When Indiana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Jennifer McCormick visited Clinton Prairie Wednesday night, she wanted to make sure her message was not a political one.
“Tonight is not about politics, although politics is always a part of everybody’s lives,” said McCormick. “Tonight is just about leadership.”
With approximately 100 members of the Clinton Prairie family, including students, faculty and school officials, McCormick delved into the many facets of leadership at the Fierce Female series.
“I had never been here before, so it was my pleasure to be up in this area and be at the school,” said McCormick. “It is a great school with leadership. I met some of the board members. They are fantastic people. It is an honor to be here.”
McCormick said she grew up in an area similar to Clinton Prairie which she said made her feel very much at home.
“My mom was a spunky, passionate person. She was a ball of fire, and I got that from my mom,” said McCormick. “From my dad, I got my work ethic.”
Her father challenged her to take honor courses, which took her from Purdue to Ball State and then Indiana State, to her career in education as a teacher, principal, superintendent and politics when she elected to lead the state of Indiana in the world of public education.
“I am responsible for 1.2 million students,” said McCormick. “If I don’t fight for kids, no one is going to fight for kids.”
When she spoke about leadership, McCormick encouraged the students in attendance to get involved and stay involved in extra curricular activities.
“We always ask them what they want to be when they grow up,” said McCormick. “We’re asking the wrong question. We should be asking how many things are you willing to do. I had no idea (growing up) that I would be in a politics. The only reason I’m doing this is because I believe in service. Everyone needs to be purposeful.”
Even though females make up nearly half of the population in the state, McCormick said she only the third person out of 44 to ever hold the position as the Superintendent of Public Education in Indiana. She added there are nearly 2,200 schools in the state.
She gave out three pieces of advice which are be nice, work hard and be amazing, which is the hardest one according to McCormick.
“If we are not owning ourselves, you one else will do it for you,” she said. “Own your amazingness.”
McCormick does not shy away from political questions from the audience. She said she is worried about the teachers because there is not a lot of individuals coming out of college who want to be in the profession.
On the amount of testing in today’s schools, McCormick said she is seeing a slight shift to less testing.
“I have a lot of faith in our classrooms,” she said. “But, I don’t think we are preparing our students for life as much as we should.”
Clinton Prairie Junior-Senior High School Principal Kirsten Clark said this is the second year for the Fierce Female Series.
“We started this program last year and had four events, four different featured speakers and four different faculty speakers,” said Clark. “We have six scheduled right now for this year. This was our third this year.”
“We had a lot of educators in the room,” added Clark. “Dr. McCormick is always a dynamic speaker and I think she reaches her audience.”