Business View Magazine May 2023

198 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 5 The School City of Hobart and Ivy Tech’s partnership has been so successful that it draws attention nationwide. First Lady Jill Biden recently visited Ivy Tech’s Valparaiso campus to recognize the program and see how it is being built. “I can just say that the partnership we have with Hobart High School and what we have built is the best in the nation,” says Aco Sikoski, Ivy Tech Community College’s serving campus chancellor for Valparaiso, Michigan City, and La Porte sites. “If you don’t believe me, you can call the First Lady’s office.” The School City of Hobart’s mission to help equip students for adulthood started in 1999 when Buffington became assistant superintendent for the district. “I was really looking at high schools and just how broken they were in terms of post- secondary success,” Buffington recalls. “Were we preparing our kids to go into that post- secondary world and to be successful? Were we preparing them for the jobs of the future?” Buffington approached her role as superintendent with a career mentality, aiming to lead the Hobart students to real, achievable careers that would benefit both themselves and the Indiana workforce. That was something that, at that point, really hadn’t been done before. But Buffington was dedicated to her cause. “You have to venture into those areas you know nothing about and grow and learn,” she says. “You have to be willing to say ‘I can do it’ and not say no. We don’t take no for an answer if we say