HURON — For nearly 40 years, Cornerstones Career Learning Center (CCLC) has provided a variety of adult education options to people in the Huron area. Over the course of four decades in operation, however, CCLC executive director Kim Olson has seen changes in the organization.
“Our mission has evolved throughout our time,” she said with an ever-present smile on her face. “No,” she checks herself, “that’s not correct. Our mission has remained the same, but how we look at that mission has certainly evolved.”
Olson clarified that the organization’s mission is to ‘educate people to enter the workforce and to be more successful, all with the goal of creating better quality workforce in the community.’
“We’ve all heard the adage that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, right?” she says. “I passionately believe that our chain - our community - is only as strong as its weakest link, or in our world, its least educated person. We work at lifting the community from the bottom, not try to pull it upward from the top.”
The beginning
CCLC began in 1986, in the Northwestern Bell building on Fourth Street, across from the federal building. The business moved to its current location, in the Cornerstones Financial building at 3rd and Dakota, approximately 15 years ago.
After receiving her degree in education, Olson began working with the residents of the Bradfield-Leary Center, before moving to CCLC just before the organization formed into a corporation. While there, she worked with the Huron School District at its Pride High. A short time later, the executive director position became open and she tossed her hat into the ring for consideration.
“I had no expectation that this would be my career,” she beamed. “About two months after I took the job I determined that the organization was dead broke, but I love what I do, what CCLC does and the people that we help.”
Many times, Olson noted, the effect upon CCLC’s students is not see for an extended period of time and seeing former students in the community is a great way to keep tabs on how careers are progressing.
She said that she and her staff hear a great many ‘You don’t know how much you changed my life’ stories.
“What we did 30 years ago is different from what we do now, in a great many aspects,” she said, “because change is always taking place.” For instance, Olson said, 15-20 years ago, employers didn’t train their employees; but instead expected those employees to come in trained.
“That has certainly changed,” she said. “How they are employed, how they’re trained has evolved. We see more an more employer investment in employee training. So our direction is changed. Whether it is training employees in our classroom, or if the employer has training they want to do in-house, we are involved.”
Olson said that one of the hurdles to overcome is the stereotype that all people taking adult ed classes aren’t employed. “More than 70 percent of our students are employed,” she emphasized. “Many of them are seeking training that will help them take that next step up in their organization. They aren’t necessarily looking to change employers, but want to do what it takes to move up.”
One of the English classes at a recent session at the CCLC classroom in Huron.
Inside the CCLC numbers
“I sometimes say that we are the best-kept economic secret in any community,” Olson said. “Then people learn now many students earn their GED with us. How many increase their employment skills? How many people are learning English, to better manage their work and career?
Well….how many students are involved?
“I am glad you asked,” she said with a grin, referencing a printed report that was recently presented at a statewide employment gathering.
The paper shows that during 2021-22, CCLC had 593 students enrolled in adult education. Among those enrollees, an astonishing 21 different languages were spoken in the home. The average cost of that education for those students is slightly more than $700, funds that come from a variety of sources, including state and federal sources, from business and industry groups investing in their employees and stalwart support from the United Way in each community it serves. “United Way funding does make a huge difference. And Gordon Wollman, our landlord here, has been very supportive of our program.”
CCLC offers GED prep and testing, workforce core skills and other things that employers tell them that they need. Through partnerships with the Governor’s office of Economic Development and S.D. Dept. of Labor, the organization is able to make more programs available to more communities.
But perhaps the most significant numbers are four and 22,000.
Four is the number of additional cities to which CCLC has expanded since 1997. And 22,000 is the number of square miles CCLC serves in eastern South Dakota. “Oh that needs to be updated!” Olson exclaimed. “We added Spink County last week!”
She explained that at the start, people wishing to use the services offered needed to be near Huron. In 1997, a satellite office was opened in Mitchell and Aberdeen came on board in 2009. Then in 2016 Yankton and Vermillion were added.
“We stepped in in Aberdeen at the state’s insistence to pick up a program that was being abandoned,” Olson said. “We had interest from students to offer classes in Mitchell and, for the most part, both of those offices have been successful.” She said that the office in Aberdeen had a set-back in April, the fallout from which she is still working.
“I got a call on April 1 of all days, from my manager in Aberdeen,” she recalled. “I was traveling and checked messages during a stop over and the message from there was simply ‘Call me. Now.’”
What Olson learned was that the building adjacent to the office had collapsed into the CCLC building. “We were only recently able to get all of our equipment out and into storage while we looked for other space that will satisfy our needs.”
A strong referral
Expansion in Yankton and Vermillion came from a different direction. “There was a group of people from the Yankton Chamber of Commerce and their economic development group, who came and toured the community and Cornerstones and just flat out asked ‘How can we have what you have created here,’” Olson said. “In a nutshell, it was ‘How can we get you to come here?’”
Olson said CCLC began working with Yankton group and opened an office in 2016. Then added Vermillion that same year.
“Yankton and Vermillion are seeing the same evolution that we had here, what 20 years ago?” she says. “So we are able to use our experiences from that change - which was led by the advent of Dakota Provisions - to help them. They are benefitting from us learning from mistakes already made and corrected. For instance, we went from having three people taking English speaking classes to 280 wanting to take that class.”
One thing that Olson stresses is that everything is Cornerstones. It’s not Cornerstones-Aberdeen and such. “We’re one organization - one business united. So every person, no matter where they are enrolled has access to the same program. That is because of the biggest change we’ve seen in the education format, all due to COVID.”
Learning and access
Like nearly every ‘people’ business, CCLC was hit hard in March of 2020 when COVID struck. The different offices were already linked, so making all of the offerings available in an online format happened quickly. Just as the state’s school systems learned is that while remote learning does work, there is a benefit to all from meeting in person.
“Our teachers in Aberdeen are going through that again right now,” she noted. “They have been teaching remotely and holding small classes in some of our community partner’s spaces - libraries, some schools - to meet with students. They really are looking forward to getting back together again.”
Going hand-in-hand with remote learning is an area that the state has experienced a huge push recently - digital equity.
“This should have happened earlier,” Olson said. “Digital equity is building a baseline where everyone has good digital access; good, quality access to the internet. And not just a step up from the dial-up access that many of us remember! Everyone should have access and the ability to stream at a minimum.”
Olson said that it is happening. “I just got high speed internet in my home outside Huron a year ago!”
More and more access to the internet has become less of a ‘want’ and more of a ‘need,’ Olson believes, offering a fitting simile.
“It’s not like people can’t live without electricity,” she said, “however the way we live today, we really NEED electricity. The way we live and the world operates, we need access to the internet.”
The next step, once the world is connected, is training on accessing that wealth of information in a safe way - digital security. “We train students to understand that if you are online for education or whatever, you are exposed and you have to think about that safety factor.”
“The world exists on this,” she said as she held up her smart phone. “How do you keep it safe and still use it to its fullest potential?”
Olson noted that she and her staff work with tech every day. “There is no way to stay ahead of one’s ability to circumvent any type of safety app that can be installed,” she said. “So it is paramount that understand safety and responsibility.”
Among those classes are education on ‘phishing,’ banking online and other security measures. “We create these classes with state funding, so we are able to teach our students. Again, a community is only as strong as its weakest link.”
Starlyn Williams, an instructor and employment specialist in the Yankton office, conducts a class online using Zoom.
It’s the people
CCLC employs 24 full and part-time employees and all are available to help throughout the organization. “For instance,” Olson said, “our math teacher is in Aberdeen and she has made her life into making math the best it can be for adults. She teaches one class at night, but she is our ‘math person’ for everyone.”
Each week, staff from all locations jump online and hold a meeting and every day, Olson said that either she or Becki Lemke, her right hand, speaks with each staff person online or via telephone. Using technology has allowed all of the staff to be linked and able to stay in touch.
“I am in awe of my employees every day,” Olson said. “All of the people who work at Cornerstones are AMAZING and all have skills and talents that they bring. And that is a value to the businesses and industries with which we partner. ‘You have what need? Well guess what, we can supply the training to help you meet that need!’”
Olson shared a story of a recent student who completed the CCLC citizenship course and attained her U.S. citizenship. “And that class is offered in person or online wherever,” Olson said. “But what happened is that this student completed the work and asked the instructor if she would take her to vote. That is the first thing she wanted to do as a citizen. She wanted to vote.”
Onward to the future
“It has been an interesting ride for certain,” Olson said. “As a business, we’re never going to be flush - we are a not-for-profit - but we’ve arrived at the point where we aren’t worried about a check bouncing. We have a cushion. Teachers need to know that they aren’t suddenly going to be out of a job.”
“I know I make a difference, but I am totally driven to maintain an organization that is solid and strong for those people who are SO invested in our students and that’s our teachers,” she said. “Their focus is on the students and they shouldn’t have to worry having a job in a month. That’s my job.”
She has also learned that students have different motivations. Perhaps it is to advance personally, to take on more responsibility.
Maybe it is a way to show their children a good example of how putting in the work can lead to something better. “If we can give the adult a positive learning experience, they are much more liable to pass on that positive attitude to learning to their children. And that is a win-win all around.”
The organization has also learned to look at problems with a different perspective. By asking ‘Have you thought of ….?’ and then following that with ‘How can we help achieve that?’
“Sometimes it’s as simple as listening to find out what the obstacle is, and then showing them the tools to overcome that obstacle.”
Everything eventually turns back toward the CCLC mission.
“We are a tool for use in the community - any community,” Olson said. “And if a community wishes to grow and prosper, why wouldn’t you use EVERY tool in the toolbox to make that possible?”
She said that she is very excited about the upgrade of CTE (Career Technical Education) taking place at Huron High School, as it is an additional tool to help the community grow.
In the end, it is about creating a better community.
“Our success at CCLC is not measured in dollars and cents,” she said. “It’s measured in real, live people, who we’ve helped achieve what they want to do. That’s our reward. Strengthening the community’s weakest link.”
