Northern Indiana: August 2025 Highlights
Innovation In Action
Each month, we celebrate the stories of Innovation Accelerator teachers and students making a difference across Indiana and beyond.
Valentine Torres: Hobart High School
A Voice for Women in Leadership
Valentine Torres has found her calling at the intersection of education and empowerment. This fall, she's flipping the script on outdated narratives about ambition and leadership for women. She's taking her message to two major stages, starting with the Engaging NWI Businesswomen event on October 16, where she'll deliver 'Your Life Is Your Business.'
She explains, “My objective for this event is to have a meaningful conversation with women who have already grown in their careers and still want more. Because the truth is, we are not done. We are unstoppable. As women, we are wired for progress. I call it the biology of female behavior.”
On November 12, Valentine will return as a breakout speaker at the Northwest Indiana Influential Women’s Association Professional Women’s Conference, where over 500 women from across the Midwest will gather for her session, “Purposeful Productivity: Aligning Time with What Matters Most.”
Valentine sees public speaking as more of a mission than a platform. As she puts it: “Public speaking has become the channel where I challenge women to redefine what’s possible for themselves, not just in career, but in life. Whether I’m speaking about personal life planning or purposeful productivity, the message is the same: you are allowed to want more, and you are responsible for going after it.”
Building Leaders Through BPA
Back at Hobart High School, Valentine channels this same energy into sponsoring the Business Professionals of America (BPA) chapter. Under her guidance, the student-led organization has grown by 30% in membership and achieved remarkable competitive success, as 12 members competed at Regionals, nine advanced to State, and five qualified for Nationals. The chapter's leadership team includes seven roles, including a few customized positions like Mentorship Coordinator and Event Planner, reflecting her emphasis on giving students meaningful ownership.
The club is student-led and built on entrepreneurial thinking and real-world readiness. Students host guest speaker events, lead resume and interview workshops, and are currently developing a career fair where local employers will meet with students.
Valentine’s philosophy is straightforward but transformative: treat students as true leaders. "Real leadership is built in the bounce back," she says, creating a culture where confidence, accountability, and resilience flourish.
Ashley Johnson: DeKalb High School
Pioneering AI Integration
Ashley Johnson is constantly looking for ways to raise the bar for both herself and her students. This year, she was selected for the Mark Cuban Teacher Fellowship, a national program where educators meet to explore tools and policies for using AI in the classroom.
“I am so excited to incorporate AI in my classroom and teach students the proper way to use it, how to stay safe, and how it can be an effective tool when running their businesses,” Ashley shared. She's already implemented these insights at DeKalb through an innovative AI Levels Chart that provides clear guidelines: “For every assignment or project we do, an AI level is assigned so students know exactly how they can or cannot incorporate AI into their work.”
Ashley is also sharing her expertise with educators statewide through her Keep Indiana Learning blog series: Raising the Bar: Unlocking Limitless Learning. The five-part series focuses on setting higher student standards, beginning with October's From Compliance to Commitment: Building a Culture of High Standards. See all of Ashley’s work here.
Beyond the Classroom: Northeast Indiana Innovation Center Workshops
Ashley has established monthly NIIC workshops at the Chamber of Commerce, connecting her entrepreneurship students with community mentors. “My goal was to get students outside of the four walls of the classroom and increase their time with mentors from the community,” she explains, with special thanks to Rosalina Perez of NIIC for leading the workshops and Tracy Bell from the Chamber for providing the space.
Her students are already proving the power of real-world application. True Blue, led by Lydia Yoder and Kyla La Rue—2025 Innovate WithIN State Finalists—received a $1,000 Fortitude Fund grant to grow their remote experience program, while student Owen H. earned over $6,000 running Frontline Exterior Cleaning and participated in the High School Hustle Challenge.
Image: Student faces have been blurred to protect identity
Dave Ebersol: Career Academy South Bend
Winning the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award
For Dave Ebersol, robotics represents far more than building machines. After 12 years of building and leading the Career Academy South Bend Robotics Team, Dave was honored with the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award in FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), an honor celebrating mentors who inspire through excellent communication. The recognition carries special meaning because students themselves submit the nomination essays (read Dave’s full student submission here).
Dave's robotics journey began in 2006 as a senior at Penn High School on FRC Team 135. “When people think about the founders of FIRST, two people come to mind, Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers… Woodie saw this new sport as an opportunity to change the way people interact with each other. He created ‘Gracious Professionalism,’ which celebrates the positive attributes we find in the best of everyone, even at their most competitive or frustrated. To be named in the same sentence as Dr. Woodie Flowers will forever be a highlight of my life.”
Image: The Portage School of Leaders' robotics team, 5484 The Wolf Pack, demonstrates their robot shooting out a node towards NASA researchers during a tour of the school on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, in South Bend. MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE
At Career Academy South Bend, robotics functions like a small engineering business. The team of 30–35 students (about 10% of the school) is organized into subgroups—Design/CAD, Marketing, Fabrication/Machining, Programming, and Awards. Dave explains, “Every student comes to this team with a passion for something. I believe it is my responsibility to help them discover that and ensure we find a way to utilize that passion in our robotics ecosystem. I run this team like a choose-your-own-adventure, where students are required to become an expert on a main skill, but then can take a secondary or tertiary skill on as a hobby.”
Building Futures Through Robotics
The impact extends well beyond competition victories. Dave recalls one student who was “incredibly brilliant at everything he did but had a rough time during high school.” During a sponsor tour, the company representative noticed his welding on the team’s robot and offered him a job on the spot. Within months, they discovered his programming skills and eventually sent him to college—the first in his family to go. A year later, that student had purchased his first house.
This captures the essence of Dave's work: using robotics not just to build machines, but to build meaningful futures for his students.
Image: The Career Academy Network of Public Schools (CANOPS) superintendent of schools Jeremy Lugbill using his foot to catch a node launched from The Portage School of Leaders' robotics team, 5484 The Wolf Pack, during a tour of the school given to NASA researchers on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, in South Bend. MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE
Learn more about Dave’s work:
