but that they’re getting done what you want them to get done while you have them right in front of you to help them, it’s the accountability piece.
It also takes the burden off of them not only procrastinating getting it done but just the fear of not knowing how to do it. Sometimes they’re afraid to get started, or they don’t know how to get started. I had a student in my office putting off a scholarship essay. I wrote a sentence for each of the paragraphs, and they took off writing it.
Being there as a built-in resource helps them feel a little more confident in doing it. Because we are a small school, we pride ourselves on the fact that we know our kids. By the time these kids graduate, I can tell you what their diploma is, what their plan is, where they’re going.
The University of Evansville has been a really great partner. If you go to their scholarship page, they’ve pieced some great packages together for students in a lot of different ways. They were very quick to say yes to a renewable scholarship for us. I noticed that they had one for their EVSC students for their Early College. And so I said, “We want one, too. How do we get one?”
So they agreed to an Early College scholarship for Tell City High School students. Any student that goes there who graduates with an ICC will get a $25,000 renewable scholarship. My next plan is, I sent a general message out to the other independent colleges in Indiana. This summer, I’m going to reach out again and to see how many more I can get on board.
What are the challenges in increasing postsecondary student success?
Noble: Location is the biggest piece of it. It’s making sure that we are looking at what’s in demand regionally, that we are keeping in alignment with our career pathways. We offer 12 career pathways at Tell City High School and so we want to make sure that we are keeping up with what jobs are in demand in our area career-wise. Whether that be health care or manufacturing or in a business, any of those areas.
We’ve been able to utilize our local Ivy Tech to help us build out some pathways. For example, we have an education professions pathway at Ivy Tech, and then we also have a human services pathway. Maybe we have five to 10 students who want to pursue one of those pathways, but we aren’t necessarily going to have a full-time teacher at Tell City for it. Ivy Tech can help us build that program, and our kids can go to that campus to meet some of those needs.
We also offer Ivy Spark. It’s an industrial, electrical, technical certificate that students can earn. They take an advanced manufacturing class at Tell City, and then they finish up at Ivy Tech. They also earn some certifications, and then they can go on and intern or pursue a two-year degree in electrical technology.
Tell City was one out of 27 schools in the country to receive the School of Excellence Award and the only school in Indiana. How does that feel?
Noble: It was a nice surprise. I’m proud of our school because I know that the students have great opportunities here. Sometimes it’s easy to assume that maybe small schools don’t have big opportunities. And I feel that we do.
Hollinden: The word I would use is fulfilling. I know how much time and effort our staff puts into this, Lisa, especially, our other counselors. We’re not reinventing the wheel. The difference is every great idea that seems to be out there, we find a way to do it. There’s action behind the words. They’re putting together events. They’re seeing things through. They’re making sure that kids have experiences. Sometimes they just need to be exposed to these things.
That’s what this award truly is about, is the fact that we’re going way overboard, but we’re doing it for the right reasons, and we’re finding success doing it. We’re not doing anything that anybody else couldn’t do. We’re making the choice collectively that we’re going to get these things done. We’re going to provide our kids with the best opportunities, and we want our kids to have a leg up on everybody else when they leave our doors.