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| Scott Winters, a maintenance technician at West Baden Springs Hotel, has used French Lick Resort's education assistance program to work toward an associate's degree and bachelor's degree. |
Winters’ grand prize is arriving soon: a diploma. Possibly a few of them. For the last 2-plus years, the maintenance technician at West Baden Springs Hotel has juggled a third-shift work schedule and classes during the day at Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington. The endeavor has been possible thanks to the education assistance program that’s available to every associate at French Lick Resort through the resort’s parent company, the Cook Group.
Winters is chipping away toward an associate’s degree in HVAC (an acronym for heating, ventilation and air conditioning) along with a bachelor’s degree, either in HVAC also or technical supervision. A year shy of his 60th birthday, Winters is among a growing score of French Lick Resort associates cashing in on the education assistance. And he’s a campaigner to get more people on board.
“That would be like if they passed out lottery tickets and everybody goes, ‘No, I don’t want to try.’ This is a freebie,” Winters said. “Phenomenal is what I would call it, because they are encouraging you to go out and grab the golden ring, whatever your golden ring is. And they’re willing to pay for it.”
When Winters first started his course work, he dipped into his 401k for nearly $2,000 to get started. Now, all the costs are covered up front. That’s been among the many upgrades and tweaks to the process, along with adopting a tiered system of allotment for part-time and seasonal associates, while full-timers like Winters can receive $5,250 per calendar year (the maximum amount that can be offered without having to pay taxes on it). Summer interns with the resort also receive $1,000 toward their studies.
One family is cashing in on the education assistance to the power of three.
Christina Clarke and her 20-year-old twin daughters Charity and Harmony Polen have adopted a communal approach to their schooling, as they’re all enrolled at the Louisville School of Massage. All three work part-time at the resort on weekends – Christina as a dealer in the casino and Charity and Harmony as waitresses in restaurants at French Lick Springs Hotel – and make the hour-long commute together to school three days per week.
“It’d be hard if we were trying to do it on our own,” said Christina, who’s hoping to complete the program in 11 months though it usually requires 15. “With us together, it makes it a lot easier. We’re always checking up and making sure we’re caught up.”
“We’re all sort of like each other’s support system through all of this,” Harmony added.
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| Christina Clarke, center, and twin daughters Harmony (left) and Charity (right) are all studying together at the Louisville School of Massage thanks to the resort's education assistance program. They attend school during the week and work on weekends as Christina is a dealer in the casino while Harmony and Charity work in restaurants at French Lick Springs Hotel. |
After they become licensed in massage, the hope for all three is to transfer to one of the resort’s two luxury spas. It’s adding layers to the career possibilities for all three, who are all taking on secondary schooling for the first time.
“Honestly, this helps out a lot, because I didn’t see myself going further than graduating high school, and the resort covering it financially has helped us go further than what we thought we could,” Charity said. “It’s great.”
They’re all carrying A averages in school, and their results from one recent test reveal how they’re fully invested: Christina achieved a 96 percent, with Charity earning a 101 and Harmony one-upping everyone at 102. That type of achievement is common, said Peggy Manship, a Human Resources Generalist who assists associates in the program. Associates must earn a “C” grade or better in all classes, and just two have failed to meet that mark – “They’re all pretty serious when they go,” Manship said.
And they’re starting to go in exponential numbers.
In 2015, just five full-time associates were utilizing the education assistance. That jumped to 34 in 2016. This year, 234 associates are using it. What gives with the growth? Part of it’s because recruiters like Jessie Dyer, an Employment Manager at the resort, have begun pushing the education assistance when she discusses the rundown of enticing benefits during the process of hiring prospective associates. Dyer has seen firsthand the eyebrows start to raise whenever she’s face-to-face with an interviewee and she outlines the perks of education assistance within the benefits package.
Other companies offer similar programs, Dyer said. But some restrict it to certain schools or a specific line of study that’s closely linked with a person’s current occupation. Or, if the person leaves that job for a new one, they’re required to reimburse the educational aid money they received.
“We have a no payback policy,” Dyer explained. “We want you to stay, obviously, and we want you to expand your career with us because of your new knowledge or certification that you got, but we’re not making it a contractual obligation to do so. That’s extremely unique. Nobody does that.”
It’s not just traditional classroom coursework that falls under the education assistance umbrella, too. Things like fees to take a high school diploma equivalency exam are covered. So are textbooks and other directly relevant course materials (such as scissors for someone in a beautician program). Six members of the resort’s security team recently completed EMT certification. As long as the institution is accredited, you’re covered.
Currently, five associates are working toward master’s degrees and two are working toward doctorate degrees. Their range of studies ranges literally from A (accounting) to Z (zoology) at schools mostly in Indiana but in Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and online, too. And to Dyer, the spirit of the program is precisely in step with the altruistic spirit of the Cook Group’s late founder, Bill Cook.
“I think this program is the kind of program that reflects his values – just mirrors it,” Dyer said. “He trusts you, he wants to better you, he wants you to better yourself, and he wants to help with that.”
It’s certainly been a boost for Winters, who’s served in the Navy, worked on radar systems and even been a housekeeper at a nursing home earlier in life. Studying at Ivy Tech “is my new adventure in life,” he says, and he hopes to parlay that into a managerial position after starting at the resort cleaning floors and dealing cards at the casino.
The next step for Winters: Getting his wife – who also works at the resort as a housekeeping supervisor – on board with the education assistance that’s paid such dividends for him.
“I think she’s actually starting to think about it,” Winters said. “I wish everybody would take advantage of this. It’s a good program. It’s fantastic.”
To learn more about job opportunities about French Lick Resort, click here.