Education

manufacturing shift helps 'cleveland plus' region emerge from rough economic waters
Like most of the country, Northeast Ohio was slammed hard by the tidal wave of the most recent recession. But thanks to an increasingly diversified economic strategy -- one that saw a transition from traditional manufacturing (steel, tires) to modern forms of manufacturing (healthcare equipment, polymers) -- the region is emerging from those damaging waters stronger than it has in the past, say area advocates.
q & a: rick batyko, executive director cleveland plus
The Cleveland Plus Marketing Alliance is celebrating its fifth birthday promoting Northeast Ohio as a vigorous regional entity. Like any proud parent, Cleveland Plus executive director Rick Batyko is eager to show off the campaign's accomplishments over its first five years of life. Fresh Water writer Douglas J. Guth spoke with Batyko about the campaign's successful past as well as the Wadsworth native's hopes for the region's future.
clinic hopes to hire 600 nurses at job fair, where nurses 'can walk away with offers'
The Cleveland Clinic hopes to hire 600 registered nurses at an upcoming career fair, held March 28-30 at Cleveland Browns Stadium. The Stanley Shalom Zielony Institute for Nursing Excellence organized the event, “Nursing Now at Cleveland Clinic,” to fill vacant positions and prepare for increased demand for nurses as baby boomers retire.
 
It is projected that one million nurses will be needed nationwide by 2020. The Clinic currently employs about 11,000 nurses at its various locations. “One of the goals of the job fair is to recruit wonderful, qualified nurses from all over Northeast Ohio,” says Sarah Sinclair, the Clinic’s executive chief nursing officer.
 
The Clinic is looking to fill 200 new positions as well as 400 existing openings. All nursing levels are open, but applicants must be registered nurses or graduate from nursing school by May.
 
The job fair is a one-stop hiring experience, consisting of every phase of the new-hire process, from lab work and background checks to physicals. Candidates can apply for up to three different positions. “They can walk away with offers, pending the results,” says Sinclair. “They can get all things done in one day. And I will make every effort to welcome and introduce myself to everyone.”
 
The event also serves as a continuing education event. Two classes will provide continuing education credits, as well as food and entertainment. Sinclair expects a large turnout. “We have 748 attendees pre-registered,” she says. “We also expect a lot of people to show up, so I expect we will have over 1,000 people.”
 
The fair runs from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 28 and 29, and from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 30.

 
Source: Sarah Sinclair
Writer: Karin Connelly
what neighborhoods need: burgs strive for that elusive formula for lasting success
What makes a neighborhood thrive? Is it a coffee shop? A fistful of chef-owned bistros? What about a grocery store and dry cleaners? When it comes to Cleveland's various neighborhoods, some seem to have all the pieces in place. Ohio City, Tremont, Detroit Shoreway… these budding burgs appear to have everything a resident could want and need. But do they?
signstage brings hearing and deaf communities together through school-based theatre
When actor Bill Morgan travels into Cleveland schools to create artistic productions that star both hearing and deaf actors, he continues to be amazed by students' reactions and the type of creativity that is often unleashed through nonverbal communication.

Morgan can hear, yet the productions that he creates through SignStage Theatre help to educate hearing individuals on the issues faced by the deaf community. They also bring hearing and deaf students together through entertainment.

"We ask kids to use their physical actions rather than just their voices, and they really start to use their imaginations more," says Morgan. "We have hearing students interacting more with deaf students, whereas normally they're not. That opens kids up to what deaf kids can do, while also empowering deaf students."

SignStage is a program of the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center (CHSC), a nonprofit originally founded in 1921 to provide lip reading classes for adults who are deaf and hard of hearing. In the past 91 years, the CHSC has grown to serve nearly 8,000 adults and children each year in 14 counties in Northeast Ohio.

Morgan is particularly excited about an upcoming residency through the Ohio Arts Council at a Cincinnati area school. There he will have a chance to create programs at an innovative school that integrates deaf and hearing children using the arts. "Such programs are becoming more acceptable," he says. "I've also found that there is now a better understanding of the needs of the deaf community."

SignStage helps hearing students to overcome prejudice, says Morgan, and to realize deaf people are not handicapped. Deaf people can be found in professions ranging from medicine (including doctors) to manufacturing (they're sometimes hired to work around noisy machines that hearing people can't tolerate).


Source: Bill Morgan
Writer: Lee Chilcote
grant gives urban community school students high-tech learning tools
Urban Community School's science lab made a move into the 21st century last week thanks to a $22,000 grant from Cargill Incorporated that provided 12 MacBook computers and a Promethean ActivBoard. The equipment provides interactive learning skills to help prepare the school’s fifth through eighth graders for when they move on to area high schools.
 
“It’s technology that many kids are exposed to,” says Sr. Maureen Doyle, director of Urban Community School. “Our kids are thoroughly engaged in science activities using this ActivBoard. These are tools the kids know how to use, and will need to know how to use in high school.”
 
Cargill made the donation after touring the school last year, which focuses on a Montessori model of individualized teaching for low-income students. “Cargill is a great neighbor to many people, and a great organization that does outreach,” says Doyle. “They are concerned about the environment and they are also concerned about education.”
 
Ninety-two percent of Urban Community School graduates go on to graduate from high school, and 60 percent continue on to college.
 
So far the students have embraced the new technology. “They all love it,” Doyle says. “The kids are very favorable to it. It’s a great learning opportunity for them. They are engaged, and that’s key.”
 

Source: Maureen Doyle
Writer: Karin Connelly
csu creates arts campus in playhousesquare's redeveloped middough building
Cleveland State University (CSU) recently relocated its Department of Theatre and Dance to the Middough Building at PlayhouseSquare, a critical step in creating a multidisciplinary Arts Campus in the heart of Cleveland's growing theater district.

"The university's master plan is to move the majority of CSU's arts programs into PlayhouseSquare," says Joe Mosbrook, Director of Strategic Communications with CSU. "Our theatre majors will take classes 20 feet from the Allen Theatre. They'll build sets in the building, and then perform in one of the top college venues in the country. We're excited to be a part of one of Cleveland's largest arts centers."

Mosbrook says CSU is the only undergraduate theatre program in the country where students have the opportunity to work alongside a professional theatre company. CSU has formed an ongoing partnership with Cleveland Play House, and its productions are being staged in the new Allen Theatre complex.

CSU now occupies approximately 160,000 square feet on the second and fifth floors of the Middough Building. The refurbished space includes art studios, rehearsal space, photography studios, costume design studios and other facilities. CSU's Fine Arts programs also are now housed in the Middough Building.

In September, CSU plans to open an art gallery in the Cowell and Hubbard building on Euclid Avenue. The gallery will showcase student work, traveling shows, and work by alumni and faculty. The location was chosen to capitalize on PlayhouseSquare's foot traffic while adding to the revitalization of the area.

Over the long term, CSU also plans to move its digital and broadcast media programs, including its student radio station, into the Ideastream building. "There's a symbiotic relationship that occurs when students and professors work together with professionals in their field," says Mosbrook.


Source: Joe Mosbrook
Writer: Lee Chilcote
gund foundation grants $700k to 'bold' cleveland schools plan
The George Gund Foundation awarded a $700,000 grant to support the bold strategy to reinvent public education in Cleveland proposed by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eric Gordon.

"The Foundation has been investing in a portfolio of new, innovative and excellent schools in Cleveland for many years in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation, and we enthusiastically support the expansion of this investment as outlined in Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools," said David Abbott, executive director of Gund.

"This plan calls for a transition from a single-source school district to a new system of district and charter schools that work in partnership to create achievement gains for every student. The plan is built upon growing the number of excellent schools in Cleveland, regardless of provider, and giving these schools autonomy over staff and budgets in exchange for high accountability for performance."

The grant was among 75 totaling $3,645,349 approved by the Foundation’s board at its first meeting of 2012.
See the rest of Gund's recent grants here.
news spreads of uci's $100m development plan
"Nonprofit plans $100M development in Cleveland."
 
Columbus' Business First picked up the recent news that University Circle Inc. is planning to spend $100 million developing 2-plus acres near the intersection of Euclid and Mayfield.
 
UCI has hired Cleveland-based Coral Co. and Panzica Construction Co. to develop an office building, apartments and a 700-space garage on the property. Three buildings would share retail and start-up space on the first and second floors, with offices and apartments above. Also in the plan is more than 100,000 square feet of offices and 96 apartments, the newspaper reports.

Read the entire report here.
cleveland public library to open six learning centers
Thanks to a grant from the Cleveland Foundation, the Cleveland Public Library has plans to open six new learning centers that will serve patrons of all ages. A $162,000 grant from the Cleveland Foundation will help fund the learning centers, which will be established at the Fleet, Fulton, Sterling, Collinwood, Eastman and Langston Hughes library branches.
 
“I’m really excited about the learning centers,” says CPL executive director Felton Thomas. “We looked at two components: The mornings will be available for our youngest children and parents to help learn language, while adults looking for jobs and doing their resumes or getting their GEDs can use the centers in the afternoons.”
 
The centers will also offer homework help, tutoring and college prep classes. The learning center locations were chosen based on community involvement and interest. “We really looked for communities that had high participation in the homework help,” says Thomas.
 
To best meet the technology gap many patrons face, each center will provide new laptop computers for onsite use. CPL will team with key educational partners including Cleveland State University, Cleveland Institute of Music, and The Music Settlement to help provide tutoring and literacy focused programming.  
 
The new centers are modeled after the existing Rice Branch Learning Center, which served nearly 1,200 students in the homework lab in 2011. The new centers will serve over 5,000 children and young people across the city.

 
Source: Felton Thomas
Writer: Karin Connelly
csu awarded $12.7m to renovate building, pilot new engineering program
A seven-member higher education commission that was created by Governor Kasich recently voted to award $12.7 million in capital funding to Cleveland State University. The money will be used to renovate an older building for a new engineering program.

CSU plans to renovate Stillwell Hall with state-of-the-art laboratories and partner with Parker Hannifin Corporation (Parker) of Mayfield Heights to pioneer a new, hands-on program. Parker is a $12 billion company that is the world's leading diversified manufacturer of motion and control technologies and systems.

CSU's Fenn College of Engineering was established in 1923 and is now the ninth largest cooperative education program in the country. Fenn Engineering students "use state-of-the-art equipment to tackle real world challenges, participate in state and national engineering competitions and work closely with corporate partners to create and design new products," the college website states.

The innovative, new partnership with Parker Hannifin will allow CSU to take its engineering program to the next level, university leaders say. The curriculum is being revised and Parker is funding an endowed chair. Stillwell Hall will be transformed into a practical learning environment in which scientists and engineers collaborate with students and faculty on real world projects.

$350 million was available statewide for capital improvement projects. Kasich had tasked the committee with identifying new, innovative projects that leaders believe will move higher education forward in Ohio. The timeline for Stillwell Hall renovations has not been established yet, according to CSU officials.


Source: Cleveland State University
Writer: Lee Chilcote
higher ed compact brings community together to help students succeed
Nearly 60 percent of newly-created jobs require a postsecondary degree, yet only six percent of Cleveland residents hold an associate's degree and just eight percent hold a bachelor's degree.

This stark statistic is one of the driving forces behind the fledgling Higher Education Compact of Greater Cleveland, an unprecedented collaboration among 15 colleges and universities, 25 nonprofit organizations, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Cuyahoga County. This new effort seeks to boost the number of college graduates in Northeast Ohio.

"Every day, there are 3,000 jobs that the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and Summa Health Center can't fill," explains Lee Friedman, CEO of College Now Greater Cleveland, a member organization of the Compact. "If you can't increase educational attainment, then you can't fill jobs. At some point, if these organizations can't find talent, then they can't grow."

While this lofty goal is hardly unusual or unique, what makes the Compact stand out is its regional approach towards addressing the higher education gap. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is increasingly touting the benefits of addressing such problems on a regional level. Cuyahoga County has not historically been involved in education, yet Executive Ed Fitzgerald has joined the Compact. Until now, the colleges and universities involved in the Compact also have not worked together to seek a comprehensive solution to the problem.

"It truly takes a village to help students get to school and graduate from school," says Friedman. "Many of the young people we're helping are first generation college students who don't have anyone to help them get on that path. The commitment of these university presidents is truly best in class."

The goal of the Higher Education Compact is to ensure that students are ready for, have access to and graduate from college. To achieve this goal, leaders will create student-focused action plans, educate the community on why college is important, help students become college ready, link them with scholarship and financial aid opportunities and create a College Success Dashboard that measures results.


Source: Higher Education Compact of Greater Cleveland, Lee Friedman
Writer: Lee Chilcote
mission accomplished: 52 apps in 52 weeks
When it comes to making challenging New Year’s resolutions, Josh Schwarz knows how to set the bar high and deliver results.

The Case Western Reserve University sophomore is a computer science major, and his  resolution for 2011 was to create one Facebook application a week -- 52 in all. To his credit, Schwarz met the goal -- on time and on target.

“I’ve always been into computers,” Schwarz explains. “I’m constantly wanting to innovate, and I realized that the Facebook platform has plenty of space for lots of new ideas.”

Schwarz categorizes his 52 apps into two segments -- sharing data in a new way and viewing data in a new way.
His first app, Relationship Mania, enables users to organize their friends based on their relationships: married, single or engaged, for example. With Email Grab, you can set up a simple way to collect email addresses from visitors to your website. Using the City Friends app, you can group your friends by their current locations and plan social events accordingly.

According to Schwarz, Cartoonize Me is the most popular app. “It transforms your photos into colorful cartoons,” he says. Next up in popularity is the Mutual Friends Matrix, designed to tell users which of their friends is most popular.

Schwarz’s apps can be accessed through his website at www.amagit.com.

His project has enabled him to meet many entrepreneurs and people in the technology business in Northeast Ohio and beyond. “This has been a great learning experience,” Schwarz says. “I’m determined to start my own company before graduating, so I’m aggressively pursuing technology, business and entrepreneurship experiences.” To that end, in addition to his classes, he’s an intern at JumpStart, Inc.

Next up for Schwarz is working on a service exclusively for Case students. “I want to build something that provides them recommendations for books, events, and jobs they might want to apply for,” he explains.


Source: Josh Schwarz
Writer:  Lynne Meyer
rock hall continues its evolution as a serious-minded cultural institution
The Rock Hall is raising the curtain on two multi-million dollar initiatives that are bound to amp up this city’s appeal to rock-and-roll fans. First is the Rock Hall’s recently completed $7 million-plus renovation of its museum. Also, the Rock Hall’s new Library and Archives opened its doors in the new Center for Creative Arts building on the campus of Cuyahoga Community College.
case alzheimer’s research talk of the science world
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine neuroscientist Gary Landreth and colleagues reported Thursday that bexarotene quickly cleared away beta-amyloid plaque, believed to cause the cognitive deficits of Alzheimer's disease, from the brains of genetically engineered mice, reports the Los Angeles Times.
 
While this is undeniably an exciting breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research, it is important to realize that even in the best-case scenario, usage of bexarotene in humans for treatment is at least six years away.
 
The excitement from this latest finding lies in the potential to find additional clues in the puzzle of Alzheimer’s disease.
 
"It's very uncommon, so far, that treatments for mice translate for humans," Dr. Lon S. Schneider, an Alzheimer's researcher at USC's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles said. "People should not get immediately excited, or try to buy this drug from Canada."
 
Read the full Los Angeles Times story here.
dear cleveland: a letter of encouragement from a big thinker
Local writer, speaker and entrepreneur Craig James has some big ideas. In fact, he is a regular contributor to NEOtropolis's "What’s the Big Idea" segment on PBS. He and his partner Sue James formed CatalystStrategies, which helps organizations best communicate their message, market and meaning. In this "Letter to Cleveland," James pens an open letter to the city he loves.
new website helps urban parents find best school options where they live
The nonprofit organization LiveCleveland has launched a website which provides urban parents with comprehensive school information for the areas in which they live. Our Neighborhood Schools allows parents to search by community and zip code to determine the best educational opportunities available to them across the spectrum of public, private and parochial schools.

"We wanted to battle head-on the perception that there are a lack of school choices in the City of Cleveland," says Jeff Kipp, Executive Director of LiveCleveland. "Our Neighborhood Schools is a searchable database and resource for parents that highlights high-performing schools in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District as well as charter school and private school options."

The new website was made possible through a partnership with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) and grant funding from the Cleveland Foundation. LiveCleveland shares with CMSD a marketing and web design staff person who works to increase enrollment in the city's public schools.

"CMSD basically had no marketing strategy previously, and was losing hundreds of kids each year to charter schools who were doing a more proactive job," says Kipp. "Now the district is trying to market its own strong schools to parents."

The website, which attracts about 500 unique visitors per month, is a "win-win" for LiveCleveland, CMSD and the city's neighborhoods and schools, Kipp adds.


Source: Jeff Kipp
Writer : Lee Chilcote
baldwin-wallace college receives $1m grant to support student entreneurship
"When it comes to U.S. job growth, startup companies aren't everything. They're the only thing." That's the conclusion of a study released last year by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Missouri. The study goes on to argue that the U.S. would be better off investing in assisting entrepreneurs rather than helping established companies, because the former are creating jobs while the latter are merely shedding them.

That kind of thinking is on display daily at Baldwin-Wallace College (BW), which created the Center for Innovation and Growth (CIG) to support student entrepreneurship and innovation. This month, BW announced that it has landed a $1 million grant from the Phillip E. and Carole R. Ratcliffe Fund of Fort Lauderdale, Florida to support student entrepreneurship programs.

The CIG is designed to facilitate collaborations and small group discussions among students, faculty and business collaborators. Each year, approximately 40 students are selected to be CIG student fellows. As a cohort, these students engage with business leaders, learn concepts of innovation and work on hands-on projects. At the end of their fellowship, they also make a team presentation of their project findings to a client company's senior management team.

According to the nonprofit Jumpstart Inc., more than 50 percent of people age 18-24 indicate that they're planning to or have already started a business. Even students who don't start their own companies may end up working for an entrepreneur. That's why Jumpstart and other collaborators have focused on growing the collegiate entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northeast Ohio.


Source: Jumpstart Inc., Baldwin-Wallace College
Writer: Lee Chilcote
global cleveland officially lays out welcome mat
On Tuesday, February 7, Global Cleveland opened the doors to its Public Square welcome center. The organization is tasked with attracting and retaining talent to the region from around the globe, with the goal of adding 100,000 people to the region. Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski was at the ribbon cutting.
game on: cleveland institute of art hits 'start' on game design program
Video games no longer are child's play. A multi-billion dollar industry, video game development seduces countless wannabes, each hoping to design the next Call of Duty. Helping to train those people is Cleveland Institute of Art, which recently launched its Game Design program. Combining classes in 3D modeling, game mapping, screenwriting and sound design, this challenging program is no child's play either.