Kerlin Motor Company, Tippecanoe Valley High School, and members of the local community raised $4,600 for Tippecanoe Valley’s Boomerang Backpack program at the Drive 4 UR School test-drive event during the fall semester.

Rick Kerlin, owner of Kerlin Motor Co., officially presented a check to the board of trustees at the Jan. 16 board meeting.

More than 200 people test-drove a Ford vehicle in the high school parking lot on September 2^nd as part of Ford Motor Company’s Drive 4 UR School program.

Ford Motor Company donated $20 for each test drive with funds going to Boomerang Backpacks, a program that provides food for students and their families throughout the weekend.

To date, Ford dealerships across the country have helped raised more than $30 million for local schools and non-profits with the Drive 4 UR School and Drive 4 UR Community programs.

Pictured from left to right: Rick Kerlin, owner of Kerlin Motor Company, and Jon Hutton, assistant principal at Tippecanoe Valley High School

Twenty years ago, Tippecanoe Valley High School offered many hands on programs in the areas of Agriculture, Art, Printing, Drafting, and a few others.  Today classes across the curriculum offer students many more opportunities to work with their hands or with technology. At the high school and middle school all students are one-to-one with laptops or tablets for use in their daily classes. Teachers utilize a program called Chalkable, a learning management system, which is similar to the blackboard programs at the college level, to share assignments, give feedback and collaborate. Classes like Project Lead the Way use specialized computer programs to instruct students as well as give hands on experiences in programming, drafting, architecture, and office systems.

In business classes this year, TVHS offers a programming class in which students learn and use different computer languages and systems to program. In Digital Applications students can earn Microsoft Certifications in different programs like EXCEL, Publisher, PowerPoint, One Note and many others.  We are proudly displaying their accomplishments to both acknowledge them and encourage others to follow this path. Students are better prepared for their future with these skills and leave ready for tasks they need to perform in college or the workplace.

Students experience greater opportunities this year to engage in career path exploration than ever before. Tippecanoe Valley provides daily bus transportation to the Warsaw Area Career Center (WACC) where students participate in a variety of career and technical education programs (formerly known as vocational education). Tippecanoe Valley, Warsaw, and Whitko are all partners in a vocational cooperative which offers classes to students through the WACC.  Students at the WACC are taking part in a variety of courses like Culinary Arts, Early Childhood Development, Precision Machining, Broadcasting, and Health Sciences (this is actually a Certified Nursing Assistant program), Criminology, Aviation, Marketing, and Business Foundations. Tippecanoe Valley has created an opportunity for students who otherwise would not have access to these programs. The result has been the number of students involved has more than tripled from previous years.

TVHS continues to add college level classes to allow students the opportunity to begin their college experience while still in high school. Advanced College Placement Composition was added last year followed this year by Advanced College Placement Literature. Students can also explore possible careers as well as earn dual credit in the areas of business, mathematics, foreign language, US history, engineering, and political science.  As we continue to broaden our class offerings for students, we hope to encourage students to take advantage of the potential opportunities to earn enough credits over the course of their four years at Tippecanoe Valley High School to equal a year of college.  This serves both a financial and time saving benefit for our students and supports Tippecanoe Valley’s vision of doing whatever it takes to equip students to be outstanding – today, tomorrow, and beyond.

At Tippecanoe Valley we are not waiting for the future.  We are making it today.