$75,000 grant funds leadership program at Fifth Street Elementary

“These are the seven habits, The seven habits in our life! These are the seven habits, The seven habits in our liiiiife!”

Hundreds of children’s voices sang at the end of a special convocation to announce a $75,000 grant to Fifth Street Elementary.

The grant, provided through the combined efforts of Old National Bank Foundation and the Dubois County Community Foundation, will assist in further implementing a special leadership course The Leader in Me based on Dr. Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

“We really, really sought after this grant because what we have is a vision beyond our resources,” Fifth Street Principal Leah Jessee said through tears. “And you guys made that happen. So thank you.”

The Leader in Me is FranklinCovey’s whole school transformation process. It teaches 21st-century leadership and life skills to students and creates a culture of student empowerment based on the idea that every child can be a leader.

“Leadership is not a position necessarily, it is actually a choice,” Jessee said. “So, our focus is learning through the lens of leadership.”

According to Jessee, she got excited about the curriculum after reading the book The Leader in Me at the recommendation of the school’s social worker Heather Goodhue. “That just sparked. It only takes a spark to get a fire going,” she said. “Everyone here is 100 percent committed to this now.”

The curriculum will be embedded in the school’s activities and the grant will support those efforts through the purchase of training materials, courses and leadership-building activities.

Old National Bank Foundation made a $45,000 grant to the Dubois County Community Foundation and through the combined efforts, the $75,000 will be awarded over three years.

“The collaboration with Old National Bank Foundation is a huge boost to our effort to invest in new pilot programs designed with the idea in mind that every child can succeed and be a leader in our schools,” Brad Ward, Community Foundation CEO, said.

Janet Heldt Baas, president of the Old National Bank Foundation, said the $45,000 grant was an easy choice. “Our funding priorities include education, early childhood development, economic development, financial literacy and workforce development,” she explained. “By me just sharing those five funding priorities you can draw a correlation to how this Leader In Me program hits on several of those.”

Tom Krodel, Old National Bank Jasper Region, President, said the school’s teachers and leadership portrayed a passion for implementing the program to build leadership early. “The passion they had for the values they are trying to instill in these children,” he said. “How could we say no? It is just a great day when you can do stuff like this.”