Elkhart Community Schools and Five Star Life Collaborating
Elkhart Community Schools administrators were watching students struggling in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic to make needed connections. Administrators were seeing kids struggling with motivation, respect, and wanting to be in the classroom.
Seth Maust, co-founder and president of Five Star Life, wanted to bus students out to the 350-acre property in southern Michigan for several hours of programming.
The goal was to try something different than traditional classroom programming, says Aubrey Danielson, executive director of Five Star Life, a program that teaches character, leadership, and mindset changes. “And so we said, well, why don’t we figure out a way to align what we do out here with all these cool, innovative experiential learning opportunities with Indiana state standards so that kids actually get credit.”
Transportation was a challenge. Funding was an issue. Yet Tonda Hines, manager of community and family engagement with Elkhart Community Schools, was determined. She pointed out that all ECS fourth graders go to Elkhart Health & Aquatics for swimming lessons and asked if the school system could do something similar with fifth graders and Five Star Life.
ECS’s top administrators said yes. Six of the 13 elementary principals said they wanted to participate in a pilot program in spring 2024. The school system funded the pilot and the Community Foundation’s Career Pathways Committee approved a $405,000 grant to help fund the next three years of the program.
Working with animals in a stable helps students gain a different skillset than those learned in the classroom.
“It definitely is a collaborative community. Everyone’s bringing something to the table to make this happen,” Hines says.
Once a week for six weeks this spring fifth graders traveled by bus to Five Star Life’s property that it purchased in 2014. One building at a time, Five Star’s staff and volunteers have transformed the former YMCA camp into a hub for teaching leadership skills.
As she gives a tour of the property where the students rode horses, went fishing, and hiked, Danielson explains how she started as a volunteer in Five Star’s programs when she was a high school student. Then she helped write grants during college. In 2022, she became executive director.
In that role, she’s navigated what the United States Department of Agriculture and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources want for the elk they raise. She’s overseeing the completion of an indoor archery range near the outdoor archery and hatchet throwing areas. She points to the blacksmith area where elementary students make S-hooks aided by 1,200-degree heat.
Whether it’s at the daycare in Osceola, in northern Indiana’s largest traveling basketball league, or at the property in Union, Five Star’s mission is to change kids’ mindsets. Every activity has a core lesson.
A student shares with a group during the pilot program of Elkhart Community Schools fifth graders at Five Star Life.
Five Star specializes in using experiences to spur learning. Lindsey Brander, Elkhart Community Schools assistant superintendent of student services, said that’s just as important as academic learning. Because of the pandemic, early adolescents have felt more isolated and weren’t able to build skill sets that include collaboration and perseverance. Over the six weeks of the pilot program, Brander and other educators saw a difference. “When you’re talking about what we need to support the whole child, the programming offered here at Five Star is really a godsend for our students,” she says.
Kelly Carmichael, principal of Cleveland Elementary School, said giving students the opportunity to have experiences such as petting horses or getting in a boat was a big deal. “In the classroom kids are struggling with learning. Doing that over and over again isn’t producing the results that we’re looking for,” she says.
Jeremy Bechtel, principal of Woodland Elementary School, watched students’ willingness to tackle hard things in the classroom improve. “Just the things that we want them to do and be successful during the school day were becoming easier for them to do,” he says.
Helenia Robinson, principal of Roosevelt Elementary School, said attendance was better on days classes were going to Five Star. Teachers and students were excited by the opportunity.
Elkhart Community Schools principals are excited about the partnership with Five Star Life. From left are Jeremy Bechtel, Woodland; Victoria Hayes, Mary Beck; Kelly Carmichael, Cleveland; Travonda Goins, Pinewood; Helenia Robinson, Roosevelt; and Tim Pedley, Bristol.
Other administrators watched students work together in new ways or teachers bond with students more deeply. They expected the little things like applying bug spray and sunscreen to be challenges and they weren’t. They simply saw kids learning and going home happy and tired.
Danielson wasn’t surprised. She’s accustomed to seeing the impact of Five Star’s experiences.
“I am so lucky that I get to be a part of a mission where I get to see kids grow, I get to see them change, I get to see these kids that were closed off, all of a sudden, they come out here and they come alive,” she says.
The challenge is now for Five Star and Elkhart Community Schools to grow and sustain the successful program. The six elementaries will send students for six weeks again this fall and again in the spring. There are now discussions about having fifth graders from all 13 of Elkhart Community Schools elementaries take part in the program. That will take more funding. There’s a commitment to find it.
“If this is an effective program, we’re seeing the gains for students, we’re providing these opportunities, how can we scale it up for the other schools but also continuing on?” says Brander.
This story appeared in the 2024 Annual Report.
