Crossing Educational Center

The Crossing Connection - e-newsletter - October 2007
Transforming lives through education, by focusing on the heart and mind. School Site Café Site Contact Please give us a call if you would like to get involved in any way. Crossing Educational Center 1202 W Pike St Goshen IN 46526 Goshen 574-533-3429 Elkhart 574-830-1206 Middlebury 574-825-8160 South Bend 574-234-3266 Ligonier 260-894-3830	Career Programs Are you serious, building a street rod or a house for high school credit? If it is off-the-chart crazy, we love to entertain the idea at the Crossing. Our curriculum and learning opportunities are developed based on feedback from our students. A special thanks to Scott Keyser (auto tech teacher) and Terry Smith (board member) for their outstanding leadership in creating an awesome opportunity for our students to meet in the evenings to team together in building a car from ground up. Furthermore, several of our generous patrons have donated cars to our program for our students to repair which will then be sold to help pay the teachers' salary and purchase additional parts. Please consider visiting our website and purchasing a raffle ticket for our 1923 Ford T-Bucket which will be raffled on December 21, 2007, at the Goshen Crossing. What a great idea for a Christmas stocking-stuffer, a $25 raffle ticket for a T-Bucket. We have also enjoyed our partnership with Habitat for Humanity in building and repairing homes daily. Randy Berkey has done an outstanding job facilitating this class and students are excited about developing a life-long skill that will increase their opportunities of being employable in the future. Besides developing career skills, once again, our students are finding ways to give back to our community who has been so generous to the Crossing.
	Nappanee storm clean-up and other community service. Thirty-six hours after a tornado shattered Nappanee, Indiana, our students and staff were on the scene to offer our services. A student shared that her relatives had their home badly damaged from the storm, and our students choose to put their feet to the path and provide support. Seventeen Crossing students and staff spent several hours picking up debris, cutting up fallen trees and lending a hand to several families who were in great need of support. On the previous Saturday, several staff members and students reported to the Faith Mission Thrift Store and sorted donated items. What a great opportunity to develop a strong team between teachers and students and enhance our relationships. At the Crossing, volunteer service accomplished two things: serving those in need and enhancing relationships between staff and students. This is so important because we believe that teenagers are most effectively motivated through relationships, not long-term goals. Our students were fantastic and we accomplished a tremendous amount of work at both of these locations. Once again, we had the opportunity to serve our community. When we departed, we not only provided a service to others in need, but added value to our own lives which is often lacking in struggling teens.	Nappanee Storm Faith Mission
	Seventh Crossing School Opens On October 15, 2007, the Crossing Educational Center partnered with Granger Community Church to open our 7^th school. A special thanks to all the volunteers from GCC who have provided thousands of hours of work to prepare our students a new home on Western Avenue in South Bend. Granger officials have been incredible in their support by providing a facility and money to support student tuition. We are excited about the potential of reaching out to those in the Monroe Circle project area in providing additional educational programming and unconditional love. Thank you GCC!
	The Crossing Educational Center will be opening our eighth school at the Elkhart County Work Release Center. We are very excited about teaming with the Crossing Fresh Start ministry in providing a faith-based aftercare program for our inmates when they are released. A special thanks to the Elkhart County Council for their financial support in starting our first educational program in a correctional facility. Our future vision includes starting additional educational programs in correctional facilities throughout the Michiana area.
	A special thanks to our outstanding committed staff at the Crossing. Through helping students daily with academics, we are focusing on building relationships. This is possible due to supporting a a strong student-to-teacher ratio which never exceeds 8:1. Since the beginning of the school year, the enrollment of the Crossing has increased close to 100 students. As a result, the Crossing administration is continually hiring dedicated staff members who have a heart for struggling students and understand our mission of "Transforming lives through education by focusing on the heart and mind."
	Nancy Thompson comes to the Elkhart Crossing as a lead teacher after 31 years in Public Schools working with K-6+ Emotionally Disabled Students as well as Regular Elementary Education. She has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education and a Masters Degree + in Elementary Education and a Special Education Endorsement for Emotionally Disturbed students. When Nancy retired from the public schools, she missed being with students. After investigating other career options, she still felt pulled to teach. She felt that helping students who were looking for alternative options to the public setting and wanting to receive their diploma would be a good match for her and that led to The Crossing. Nancy’s best day at The Crossing happened recently when a previous student came in at the age of 22 and began his freshman year of high school. He had struggled with his parents' lack of fulfilling their obligation to get him educated. It took a lot of inner strength for him to decide to do this on his own. Nancy enjoys traveling, photography, and being with family and friends. Her advice to students is to never give up. There is so much of life ahead. Dream of all the possibilities for the future.
	School Site l Café Site l Contact