A new Vision for education: Union City project aims to give students a path to starting their careers at home

April 25, 2024 -- On a chilly December morning, a former eyesore of a historic building is bustling with activity.

Located at a key intersection in downtown Union City, Indiana, high school students are assembling shelving and installing equipment, preparing part of the first floor to house their printing business. On the second floor, contractors are putting up drywall, an early step toward transforming the space into the future home of classrooms for medical training, Randolph Eastern School Corp.'s esports program, and more.

It's all part of turning the old Apothecary Shoppe building into the Vision Corner Learning Center, a project that's been three years in the making.

"A lot of people judge a community by its downtown," Union City Mayor Chad Spence said. "It's one thing to restore a building. It's another to give it a purpose for the community."

Vision Corner's purpose is varied. It's meant to serve as a spark that leads to further revitalization of downtown. It's meant to be an incubator for economic development in the city and around the region. And it's meant to give students who might otherwise struggle to see a future for themselves in East-Central Indiana a sense that they don't have to leave home in search of better opportunities.

"The kids have gotten really energized by it," Spence said. "They're part of the development for these spaces. It's created buy-in, fostered teamwork, and ownership of the project.

"I want them to be lured into staying, but if they don't stay, I want to foster a fondness that will bring them back here one day or at least will drive them to support the community in the future. We want them to have strong ties to the area."

Phase One

Vision Corner is a standalone nonprofit led by Karen Lloyd, the project's executive director. Funding has come from several sources, including state grants, Randolph County government, and local partners and businesses.

The first occupants for the building are two Union City Junior-Senior High School student-based organizations: Apache Design and KISS-TV. Both have been in operation for decades. KISS-TV -- on the air since 1972 -- is one of only four school-based TV stations in the state while Apache has been designing and printing custom apparel since the 1980s, one of the first student-based businesses in the country.

"We want to bring the kids downtown and let them showcase their skills in front of the community," Spence said. "It also gives the kids a real-life experience in a downtown setting."

The old Apothecary Shoppe building -- also known as the Kerr Block -- was the ideal choice for where to set up the Vision Corner project.

"We needed something that was big enough for the original objectives, but we also wanted something that was very conspicuous. We wanted something front and center to accomplish our goal of engraining our youth into the downtown area and exposing our community to how talented the students are," Spence said.

A grand opening ribbon-cutting on April 12 celebrated the initial success of the project, but the happenings on the building's first floor are just the beginning.

Phase Two

As plans for Vision Corner came together, the COVID-19 pandemic was raging. Initially, it was thought the second floor could be used as executive suites for people visiting the city, but that idea eventually gave way to expanding the project's educational offerings.

Discussions between Spence and Randolph Eastern School Corp. Superintendent Aaron Black led to talks with Ivy Tech Community College and local industry leaders about what skillsets workers needed help to develop. Eventually, that process grew to include identifying other areas of need within the community.

"As the discussion went on, we started researching other graduation pathways and we kept coming back to a healthcare pathway," Black said. "It was a natural fit coming out of COVID, and we quickly identified that our area is a desert for quality healthcare."

Vision Corner's second floor will include classrooms where students can receive medical training in a partnership between Reid Health and Ivy Tech. Reid will provide the equipment, the same types of devices used every day by the health system. The space is expected to include a trauma floor, a nurse's station, and an EMS vehicle.

"Our healthcare and nursing programs are feeders to the pipeline of healthcare workers in our service area. Training the healthcare and nursing workforce of the future is one of the main priorities in our strategic initiatives. Reid is a tremendous partner in this effort, and we want to ensure each of our graduates has a direct connection to Reid's operation." -- Ivy Tech Richmond Chancellor Chad Bolser

"The concept is natural for Ivy Tech as many of our programs -- and our mission is to -- provide access to education and assist in developing the local workforce," Ivy Tech Richmond Chancellor Chad Bolser said. "This is the economic development challenge of our time, and efforts like Vision Corner that galvanize a community, a county, and provide opportunities to increased educational pathways for students are exactly the types of places Ivy Tech Community College needs to be.

"Our healthcare and nursing programs are feeders to the pipeline of healthcare workers in our service area. Training the healthcare and nursing workforce of the future is one of the main priorities in our strategic initiatives. Reid is a tremendous partner in this effort, and we want to ensure each of our graduates has a direct connection to Reid's operation."

A win-win situation

For Reid, participating in Vision Corner is an innovative solution to an ongoing problem.

"Nurses and providers are at the heart of what we do, so we need to have skilled people who want to work in East-Central Indiana and want to work for Reid Health. Sometimes it's hard to attract folks from outside the region because we're in rural Indiana," said Jason Troutwine, Reid Health Vice President/Reid Foundation President. "One of the best ways for us to attract nurses and other skilled labor is to grow our own.

"To put healthcare pathways in front of students and get them excited about working in healthcare, get them prepared to work in healthcare so they can easily transition into a job at Reid Health, that's laying a lot of groundwork for us."

Students from Randolph Eastern will be joined by others from Randolph Central School Corp., Monroe Central School Corp., and Mississinawa Valley Local School District in the medical training program.

"The fact that Randolph Eastern was considering doing a medial pathway was pretty exciting to us," Randolph Central Superintendent Rolland Abraham said. "We have a lot of kids going into medical fields, but there hasn't really been any hands-on medical application coursework available to them. That's something we've really needed.

"I anticipate the medical pathway will draw a lot more attention from our kids. I think it'll be a hit."

Black hopes his students will see the training offered at Vision Corner and realize they can have successful careers close to home after graduation. Some 70 percent of Randolph Eastern students are economically disadvantaged.

"It's inspirational. Any time you can offer high-quality programming to students who come from poverty, it allows them to see a pathway to a better future," Black said. "We want to recruit and retain good young talent to this area. This will generate opportunities where kids can see a future for themselves in East-Central Indiana."

"Some of these students aren't necessarily going to know a healthcare career is an option for them until we share that with them and let them know what the possibilities are," Troutwine said.

"These students are going to graduate with credentials. They're going to get a head start on college, and they're going to do that without any cost. Just think about the money that's saving the kids and their families. Ivy Tech is a great partner for that, and we're excited to work with them."

A vision for the future

Spence sees Vision Corner as an evolving initiative, one that'll change as the needs of the community and region shift. For example, there might come a time when software development or drone technology takes center stage.

"Vision Corner is supposed to be dynamic in nature. We want to be cutting edge and be known for growth and development," he said. "What started as living quarters for people coming to town turned into something much more robust. It's amazing how much it's grown from what it once was."

"The nice thing about Vision Corner is that it's adaptable, so we can change with the times and make it fit whatever we need it to fit," Lloyd said. "This is the community's building. If a business needs support in a particular area and asks us to put together a class or figure something else out, we'll do whatever we can to help. I think there's going to be opportunities to interact in ways outside of the pathways that are going to be offered there."

For Bolser, projects like this one represent the future of education.

"We cannot do business the way we have for the past decade and expect different results. We must challenge our thinking on how to engage the next generation of students," he said.

"It takes visionary leadership to pull something like this off and persistence to see it through. Innovative projects like these have generational ripple effects that impact employers, families, economies, and educational institutions. Projects like Vision Corner will impact tomorrow and the next decade."

"Some of these students aren't necessarily going to know a healthcare career is an option for them until we share that with them and let them know what the possibilities are. These students are going to graduate with credentials. They're going to get a head start on college, and they're going to do that without any cost. Just think about the money that's saving the kids and their families. Ivy Tech is a great partner for that, and we're excited to work with them." -- Jason Troutwine, Reid Health Vice President/Reid Foundation President