News

When Cass Kickstart to Careers, the Cassopolis Public Schools’ children’s savings account (CSA), wanted to tweak its deposit process, it turned to Southwestern Michigan College information networking students to create an application.

Four students in Information Technology Professor Eric Clayborn’s introductory coding class last spring were thrilled to tackle such a challenge.

“I wanted to do something ‘real world,’” said Patricia Hardy, who is transitioning to IT from a 20-year health care career. “I love school, I love my classes, but someone is going to touch this when I’m not standing there. I enjoy the fact that there’s something I made being used in the real world.”

Nathan Prim, who is interested in game development, had limited coding experience and wanted to “sharpen that skill.”

Colton Hubbard graduated. Jessica Wickey transferred to Ferris State University for graphic design.

“It was a great experience for our students,” said Clayborn, chairman of SMC’s Business Department. “Through this partnership, our students had the opportunity to develop an application designed to help students at Cass Middle School interact with and engage with the Cass Kickstart program. It was a great opportunity for our students to apply their technical and development skills to a real-world project that directly benefited younger students in our community.”

The project was made possible by an innovation and sustainability grant administered by the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan  (CEDAM) and funded by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO).

“We thought using computers would be more in sync with middle school and high school,” said Becky Moore, a retired accountant, vice president and treasurer of Cass Kickstart to Careers and an SMC trustee who approached Clayborn.

The ATM application, which debuted in May, connects a laptop to a touchscreen tablet students use which allows volunteers to monitor what each student enters and to help as needed.

When a student makes a deposit, they tap a start button and enter their first and last names. The application pulls their account number from a list program volunteers maintain that is stored in a CSV file.

After the student enters the deposit amount, the screen prompts the program volunteer to confirm the transaction with a PIN.

The system then generates a receipt with the student’s updated balance.

Cass Kickstart to Careers offers a $10 incentive to fourth-eighth graders who make a $5 deposit in each of the four marking periods. Letting students track their progress reinforces consistent saving habits.

A deposit-only, interest-bearing, $25 account to help save for college was funded by Cass Kickstart to Careers for each kindergarten student enrolling in Cassopolis Public Schools.

Cass Kickstart to Careers awarded each SMC student a $250 SMC bookstore gift card made possible through the grant.

Cass Kickstart to Careers is one of 18 programs enrolling students in the Michigan CSA Network, a statewide initiative CEDAM leads.

During the 2024-25 academic year, CEDAM administered and LEO funded more than $450,000 to Michigan CSA programs through such grants.              

“We didn’t build an app per se,” Clayborn said. “Apps are more for your phone. The application we did was coding for software installed on the laptop to help interface with the students at the middle school. This was an introductory class with no prerequisites, so many students, like Patricia, knew nothing about coding. They went from zero to 100 by the end of the semester.”

“I’m looking at going into the IT portion of health care,” said Hardy, of Sister Lakes, who trained for her first career in phlebotomy at SMC. She grew up in Watervliet.

“I worked in a lab. I drew blood, swabbed noses and throats and made slides for 20 years. The hospital sold the lab to a random outside company. I had met a ceiling with the degree I had, so no matter what I did, I needed to go back to school to get another degree to move beyond where I was. IT kept coming up every time I took a career test. I actually got a couple of scholarships that paid for everything. I could choose whatever I wanted, as long as I went to my local college. I chose IT and am having a blast! Because I have that work life experience, I get probably three job offers a week.”

“Game development stuff” motivated Prim, of Sister Lakes, who works at the on-campus Help Desk. “As a part of that, you have to know your way around a computer. A lot of those jobs require college. Like Patricia, I’ve had a great time here, learning IT. Mr. Clayborn and Mr. (Professor Andrew) Churchill are both great teachers. They push you.”

“You don’t actually need experience for making video games,” Prim said. “I have been making a game for about the last two years. I’m hoping people will buy it when I release it. I might also do a help desk job at a bigger company.”