By EMILY TRACY, guest columnist

One very important role I have as the incoming superintendent is to learn about the district, the great people here, the needs centered around this school community and the work that has been done to meet those needs.

I am proud that in just a short amount of time, I have learned that Brown County Schools and its community partners have jointly developed and adopted the graduate profile. This profile is our promise; a promise to do everything we can to ensure that every one of our students graduates with the knowledge, skills and attitudes identified to be prepared for next steps in career and life success.

All efforts of Brown County Schools are coalescing around developing career and life readiness among our graduates, and these expectations are spelled out in our graduate Profile.

The graduate profile focuses on five attributes: Communication, engagement, innovation, work ethic and social/emotional wellness. Within these five areas lie the knowledge, skills and attributes needed for a young person to make a successful transition to careers and further education. It includes a progression of knowledge and skills leading to credentials, certificates and/or college — whether that is a one year, two year, and/or four year degree program — and ultimately to a self-sustaining career.

The BCS graduate profile is as follows.

Communication: Apply skills to clearly, effectively and convincingly express ideas and messages to others appropriate to the environment.

Engagement: Meaningful student involvement throughout the community and learning environments.

Innovation: To introduce changes and new ideas in the way something is done or made that adds value by addressing a specific challenge.

Work ethic: A set of values centered on the importance of doing work and reflected especially in a desire or determination to work hard.

Social/emotional wellness: The capacity to understand and manage emotions, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

To make good on the promise within the graduate profile, Brown County Schools administrators, teachers and counselors are updating curriculum and actively creating learning experiences that are intentionally designed to develop and grow these competencies.

Educators are working together to link these learning experiences from one grade level to the next with curriculum, learning standards, classroom activities and experiences with community and business and industry partners.

The Indiana Department of Education has worked hard to build out direction for Brown County and other school corporations to include employability skills standards. These standards were established in conjunction with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development and have been approved by the Indiana State Board of Education. We at Brown County Schools are working to align our current programming and curriculum to embed these skills standards in grades K-12. The expectation is for students to work through the standards in multi-subject areas.

Christy Wrightsman was appointed as the new director of career and connected learning in the spring of 2021. Her role will be crucial as she continues to build out this initiative with the BCS school and community team.

“I want to thank the Brown County Schools School Board of Trustees for recognizing the significance of this endeavor. They have allowed me to build upon our three pillar system of transformation as the director of the Career Resource Center and now through an intentional role as director of career connected learning,” Christy Wrightsman said.

“Helping our students know more about themselves as they explore their career options post high school is our goal.”

Brown County Schools is in a relentless pursuit of educational attainment for all students and I am proud to continue this great collaboration with our students, our staff and our community.

We are seeking to develop partnerships with local and regional workforce, civic and philanthropic organizations to provide meaningful work based learning opportunities. The graduate profile is the fulfillment of the mission of Brown County Schools: To provide the highest quality educational experiences where all students are safe, valued, inspired, civically engaged and globally connected. It is how we design world class opportunities, develop small school relationships and provide lifelong impact.

Emily Tracy is superintendent of Brown County schools. She can be reached at 812-988-6601 or [email protected].