Innovation In Action

Each month, we celebrate the stories of Innovation Accelerator teachers and students making a difference across Indiana and beyond.

Quick Hits:

Terre Haute North Vigo High School: Students repair $24,000 in equipment and partner with Crane Naval engineers

Union City Junior-Senior High School: P-CAP students tackle crumbling sidewalks, plant community gardens, and pitch murals to the school board

Terre Haute North Vigo High School: Six students selected as ISU Pitch Competition finalists, passion projects prove their worth

Restoring Equipment & Building with Crane Navel

Jasen Gibbens: Terre Haute North Vigo High School

When Jasen Gibbens discovered two high-tech Baby Lock embroidery machines sitting unused in his manufacturing lab, he saw an opportunity to turn dormant equipment into a teaching moment.

*"The motivation was simple, a teacher's instinct,"* Gibbens said. *"Seeing two pieces of dormant manufacturing equipment, I saw not junk, but potential."*
With help from student Nathan, he repaired and restored both machines, one with just 138 hours of use, the other with 339, bringing $24,000 worth of equipment back into service. Now students can design and produce embroidered products for robotics teams, school programs, and entrepreneurial ventures while learning hands-on diagnostics, manufacturing, and design integration.

Crane Naval and Phoenix Phuel

Gibbens didn't stop at equipment repair. This year, his class launched a collaboration with the Naval Surface Warfare Center (Crane Division), one of the country's leading research hubs for defense technology and engineering. The connection began through Dr. Sara Pliskin, a Crane engineer and former classmate of Gibbens’, who helped build a mentorship pipeline connecting Terre Haute North students directly with Crane engineers.
*"We're moving from a theoretical idea to a structured program with three primary goals,"* Gibbens explained. *"Illuminate career pathways, create a university on-ramp, and provide authentic mentorship."*
Through the partnership, students like Bradly, Nathan, and Jude are working on Phoenix Phuel, a small-scale system that converts plastic waste into usable fuel through non-catalytic pyrolysis. With feedback from Crane engineers, the team has refined its design and will soon present at Indiana State University, demonstrating not only their research but also its real-world application and entrepreneurial potential.
*"This isn't a science fair project,"* Gibbens said. *"They're thinking like founders… It's interdisciplinary, it's scalable, and it's real."*

Students Rebuilding Union City

Jason Hawley: Union City Junior-Senior High School

In Jason Hawley's Workforce Wednesday and P-CAP (Pathways to Careers and Postsecondary) classrooms, students are actively working to improve their community through project-based learning. This year, they're tackling crumbling sidewalks, food access, and bringing color and meaning to their school walls.

Save Our Sidewalks

At 3:00 am on a Saturday, student A.C. left home and was walking the streets heading to sleep in the park when frustration struck. The sidewalks were so bad they couldn't be ignored, even in the middle of the night.

"I figured since I was running the streets, it should be my responsibility to at least fix the sidewalks. Besides, I'm sick of other people coming to my town, and pardon my language, calling it Union Shitty. I think that we owe it to ourselves and our community to make it safe for everyone and look nice. As it is, kids can't skateboard, ride bikes, or even push a stroller because of how bad it is."

The S.O.S. (Save Our Sidewalks) team was then formed, and connected with Mayor Chad Spence and local industry partners like Ben Poeppelman of Poeppelman Materials & Pepcon, who committed to providing concrete and contractors. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with community leaders backing the students' vision.

As E.W. put it: "You only get stuff done when you are working for it. No one is going to hand anything to you, so you need to take the lead and make the changes that you want to see, after all, it is our future."

Farm-to-Table

The Farm-to-Table team focused on food access by planting a public salsa garden near the football field where community members can harvest fresh ingredients during games. But as K.L. explained, the project represents something bigger than just growing vegetables.

"I think that the biggest problem is that people think that it's only about one thing. People think that it's just about buildings and cleaning up animals. One of the biggest gains that we made was from planting a garden outside that the community can come and harvest from. It shows that we are working all year, even when it's cool out."

The project has already gained community support, with people from the pitch competition willing to help get the initiative moving.

Murals with Meaning

Thirteen students took on the challenge of pitching mural concepts to the school board, learning how to prepare, budget, and communicate effectively with decision-makers. M.C. described the learning curve: "We didn't really know what to do, how to get started. We needed to think about the costs and how to pay for things. We decided to paint the mural so that others could see who we are and what kinds of things that we can do."

The students received constructive feedback and discovered that standing before the board was less intimidating than expected. "It went pretty good," M.C. said. "I think that everyone got out what they needed to. It was surprising how fast it went. The most memorable moment was just standing up there and letting people know what we represent."

Across all three projects, Hawley's students are learning that real change requires initiative, collaboration, and the courage to pitch their ideas to the people who can help make them happen.

When Passion Projects Become Finalists

Brett Taylor: Terre Haute North Vigo High School

Brett Taylor's students learned something unexpected this fall: sometimes the projects you care about most are exactly the ones worth pursuing.

Leading up to the ISU Pitch Competition on November 18, Taylor's students presented their ideas to John Lotz, Assistant Director at Indiana State University's Career Center, for feedback. The session was designed to help students refine their pitches, not to score them, but to coach them toward competition readiness. Six Terre Haute North students were selected as finalists, with four student teams advancing to present on stage.

The finalist teams represented diverse visions:

Merom Activity Center focused on revitalizing a beloved community space
THN Manufacturing aimed to expand hands-on collaborative learning in school
Project HALO designed a social media platform promoting positivity
Project North created gamified walkthroughs for historic buildings and campuses.

But the most inspiring moment for Taylor came after the presentations ended. "The greatest sight for me as a teacher was seeing all teams (finalists and participants) staying after to ask John for their feedback," he said. "We teach that 'feedback is a gift,' and students are beginning to take that to heart."

Two teams in particular, Project North and THN Manufacturing, had assumed they wouldn't advance because their projects were driven by passion rather than profit. When both were selected as finalists, the response was everything Taylor hoped to see in young leaders.

"Both were extremely excited to see that their projects were selected and took great consideration of their feedback from John. As a teacher, we hear coachability is one of the greatest assets of any future leader, and it was a great feeling to see so many students seeking feedback and willing to grow in their projects and their mindsets."

Central Indiana: October 2025 Highlights