This past weekend I was honored with a Lasting Impact Award from Elgin Community College. It was humbling and totally unexpected. I have not done much with the college, although I have served on several boards with the president emeritus, Dr. Sam, and it was his idea.
As part of this I spent part of an afternoon in July at the college being videotaped for this big moment. The video was then edited down and projected on a large screen just before I walked across the stage. I hadn’t seen it yet. (Here it is… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWGsbKuvupM )
I did a great job of relating the CKI vision statement to what the college does. But they edited out part of what I think makes ECC so connected to Elgin and the surrounding area. So here is what I wish it had said.
CKI’s four part vision includes:
meaningful observance, and my hope is that as students learn they find meaning in their lives. Meaning isn’t easy to define. It may be different for each person. A quality education helps people uncover what their priorities are and where they find meaning. I always like Mary Oliver’s poem, Summer Day, that asks,
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Life-long learning where we teach and learn together. Jews are known as People of the Book and we prize education and asking good questions. My father who was a medical school professor and research scientist taught at Grand Rapids Community College after he retired from being a bookseller. It is where I first learned the value and importance of community college education. His definition of a Jew is someone who questions, thinks and argues. That’s what you teach people to do.
Building community: that is exactly what CKI and the College does and that is why I am so humbled to receive this award. ECC graduates and students are everywhere. They are the people who fix your car, weld your metal, respond as police and fire and emts to your emergencies. Where I see them most is at Sherman and St. Joe’s. They are the CNAs, the nurses, the students. My husband and I can’t thank you enough! They really make a difference in the quality of health care in our region.
Embracing diversly: Like the college CKI is very diverse. We have members that were born in 17 countries, we represent 30 communities, 11 school districts, four counties. We have young families, singles, old people, people with varying intellectual and physical disabilities. ECC does similar things. It provides opportunities for people who may be the first in their family to go to college. It provides opportunities for those who don’t want to go to college but instead may want to enter the trades or other professions, It is a critical resource in the community and I cannot be prouder of having a world class community college in our community. And truly as a consumer of the medical systems in Elgin…all of those people working at Saint Joe’s and Sherman. Kol hakavod. More power to you.
This year the president of CKI is a D300 school counselor. His job is to sit at ECC and shepherd the dual credit students through ECC. Kids who graduate high school with some college under their belt do better both in high school and college. I heard an interview about this very thing on NPR recently, It prepares students for the world better, For adulting, if you will.
At Yom Kippur which happens Oct. 12th this year, many Jewish congregations take the words of Isiash to heart when G-d asks if this is the fast that G-d desires. The answer is no. Rather it is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and house the unhoused. We collect non-perishables and money for a local agency and give a donation to Mazon, the Jewish response to hunger. This year, because of our connections to ECC and our desire to deepen them, CKI will be collecting for the ECC Food Pantry. Food insecurity amongst community college students is a national problem. Balancing work, responsibilities to multi-generational families who may be “on the edge” and their college work can be challenging. So in honor of our synagogue president and my award, that is what we are doing this year. (Stay tuned for more details on that)