SOUTH BEND — When South Bend native Laquisha Jackson became pregnant in high school, she made the decision to pause her education. Now 41 years old, Jackson has founded her own catering company and nonprofit organization, earned a college degree in hospitality administration, will graduate in 2025 with a culinary arts degree and plans to open a culinary school.
Jackson said the “start of the next chapter” in her life began when she enrolled in the South Bend Community School Corp. (SBCSC)’s Adult Education program, where she was able to graduate with a high school equivalency degree.
“My GED (General Educational Development degree) helped me go to college, and now … (after) graduating and working on my second degree, it’s helping me educate others,” she said. “It’s very important that once you get educated, you can be an educator. And so I’m super excited about how now I’m able to learn from what they (the Adult Education program) instilled in me to other people — that flexibility, that compassion for others.”
What is the Adult Education program?
Jennie Gorski, SBCSC’s Adult Education supervisor, said the program offers three different learning opportunities for adult students: high school equivalency (HSE), English classes for non-native speakers and career training courses. Last year, Adult Education had over 800 students enrolled across all three programs.
All courses are free for Adult Education students, and while the program usually includes students aged 18 and up, Gorski said 16- and 17-year-olds are sometimes enrolled under special circumstances.
The program is spread across several buildings throughout St. Joseph County, including the Robinson Community Learning Center, the Bendix Building, the St. Joe County Public Library, Clay High School, The Beacon Resource Center and the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library.
Adult Education also offers literacy classes to University of Notre Dame staff who are learning to read, as well as HSE courses for juvenile offenders at the Juvenile Justice Center and on probation.
High School Equivalency
For students looking to earn their HSE degree, Adult Education offers classes covering the core subjects included on the test — math, reading, science, social studies and writing. The program’s Bendix location is also the only HSE testing facility in St. Joseph County, welcoming both Adult Education students and community members to take tests in English or Spanish.
Around 150 people passed the HSE/GED with the program last year, and Gorski said SBCSC holds a special graduation ceremony for graduates.
“Everyone gets to walk in graduation in a cap and gown, and they get to shake the superintendent’s hand, and the board of the school is there,” she said. “Those are all fun things for everyone that they just didn’t get to experience when they were in high school.”
Gorski said the program also brings in a career coach to help with workforce readiness, and they offer tours at Ivy Tech Community College to show students options for continuing their education after graduating.
Jackson was able to pass her GED test in 2014, walking across the stage at graduation pregnant with twins.
She said she found the program was flexible and compassionate, allowing her to go at her own pace while balancing life and school. Jackson described it as an “open door.”
“You didn’t feel weird about going back to school,” she said of the program. “You felt like we were a community of people that just belong there. … It doesn’t matter how old you are; it’s never too late.”
Gorski echoed this, saying the program does its best to meet students where they are, providing childcare options, transportation resources and flexible class times. She said the program also partners with several local organizations, connecting students with career opportunities and resources they might need beyond education.
For students with children, Adult Education’s Family Literacy program at The Beacon provides HSE classes to parents, while their children aged between six months and kindergarten can attend preschool at the same time.
The program also offers classes at the Juvenile Justice Center, as well as courses at the DuComb Center for juveniles on probation.
Adult Education instructor Tara Lisciandro teaches HSE courses in partnership with the Day Reporting Program, which uses education to reduce the risk of juveniles being placed in the Indiana Department of Correction.
She said that though her students are often court-mandated to attend her classes, she tries to show them that education can help them create a better life for themselves.
“School might not be for everybody, but if you get this in your hand, if you get your GED, and you have your agency, show me all the things you want to do, because you can do that,” Lisciandro said.
English Language Learners
For non-native English speakers, the program offers English Language Learner (ELL) courses at all levels. Depending on an individual’s preexisting English proficiency, or even their literacy level in their native language, the program places them in the appropriate level class.
Alice Culp has been an ELL instructor with Adult Education for almost 15 years. Her advanced class, she said, includes students from 26 different countries with 15 different native languages.
Culp said her students range from those who never earned their high school diploma to some who have doctorates. But she said moving to a new country is daunting, regardless of education level, and the program seeks to teach students more than English by itself, giving them confidence to navigate their new life.
“A lot of life skills in the U.S., they have them in their own country, but when you move to another country, there’s different processes and different ways,” she said. “I try to provide as many other things where we’re actually learning English through topics instead of just teaching straight English.”
Culp said one of her students had called her class the “United Nations,” as it gives students the opportunity to learn about each others’ countries, finding out what they have in common and developing respect for each other.
Originally from Ecuador, Veronica Barahona is one of the ELL students in Culp’s advanced class. She said she moved the U.S. around four years ago for her husband’s job, and though she had previously learned some English, the Adult Education program helped her improve her proficiency.
Barahona is leaving the program soon after two-and-a-half years, as she is starting a new job. She said enrolling in the ELL classes gave her the confidence to pursue a career in the U.S.
“This program helped me a lot to improve, especially my listening and speaking skills,” Barahona said. “It doesn’t matter if you make mistakes, because that’s the way that you’re learning.”
Another of Culp’s students, Brazil native Ana Pereira, also works as Culp’s teaching assistant for her classes at Notre Dame. Pereira said she has lived in South Bend for five years, but she and her husband had previously lived in Michigan for three years before moving back to Brazil.
When she started ELL classes with Adult Education, she was already between intermediate and advanced, but she said she has seen her proficiency increase in the four years since. Pereira called the class a “family.”
“My first impression here, when I first came here, was this program surprised me in a good way, because I was not expecting something like that. I was looking for some English classes to help me in my daily life and everything,” Pereira said. “But I found this program so very helpful and nice, like the quality of the facility and the teachers are amazing, so I learned a lot, and it was much more than I expected.”
Career training
Adult Education also offers several work training programs, in which students can earn a license or certification. These programs include welding, Certified Nurse Aide (CNA), logistics and non-formal Child Development Associate (CDA). Next year, the program is planning to add a Qualified Medication Aid (QMA) certification.
Katie Checkley earned her Medical Administrative Assistant certification online through Adult Education in 2023, and she now works as a patient service representative for a pediatric clinic in Goshen.
She said she had been doing factory work, but after having her child, she knew she wouldn’t be able to juggle her previous job and being a single mom. Checkley had always been interested in healthcare, she said, so when she found the Adult Education program, she saw it as a way to get started on a new career.
Checkley said she is “forever grateful” for the program, finding its online platform flexible and accommodating of her schedule. She also said everything it covered has been applicable to her new job.
“I don’t think that I would have had the opportunity for this job if I hadn’t taken that course,” she said. “I have a feeling that I would’ve probably been back in factory work, and factory work is hard.”
Adult Education named Program of Excellence
As part of the South Bend school district, the Adult Education program was recently recognized as a Program of Excellence by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, marking its second consecutive year receiving the award.
Gorski said this award is given to programs that meet certain goals set by the state; for Adult Education, these goals included enrollment numbers and “measurable skills” like test scores or number of students who earned an HSE.
Though she said the program was “very excited” to receive the award again, Gorski joked that she is “worried about this year,” as each year those goals are met, the standards go up for the following year.
“The bottom line is, if you serve your students well, they’re going to grow; they’re going to make these measurable skills,” she said.
The gift of education
Adult Education administrators said teaching adults is usually very different from teaching traditional high school-aged students. Culp said the biggest difference she sees is that her students in the program “want to be here.”
“They’re here because they never got their high school degree, or they’re learning English, and they want to be here because they’re getting something out of it,” she said. “As teachers, that part of it is wonderful, because it’s fun to teach people who want to learn.”
For Lisciandro, who works with students in the justice system, her students aren’t always as eager to learn, and some of them may not show back up when their court mandate is done. But, she said, the opportunity is always there for them to change their circumstances through education, and around one in five does make “strides to do something.”
Gorski said running the program takes many people, and Adult Education is always looking for volunteers to come and help them continue affecting change in students’ lives. She said anyone interested can email the program at adulted@sbcsc.k12.in.us.
Culp said teaching in the program has been “life-changing.”
“We learn probably as much from our students as they learn from us,” she said. “It’s helped me grow as a person, being more open-minded and understanding other people’s situations. It’s been a good experience.”
Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Rayleigh Deaton at rdeaton@gannett.com.