2012 APS PROUD Event 

Thank you to The Summit - 91.3 FM for conducting a live remote broadcast at last night's "Their Success Is Our Success" Event.  We greatly appreciate Tommy Bruno, the radio station's director for doing this for SEI. 

Derran Wimer, Executive Director at SEI shared his thoughts with listeners about the importance of tonight's event and announced the big goals that the Cradle to Career Alliance (formerly the P-16 Alliance) will be addressing in the coming months.  Nick Browning, President at FirstMerit Bank/Akron Region discussed the benefits of having a Cradle to Career Alliance (CCA) and how he thought members of the business community could engage in the work of this alliance.  Dr. Joe Zarconi, Vice President of Medical Education and Research at Summa Health System shared his viewpoint as to why it is important for people from different groups to participate in improving student outcomes and Jeff Ferguson, Tallmadge City Schools Superintendent discussed how the CCA will benefit a suburban district in Summit County.

In summary - the Cradle to Career Alliance is a collective, community wide effort that conduct work all along the education pipeline to significantly improve the educational outcomes for ALL students in Summit County. 

Thank you to all that joined Summit Education Initiative on Monday evening for our "Their Success Is Our Success" event at the Martin University Center.  Individuals representing various stakeholders in education (schools, businesses, government and civic agencies) throughout Summit County enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and drinks while networking with each other.  During the program guests heard from SEI’s Executive Director, Derran Wimer, about the organization’s reinvigoration in Summit County, including the organization’s vision and mission, formation of the Cradle to Career Alliance, and the plan on how SEI envisions a future in which education is Summit County’s top priority and that this county has the top rated education system in Ohio.  In addition, Kirstin Toth, Senior Vice President from the GAR Foundation shared remarks about the collective impact of working together – having all the partners not only cooperate, but collaborate and combine efforts to realize the bigger goals for our children and our community of improving student achievement along the education pipeline.  David James, Akron Public Schools Superintendent shared his thoughts about how SEI will benefit schools – working on the continuum or “pipeline” cradle to career and the importance of using specific measurable outcomes to monitor our progress.  We also heard from David Jennings, Director of Akron-Summit County Library about the importance and the impact of education on the public sector – ensuring that every young person receives a quality education.  Ramona Hood, Manager from FedEx shared her thoughts on why SEI’s work will be important to the business community – having future employees who have more than a minimal education.  Businesses want employees that can think independently, work creatively and collaboratively, anticipate and solve problems, come to work ready to work, have a desire to advance and improve, have a positive attitude, and value learning and training.  Mike Sherman, Senior VP and Provost at The University of Akron discussed the alignment of the university with the schools in our county and why it is important that student success rates, both persistence and graduation increases.  We also heard Dan Colantone, Executive Director at the Akron Chamber of Commerce viewpoint about how education affects our region.

The informational documents distributed at the event are posted on our website in the “About Us - Cradle to Career Alliance” section.

Also, listed below for your review are the links to Derran’s presentation.

The Cradle to Career Alliance

Stand By Me Video

Summit Education Initiative’s work is just beginning.  It is our goal that as an organization we will forge strategic alliances among the education, business, civic and community leaders and that these alliances will increase the educational aspirations and outcomes for all Summit County children.