S04E04 - Rural Innovation Series | Lauren Marie Hall Riggens, Senior Manager, Empower Schools

In this episode of Build Momentum, we are joined by Lauren Marie Hall Riggins, a senior manager at Empower Schools, a national nonprofit that partners with communities and educators to reimagine local education systems. Lauren is currently the Director of Youth Poet Laureate at VOICES Corporation, an organization offering culturally sustaining programs for young people, where she also serves as a board member and consultant. She is an experienced educator, researcher, and nonprofit leader with many notable achievements.

This is the second episode in a four-part series focusing on rural collaboratives that are developing opportunities for students in specialized career pathways.

Some Questions I Ask:

• Can you tell us more about Empower Schools? (01:34)
• What workforce issues are being addressed in the traditional CTE space? (04:04)
• What opportunities have you developed with higher education partners, and what challenges have you encountered? (07:05)
• How do you address funding in K-12 education collaboratives? (10:54)
• What credentials are you looking to offer in these collaborations, and how do they enhance students’ futures? (14:19)
• How do the collaborations address student transportation? (19:21)
• What are your goals in rural collaboratives, and do you have to be rural to be part of them? (25:08)
• What other places across the country have built impressive collaborations to support students? (28:43)
• How do you share your powerful story of success? (31:33)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• All about Empower Schools (01:46)
• Workforce issues traditional CTE addresses (04:19)
• Opportunities and challenges with higher education partners (07:35)
• Strategies for funding K-12 collaboratives (11:09)
• Pros and cons of credentials (15:41)
• Creative approaches to student transportation (19:34)
• Aspirational goals for education collaboratives anywhere (25:29)
• Which other states have built impressive collaborations (29:02)
• How Lauren shares her organization’s success (31:49)

Quotes:

“I joke with my friends in the education innovation scene—excuse my language if we can't use this term—but someone needs to make transportation sexy. Why is no one innovating transportation?.”

“We've created a situation where we have thousands and thousands of students across the country who have insane amounts of post-secondary debt and no real career prospects. … Post-secondary is important, but let's marry it with very intentional academic supports and a clear path that kids have explored and feel good about—and that leads to a family-sustaining wage.”

“Rural collaboratives are a really unique way of maintaining community identity and collective efficacy, the sense that a group of people feel like they can do something well together, take care of their kids, [and] create a really strong regional economy.”

Stay in touch with Lauren:
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Email: lhallriggins@empowerschools.org

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About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
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Transcript

Sarah Williamson: 0:05

Hello and welcome to build momentum, a Podcast where we explore thought leadership and education. I'm Sarah Williamson, the founder of SW PR group,

Chad Bolser: 0:13

and I'm Chad bolster Chancellor at Ivy Tech Community College in Richmond, Indiana. This season, we will launch a series exploring global workforce development in K 12 school districts and the leaders who are bringing this work to life.

Sarah Williamson: 0:28

We hear from CTE directors, superintendents and thought leaders on the topic of workforce development, how it shifted throughout the last several years, who is employing strategies that are making an impact and how they're sharing those stories with the broader education community. We explore how to leverage key partners, your constituents and the media to authentically impact your organization and the leaders who champion them. We can't wait to get started. So let's dive in. In today's episode, we continue our global workforce series with Lauren Hall Riggins the state lead for rural collaboratives with Empower schools. This is our second in a four part series on rural collaboratives. In episode three, we spoke to Mike Gonzalez, the executive director of rural schools initiative zone in Premont, Texas, and in this episode, we have one of the driving forces around rural collaboratives. And Lauren, so excited to have you, Lauren, I've heard so much about you. From Katie and Erin Black. We're thrilled to have you to address career opportunities for our K 12. Students. Welcome to our podcasts build momentum.

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 1:32

Excellent. Thank you for having me. So excited to be here.

Chad Bolser: 1:34

Hi Lauren, let's start today's episode by having you tell us more about Empower schools, your role and your work with rural collaboratives.

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 1:46

Absolutely. So at Empower schools, we are a national nonprofit. And we have you know, sort of star states that we work in Indiana is one of our leading states. And we broadly say that we catalyze innovative solutions so students and communities can thrive. What that looks like in practice is we have sort of three core domains or ways we empower. One of them is innovation schools. So innovation school portfolio in Indianapolis Public Schools, an example of that, we also work a lot in post secondary success. So that includes early college career pathways, newly moving into youth apprenticeships. And then we also have rural collaboratives. In rural innovation more broadly, interestingly, the latter two really do intersect a lot. A lot of our rural innovation work is tied to you know, college and career post secondary success work. But we like to really reinforce that we do rural work, because we take it as a value proposition that not enough folks are paying attention to rural. And we have, you know, one in five students across the country are in a rural school districts, and we really want to prioritize those young people, because we know it's essential for the future of our country and in our communities. And through that, we also leverage these pieces to do more policy and thought leadership. And so we, you know, look to have a say, and how funding metrics evaluation and programmatic initiatives at the state and national level get prioritized, funded and supported. And so we do that across all three of those domains. And then for my role, specifically, so as kind of rural collaborative lead for the state of Indiana, that means I'm doing the work of, you know, being responsive to quite candidly, in Indiana, there's just such a great desire for rural collaboratives. So being responsive to that we are established with the Department of Ed as an expert partner, which means we work with districts directly to help establish the sustaining collaborative structures through legal agreements through you know, sort of cost sharing, Mo use, etc, to make sure that the, you know, complexities of sharing students and of partnering with employers is done in a way that's mutually beneficial for all districts, mutually beneficial for employers, and also really adding impact and value to the regional economy as well as the broader sort of like state workforce push. And so you know, there's a lot more we could dig into about like, granularly, what that looks like, but I'm sure we'll get into that as we progress with questions.

Sarah Williamson: 4:04

Yeah, that's great, Lauren. So we learned about your work through your experience in Indiana, and your friends in Indiana, who will not stop talking about how amazing you are, tell us what you're seeing in the traditional CTE space that address some of the workforce issues these regions are dealing with today.

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 4:19

Yeah, so I think like it just to zoom out for a minute, I'm really passionate about this at sort of the national level, too. You know, I think in the 70s, we had this sort of investment in sort of career and vocational training. And it didn't have quite candidly right, some of the negative connotations that sometimes has today, but I do think that's, you know, becoming diluted and so in the 70s you had like, oh, yeah, we need to prepare kids for the workforce and we as a country really felt like Ed and labor, you know, did marry and had a direct tie to one another. And then all of a sudden you see this swing to the opposite direction where it's kind of like college or die and sort of post secondary becomes this very, you know, you get more not even just ivory tower, but to is a sense of like, well, college is all this other developmental things. And, you know, I am deeply supportive of a liberal arts education, I think that, you know, we should be growing citizens and people as much as we're growing, you know, future employees, you know, I'm certainly not one who's a proponent for like, harnessing the worker bee for the capitalist machine. But I do think that now we really have to center and say, like, Hey, we've created a situation where we have 1000s and 1000s of students across the country who have insane amounts of post secondary debt and no real career prospects. And, you know, the over promising and under delivering that we've done in college, I think, is a real reckoning, that I know, you know, folks like Chancellor Chad are both experiencing but also trying to take advantage of because I do think community colleges are uniquely positioned to skill up folks and have, you know, offer more dynamic post secondary credentials. And so I would say that more broadly like, right, if we look at education over the past, you know, 50 years, it was like, Hey, we're down with vocational and career training, then it was like, nope, absolutely not. That's only for the kids who aren't college prepared. And we made a value judgment about those people. And that then led to, like, overpaid baristas, and really highly paid blue collar workers sometimes, right. So and then now, I think we're really trying to get back to the middle, which says, Hey, it is true that, you know, I think the Lumina stat is like 62 to 65% of Hoosiers will need some sort of post secondary credential in the new workforce. So we know that post secondary is important, but Let's marry it with like very intentional academic supports, and a clear path that kids have explored and feel good about and leads to a family sustaining wage. And so I think rural collaboratives really provide the access point for education leaders to feel like they can actually substantially support as a co creator of Labor and Workforce talent. I think too often, our educators are overwhelmed by the ridiculous amount of like, excuse my friend, but like sort of the compliance BS that comes from the state on K 12. And so I think this is a really tangible way for them to be a partner in the co-creating of workforce talent.

Chad Bolser: 7:05

So full transparency to everybody listening, Lauren, and I work together in our little area here in East Central Indiana. And so this next question, as a part of the community college system may be seen as self serving, but I'll go ahead and say this as a community college person I'm interested in what opportunities you have developed with your higher education partners in the area, and what successes and maybe what challenges do you have in terms of that engagement?

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 7:35

Yeah, so appreciate the question. And also just want to name how phenomenal of a partner you are and how grateful we are. I mean, yeah, I'd be remiss not to share. You know, you and your team have asked us

Chad Bolser: 7:46

This is exactly why we ask these type of hard hitting questions here on this podcast.

Sarah Williamson: 7:52

Yes,

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 7:53

no. Well, you are not getting away without a thank you on this one. As I joke with our team, I started my career as a middle school teacher. And so I'm like, you can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can't take the classroom out of the teacher. So instead of gold stars, I give out gold crowns that are meetings and then I put up professional headshots with crowns great. Anyway, so this gentleman got his professional gold crown because he was really innovative in his practice and leveraging Perkins dollars to help us fund our rural alliance zone 32, our inaugural collaborative in Indiana, funding that executive directors for salary benefits in retirement and so just want to name that, again, I think higher ed has a really unique role to play here. And especially the benefit of Ivy Tech, being the singly accredited, you know, comprehensive, inclusive statewide community college system is just such an incredible assets in our state that Chad and I know are super excited to continue to leverage as we seek to build more opportunities for rural and non rural students across the state. And so I would say headline is Ivy Tech has been an exceptional partner, Chancellor Chad in particular has been an exceptional partner from thought partnership, funding and even talking through metrics and accountability that will convince both public and private funders and supporters to invest greater in rural collaboratives. And within the career pathways within them. So that's the headline, I would say some of the challenges, just being transparent and I love these four year institutions. I got my MPA from IU Bloomington SPIA, like adore IU. And also like they would be pretty upfront on this call to say like four year institutions sometimes have a little bit harder time being more dynamic and responsive to the needs of K 12. They have a little bit less impetus and motivation to do so. And they're also just this can sometimes be this like, you know, morass homunculus thing that can't move as responsibly, and so I would just give a lot of credit to again, Ivy Tech for being a partner in that I think some of the challenges do come down to you know, in Indiana, we have Indiana college core 30 credits that students can take in high school that then frees up their core credit, you know, accrual in their higher ed experience, great cost saver, allows them to maybe double major study abroad finished sooner, et cetera, and that Indiana college core set of 30 credits we Just found that sometimes four year institutions are a little bit less compromising in what can count as part of that, or we have a credit transfer library at the state level. And so you see Ivy Tech, just being really responsive there. Ivy Tech will also and again, kudos to Chancellor Chad will actually work with a K 12 district and say, Hey, give me all of your teachers resumes, and their college courses that they took. And they will actually do the work of figuring out who is who is equipped to teach dual credit, and who maybe needs one or two extra classes that Ivy Tech can help them get so that they can teach dual credit. So again, those are the benefits. And again, I think some of the challenges just come from large institutions post secondary, you know, being frank about it has a profit generating mechanism that can sometimes get in the way. But I also think that the ability to recruit students while they're in high school should be a key motivator for higher ed to get more involved. And I think it is increasingly becoming so

Sarah Williamson: 10:54

Yeah, that's great. Lauren, I'm curious, we all know how funding can be an issue when sharing students in the K 12. Education space, how can school corporations address this challenge? And what's your advice to K 12 Superintendents as you chat with them?

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 11:09

Yes. so the first thing I'm going to say used to annoy old Warren, five years ago, I would have been like, That's annoying. Don't say that to me. But now I am preaching this so hard. I think that we, as an education sector, far too often live in a scarcity mindset. And I get that. And I think that is systematically reinforced in many ways. And I think it is upon us, especially as the adults in the room, right, and adults in the schools to live in an abundance mindset. And I think, after I have been consistently trying to hone that previously annoying comment to me into like, what does that actually look like in practice, I actually have found that it has helped me think much more dynamically and creatively about these initiatives. And I'm so excited for Aaron Black to be on next. Superintendent Aaron Black, because again, he's like, ideal human, ideal partner adore him. And he is also really good at thinking in this way, have an abundance mindset, if there's a problem that his kids are facing, that his teachers are facing, he will solve it, he will figure out who is invested in solving it, and he will bring them to the table. And that does mean there's failures sometimes and setbacks. But if you lean into that abundance mindset, I think you can really open the doors. And so again, annoying comment out of the way first, what that looks like in practice is, you know, so for example, you know, with Randolph Houston, in particular, we're building out health care pathways. And, you know, you look at the regional economic labor, and even just like social determinants of health data, and we see how much this part of Indiana needs more health care professionals. And so we can, because we have a collaborative structure, reach out to Reed Health, who's already been at the table, shout out to Jason Trautwein, who is an exceptional partner up at Reed Health director of their foundation, you know, he came to me and he literally said, he said, Lauren, you gave me a way to invest private funding in supporting this career pathway. He said, Without this rural collaborative, I absolutely would not have been able to get my board and my team invested enough in the potential of creating a talent pipeline, if there weren't a collaborative structure, because if he had to work with each of these school districts in a piecemeal way, each one of them with different expectations, different contacts, you know, not enough students at each school, that would be a mess, right? Like he's a full time person. And the amount of time he spends with us is incredible, right? You know, I feel like he could have a part time Brasserie to job and that will decrease as we set up the systems and sustaining power. And to be clear, he opts into a lot of that, all of that, but all to say, you know, because of the rural collaborative structure, because of the economies of scale, because of the single unified theory of, you know, action and change this similar metrics, the similar systems used to get kids to and from certain places to have them go through the career pathway in a similar way, regardless of the home school that they come from, that is a real opportunity for him to invest private funding. And so we actually tout over half a million dollars of private funding from Reed health to build out our career pathway and healthcare and they're building out practice Trauma Center, a nurse's station, they've done an EMT vehicle, they're helping us build out our vision, corner economic community development and education, you know, learning center downtown in Union City, and so I would just name that the funding. I think it's an abundance mindset. I think you leverage public funding and investment to get private dollars. And then the third thing I'd say is just there actually is a lot of public funding out there in ED and in labor. And I think the more that we can orient towards a collaborative mindset, and help school districts realize that they're playing a role in workforce development and thus can apply for those dollars, the better off we're all going to be.

Sarah Williamson: 14:43

I'm just I'm a fan of abundance mindset. So I don't find it annoying. I'm just gonna say I love that thing. Yeah.

Chad Bolser: 14:49

That is great. And so I have a note here on my computer, as we saw that I was taking notes from a call that we had previously on this and it says we are in support Nebraska 32, which is the name of the rural collaborative here in our area, and we are in support of the jobs and the careers for the future workforce. I think we were in a situation where we're writing for funding for something like that. But that kind of reminds me about this question, which is you look at the landscape of career education, what credentials are you looking to offer through this collaborative that you work on? And the ones that you are working forward? As you meet with your team across the country? What are you hearing about schools approach to credentials and the decisions that they have? And then how does the collaborative enhance the student experience throughout their time?

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 15:41

Absolutely. I love this question. So you know, the first headline, I would say, which I got this from our dear friends, that Jobs for the Future, this is such a sticky, compelling, you know, stat, they have estimated that there are over 2000 credentials across the nation that are offered in high schools, when there was deep analysis and survey of what actually merited value on the labor market, only 50 credentials actually have real translational currency on the labor market. And so my first comment is that I think in the education landscape, we have this impetus to want to be really responsive to student interest, which is phenomenal and exceptional. And we want to give them credit and say, hey, you know, crazy example here. But like, you love basket weaving, and I want you to have more time to do basket weaving, and like, I'm gonna give you a credential that says, Yes, I am a like expert craftsman. And, you know, I think there is value and being responsive to kids interests, I think that's exceptional, I think when we be lives of passion and purpose, that's where we see, you know, the most impact and the most, you know, well being and longevity and individuals in our communities. And I think it's again, falling into the trap of over promising and under delivering, if we flood the market with all these credentials that don't actually have value on the labor market, we need to be really clear with students about what does have value and what doesn't. And so when we look at like, what 50 credentials actually have value, you see those being in four kind of core areas that we focus on, which are healthcare is certainly among them, healthcare is such a not easy and that it's like you can do it without effort, but easy in that there is really regimented clear expectations at each level of leadership within a healthcare institution. So it's less complex than other industries. And so those credentials can be really, really powerful. And we also see that in it, you know, CompTIA is obviously gold standard, we see the Department of Ed really wanting to fund and support CompTIA accrual in Ras 32, as well, just to highlight to your point, Chancellor, Chad, you know, we had, we've been applying for different funding. And so one of our school districts in Ras 32, you know, rural Indiana, you wouldn't necessarily think of this, but they're almost 40% Hispanic students, and across Ras 32, 63% students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch, and almost 35% First Gen college students. And so when you just take a moment to understand what an access point to healthcare and IT for students from those backgrounds could mean, for not just them, but their family from an economic mobility perspective. I mean, it just like it gives me chills, you know, it feels amazing. And it feels really important. In addition to that, you know, we also see credentials in education mattering a lot, right? Like I feel like every district these days is trying to build a Grow Your Own program. And while that might not lead to as much catalytic economic mobility in the short term, a we're like fighting for teachers to get more pay that they deserve and need, every doctor had a K 12. Teacher, right. But we also that is solving the problem for our districts. And that gets districts really brought in because that's their, that's the labor market they care most about in the immediate. And then we also see, you know, advanced manufacturing stem more broadly, some of those credentials can be really, really helpful. And especially in a state like Indiana, where the last date I saw was almost 20% of our industry is still in manufacturing, right? Like some of those credentials are really meaningful, depending on what your geographic location is.

Sarah Williamson: 19:13

Yeah, that's interesting. I didn't know that about the economic disparities. That's an incredible Yeah, thank you for sharing that Lauren.

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 19:20

Yeah, absolutely.

Sarah Williamson: 19:21

So rural collaboratives can imply that there are distances between schools for students to travel that's just you know, visually what you kind of think about and hear about what are schools doing to address that transportation? Is that accurate? Would you say?

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 21:07

Yes, transportation always a challenge? I've worked my career in education, you know, for the past like 12 years, transportation is always a challenge. Urban Education, especially in rural education, but always remember urban Yes, yes. Sorry. Yes, and suburban. I joke with my friends you know, I have a lot of friends in sort of the education innovation scene(inaudible), someone needs again, excuse my language if we can't use this term, but someone needs to make transportation sexy like why is no one innovating transportation like we need someone to figure out like some sort of like Uber share ride for, like, you know, figuring out the education, transportation issues. So that is my promotion to all of your listeners anyway, like transportation is sexy, try and innovate, do the things, especially your friends, maybe out in Silicon Valley, all to say, I think you know, what the solution is, is that two things. One is that you ask for money for it, you know, so in Ras 32, we've gotten the investment of County Commissioners and county council leaders who are like, Yeah, we need to do something to make sure that education and labor are better married in our community, because we're not seeing the return on investment, the ROI from some of the initiatives we're doing to try and co-create those talent pipelines. So they're like, You got to do something. They realize how beneficial the collaborative is not just to the districts and the students who benefit from it. But then, as I noted, Jason Trautwein mentioned, beneficial to bring in more employers, because it's a single point of contact. It's a solid, cohesive system with more students that provides an actual authentic talent pipeline. And so, you know, ask for money for it. And we see the national government and the federal government coming out with some interesting incentives for buses for more transportation. So I would heavily encourage folks to look there. And then I would also say, you know, the second thing is that I think too often in education, especially from the K 12 lines, were like, oh, yellow school bus, right. Like, that's transportation. What we've seen, especially in Texas, I know you had Mike Gonzales on last time, you know, they're really creative. They use a suburban, they use a smaller bus, right, like so getting creative about, you know, how many kids are you actually talking about what time of day? How can we be creative and getting kids to and from places I think is a really innovative and important solution. It's not just the yellow school bus. We have other ways to get kids where they need to be

Sarah Williamson: 23:20

Lauren, real quick, I want to give a shout out to my friend, Kimberly Moore, who started a company called go together. And she is working on revamping transportation for school districts in very innovative waves trying to get carpooling systems navigated through her platform. So

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 23:39

I'm telling all my friends about that because we are in great need. We hope that her org and others just take off because that's Yeah,

Sarah Williamson: 23:48

I agree. It's a definitely a problem.

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 23:50

Yeah.

Chad Bolser: 23:51

And Sarah, I think she has now her tagline. Making transportation sexy.

Sarah Williamson: 23:56

There you go. I love it.

Chad Bolser: 23:59

There's a lot of synergy in today's episode.

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 24:03

Ready to, you know, promote be an influencer? Shout her out anytime. Real quick, too. I realized that didn't get to the student experience part. Can I touch on that for a moment? Yeah. So I would say from a student experience part, I just, I think we're all collaborative. You know, we always say it's collaboration over consolidation. The C word is tossed around in almost every state, right? You know, where you have small school districts, often rural school districts, there can be a push, especially from legislators who are understandably trying to prioritize where to allocate limited resources. And they say, Well, gosh, let's just make these you know, school districts get together and like everything will be solved. A that's just not true. There's a great study about Arkansas policy to consolidate that actually was very counterproductive. So I would I would highly recommend checking out folks who think that consolidation can be a good answer, check that out as a counter narrative, what you saw was often just like an inflating of the staff at the actual school district, not a cohesive vision and the community, social capital, you know, sort of that can delete leads to town sort of dwindling out. I've had an Mayor literally say to me, and another community, we're helping explore rural collaborative and say, you know, so goes the districts, so it goes to the community. And so we just name that I think, from a student experience perspective, it lets kids be proud of where they're from, while also maintaining the ability to access opportunity beyond, you know, Aaron Black loves to say, you know, we don't want zip codes to determine destinies, and I think rural collaboratives are really unique way of maintaining community identity, collective efficacy, right, like the sense that a group of people feel like they can do something well together, take care of their kids, you know, create a really strong regional economy. And so I think the identity, the ability to access multiple options, and quite candidly, you know, sometimes it's nice to have a little bit of space between work and home, right. So if you think of their school as their home, it's nice to actually have the opportunity to like, be like, This is my professional space. I don't have to deal with the baggage of, you know, certain expectations about me mindsets, maybe even bullying, right? And you really get to focus on hey, I'm trying to take myself seriously as a developing professional. And so I think that student experience is really important. And then thirdly, I would say, it does also build connection across the broader regional community. And I think, you know, especially in this era, where, you know, we see like the crisis or the plague of loneliness, and we see, you know, trust, a National Trust, you know, Pew Research tests, you know, generalized trust across the country, will we see things like that going down? I think a collaborative structure actually has a role to play in helping communities really feel a sense of belonging, again, collective power, collective efficacy that I think is really meaningful.

Chad Bolser: 26:41

So on we touched on this, this idea of the rural collaborative and to part of this question is, what are your aspirational goals for rural collaboratives? And that meshing the regional economic development? And the second part is, do you have to be rural to be a part of a collaborative? Is that a necessary part of it? Can it collaborative pop up anywhere?

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 27:02

Yes. Second question. First, I would say, yeah, they can, you know, it's funny, because the war, we reflect on it again, you know, so I'm born and raised in Indianapolis, based out of Indianapolis, so Indianapolis Public Schools is often a reference point I can use but you know, they kind of structured almost an urban collaborative in the sense that they had each of their high schools specialize in certain career pathways. Kids then much like they will in the rural collaborative explore in, you know, K five to if we're doing things right, but often, you know, in practice more so six through eight kind of explore those careers, choose which you know, sort of career focus or sector they want to go into, and then they're bused to that school based on that. And I think everyone listening, sometimes it's like, oh, gosh, well, we're gonna limit kids choices. And, you know, I didn't know what I wanted to do at 14, of course not. But what all the research shows is that helping kids define and set to an intention and a purpose. And to have like, themed based learning, ie career themes sector theme actually enhances and increases motivation, engagement, and actual academic achievement. And so I would just say to folks who are worried about like infinite choice for kids, A, the research shows that having them choose, and committing to a choice and pursuing that choice for a little bit is valuable, and then we bake in ways for them to change their mind later on. And it's way better for them to do it there, then getting into tons of debt. And, you know, I think it's over 50% of college sophomores have changed their major at least once. And so we'd love to do that earlier on. So folks aren't getting into debt. And there's not an ROI on the talent pipeline. And so I would say, don't have to be rural to do a collaborative, in fact, it can be done anywhere, and has real value. And then in terms of the real aspiration. So our dear friend, Dr. Katie Lash, and I have first we saw some of the East Central Indiana data, and we're like, oh, my gosh, this is like kind of scary, like, you don't want to have a heart attack in Randolph County, you just don't, you know, and we're helping address that. Thank you, again, Reed Health, for your sponsorship of our trauma floor. But you know, we call it being responsive to the data. And so I think, you know, rural collaboratives, again, because of that collective structure, because they're not just looking at the lens through, I'm a superintendent with a single school district trying to protect my own, but rather, I'm part of a community and I'm building collaborative collective efficacy and an abundance mindset, we can look at that workforce data and say, Hey, we actually can play a role in addressing that talent need, you know, Can I do it on my own? Absolutely not. Can I do that with the support of other districts, with employer partners with higher ed partners? And with a really exceptional, you know, rural collaborative director? Yes. And, you know, their export partner? Absolutely. And so I think, you know, from an aspirational state, that is, it's a mindset change of like, it's about us, and it's about possibility, and we can address some of these workforce needs. And we're not alone. But I also think it is having the read house of the world say, oh, my gosh, look at this cool thing they're doing, we can come alongside you provide those private dollars, and again, authentically create a talent pipeline, that then county leaders get excited about state level leaders get excited about, you know, and so the more that we can provide that authentic value of talent being produced, kids having meaning and purpose and direction in life, the more that we can get investment to build out collaborative further.

Sarah Williamson: 30:16

Yeah, so leave leapfrogging on that, Lauren, I would be curious to know you shared Indiana, some collaboratives in Indiana, talk to me about where in the country, our listeners could explore some other places that you think they've really built some of these impressive collaborations, or even just projects to support students?

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 30:36

Yeah, well, I would say, you know, Texas is certainly one of our longest running. I think Mike has been such an exceptional voice for that work, even in listening to his podcasts. He embodies the abundance mindset and the collective efficacy mindset. And so just really want to you know, harken back to the rural schools Innovation Zone in South Texas. And I would also harken back to them because they have also paved the way for leveraging, again, that sort of way we empower into thought leadership and policy advocacy. So he mentioned Arpad, like we see different funding mechanisms. Again, if you create value in students having meaning and purpose, completing their high school degrees, getting post secondary credentials, you know, being ready for the workforce, and you create a talent pipeline for employers and sort of a boon to the regional economy. You can then advocate for public funds at a state level at a regional level and then also private funds. And so I would say really proud of that work because again, it's the practice is going well, but then that practice is being leveraged for policy change, so super proud of them. The other area would say is our Colorado team is doing some really phenomenal work. So I'm excited you'll have our lead of our rural collaborative out there up next after Superintendent Aaron Black, I think Colorado is really interesting. You know, we do have a lot of indigenous communities a lot of English as a second language. And, you know, I think some of the work that we've done to really build out interesting career pathways are really strong. I would also highlight in regard to policy, Tennessee, we actually did get policy paths such that each of their I love this term, grand divisions. So they have three grand divisions in the state of Tennessee feels very Tennessee, each of their grand divisions have a million dollars to pilot, their first rural collaborative, and each of those settings, again, as an education, you know, Improvement Fund, but also as a Workforce Development Fund. And so we feel like some of that startup funding will be really catalytic to do good work in those states. And I'm really personally I mean, I know you're out in Oregon, I love I think Oregon, I think Washington, interestingly, are at a really interesting point, from an ed policy perspective, where their rural districts are also feeling the burn, conversations about consolidation are percolating in the statehouse. And I, you know, would be really excited to think about the Pacific Northwest sort of getting more at the table in this and I would even say, the city in New York, I think, you know, I went to undergrad in New York, I'm a proud director of the Liberty Partnership Program at my university, which is a grant funded out of the New York State Department of Education. But briefly, I would just say that I think New York has an opportunity to play an interesting role given that a majority of New York isn't at all, even though we all focus on New York City a lot more.

Chad Bolser: 33:07

And this podcast is ultimately created to help elevate thought leaders in education, how are you sharing this powerful story of success? And what your organization is doing? And how you're personally involved in that? How are you sharing that story?

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 33:24

12, and employer engagement strategies. So South by Southwest, March 2024, I look forward to seeing you all in the audience. So that's one way I say that very ardently and genuinely. And I would just need, you know, like we've presented about this at the National Rural Education Association Conference in Chattanooga, recently, we continue to try and leverage some of these, you know, broader national conversations around education, obviously, National Rural Education Association, they're focused on we're all passionate about it, we don't need to sell to them. But in spaces like South by Southwest, sometimes we see an under appreciation for the unique complexities of rural education and the unique opportunities. And so at a national level, we're doing those things. You know, we also submitted for jobs for the futures convening. We're heavily engaged in the launch pathways work, which is a national initiative funded by Walton Bloomberg, Bill and Melinda Gates, a lot of other folks at the table, were involved in that work. That's rethinking making sure it's called launched equitable pathways, making sure that all kids have access to really strong college and career pathways. So we're trying to use networks that already exists to like, say, Hey, this is the value we bring that is value that you care about, at the state level, you know, Superintendent Aaron Black, the amount of times I got an email from him like, hey, Warren, we should apply to this. And then it's like, we get the thing. And we're like speaking, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, he's hard to keep up with sometimes I say that with deep love. But you know, we've presented at the Indiana small and rural schools Association, we've presented at the Indiana Association for Public school superintendents, I apps, we're presenting I'm very excited to be one of few presenters at the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and the Institute for Workforce excellences Work Based Learning Conference here in February. So, you know, we're doing what we can at a national and state level and then in the community, I think it's so critical to make sure that we're really like bringing folks along with us, right, we really feel like this is empowerment, not just for students, and for the employers, but the whole community, right families included. And so the more that we can bring them into different projects, programs hosted at Vision corner, which is a freestanding 501 C three nonprofit, that's a collaboration between the city and Randolph Eastern, and we'll house some of the rural collaborative pathways, especially that healthcare pathway with practice trauma floor, I think the more that we can bring community into experiencing it and have students speak about it. That's really the end goal is to really have students, you know, long term become the advocates. And we see that happening in Texas, you know, I have multiple students right now who I could, you know, bring on here from Texas who would say like, this has been life changing, and I'm motivated to come to school, I'm motivated to, you know, be engaged and we see that developing in Indiana and are excited for that to grow.

Sarah Williamson: 36:02

Thank you so much, Lauren. We really appreciate you coming on the show. Your energy is palpable. I love it. Where can my listeners find more about you and connect with you?

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 36:12

Yeah, sure. LinkedIn, always welcome. So yeah, find me at Lauren Marie Hall Riggin's on LinkedIn, and my Empower email is lhallriggins@empowerschool.org. Happy to chat.

Sarah Williamson: 36:25

Thank you, Lauren. And for our podcast listeners as part of our global workforce series. This is a second of our four part series on rural collaborative So, these episodes are designed to highlight real collaboratives in the CTE space that are developing great opportunities for students, as you heard about today in areas that have not traditionally been able to serve students with specialized career pathways,

Chad Bolser: 36:47

then our next episode will feature Aaron Black, who you heard referenced today, a lot from Randolph Eastern School Corporations in Union City, Indiana. Aaron is Randolph Eastern Superintendent and their school corporation is in the middle of implementing a reimagining education process. Randolph Eastern was recently selected as a national semi finalists in the Yas Foundation award. And as you've heard from Lauren, they are starting a rural collaborative RAS 32. So we will follow that episode with Jessica Morrison from the southwest Colorado Education Collaborative.

Sarah Williamson: 37:25

Thank you, Lauren. Appreciate you coming on today. And it's been a pleasure getting to know you and I look forward to staying in touch and our podcast listeners. We will see you next time.

Lauren Marie Hall-Riggins: 37:35

Thanks so much.

Chad Bolser: 37:37

Thanks for joining us for the build momentum podcast today. If you enjoyed listening, we would love to hear your feedback, and would be grateful if you would leave us a review.

Sarah Williamson: 37:48

This helps us to share these powerful stories with even more people. If you liked what you heard, we would be honored if you could share this episode with someone in your network. We look forward to seeing you next time on build momentum.