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THEVOICE • rockfordchamber.com
April 2021
Companies invited to sponsor an NIU student team Companies facing the reality of needing to produce more with fewer staff and managing profits in the midst of increasing costs are invited by NIU College of Business to sponsor a team of students to work on a solution to their specific problem. Openings are available with both the Business in Action and Experiential Learning Center consulting programs. Students in Business in Action get to know your business, your culture and your values over the course of 16 weeks. They offer external perspectives, extra research horsepower, unbiased recommendations and general business knowledge on issues in sales, marketing, pricing, costs and employee turnover. Participation also builds the company’s consumer and employment brands with more than 100 NIU College of Business freshmen. The Experiential Learning Center connects a company’s accomplished executives with a team of four to eight talented business students, who help solve a cross-functional business issue over the course of 16 weeks. Contact Jason Gorham, director of business consulting, 779-702-1671 or jgorham@niu.edu.
DR. EHREN JARRETT Superintendent RPS 205
We need more with the character of Chris
Chris Hodge was on his way to becoming a talented homegrown teacher. Chris had a passion for teaching, an empathy beyond his years and an uncanny ability to connect with people. He was exactly what our Education Pathway program is trying to accomplish. He could have changed the lives of generations of students. Sadly, the 19-year-old’s life was cut short this winter when he was killed in an automobile accident in Rockford. His death was a terrible tragedy — an unfathomable loss for his family and a huge loss of potential for this community. As painful as his loss is, it redoubles my commitment to the Education Pathway program. Chris was a sophomore in the pathway program, a partnership with Rockford University. We need to make sure Chris’ story is not an anomaly but something that happens with more and more young people. I first met Chris in 2019 when he came with his East High School basketball team for a recognition at a School Board meeting. East had made it to the IHSA’s Final Four. He was a senior; I asked him what his plans were. He said he wanted to become a teacher. He was already in the teaching pathway of one of our high school academies. But he wasn’t sold on teaching until he went to Johnson Elementary School, part of a field experience in his academy pathway. It was March of his senior year. As his academy advisor at East, Allen Noland, remembered it, the children at Johnson crowded around Chris’ table. At recess, they wouldn’t leave him alone. “Chris had a line of kids around him, trying to play with him. It was like he was a rock star.” Chris remembered it that way, too. In a video interview by documentarian Terry Gano, Chris said the students’ reactions triggered a realization. “This is what I want to do. This opportunity was given to me for a reason.”
He also told Gano (who is working on a documentary about diversity in teaching) that teachers are effective only if they care and connect on a deep level. “We need to know you are 100 percent with us,” he said. Finding people like Chris is at the heart of our Education Pathway program. The pathway starts with courses in our high school academies and progresses to a Rockford University degree at a steeply discounted rate. Graduates return to teach in our district, where they can get their master’s degree in urban education at RU for free. We’ve partnered with RAMM to go the extra mile for aspiring teachers, covering the remaining $5,000 in scholarships for two Rockford Public Schools students. We want to ensure cost is no barrier to attracting promising African American candidates to the teaching profession. Chris certainly had that promise. He could have had tremendous influence, not just on his students but on the career choices of diverse young people in the community. He was exactly the kind of young man we want as a teacher. The best way to honor Chris Hodge’s legacy is to make sure more students of his quality and character become teachers. Chris said it best during the documentary footage. “I won’t be satisfied until I really reach these kids — these hearts, these minds — and I change lives. That’s what I will be proud of. Until then, I’m going to keep working.” We’ll keep working, too. Thanks, Chris, for the inspiration and your dedication. Dr. Ehren Jarrett is superintendent of Rockford Public Schools. The views expressed are those of Dr. Jarrett’s and do not necessarily represent those of the Rockford Chamber of Commerce.
