Changemaker ED“U”

Scott Bess is the Founder and former CEO of Purdue Polytechnic High Schools, which has quadrupled the annual number of underrepresented minority students from Indianapolis who attend Purdue University. Prior, Scott was President of Goodwill Education and developed the Excel Center to create opportunities for high school dropouts to attain a high school diploma, which now serves over 9,000 students across the US. He was appointed to the Indiana State Board of Education by Indiana’s Governor and serves on multiple boards related to education. Scott lives in Indiana with his wife, Robin, and enjoys time with his four adult children and five grandchildren.

Scott shares his journey of launching Purdue Polytechnic and how he was asked by former Indiana governor and Purdue president Mitch Daniels to lead the charge. The shared concern was the issue with underrepresentation of students of color at Purdue University. Scott asked if he had the greenlight to fundamentally re-design the high school experience to achieve a radically different outcome, especially for students that are traditionally underrepresented. And, with this goal in mind, Scott set out to build Purdue Polytechnic. His thesis was rather than waiting for the K-12 system to change, that they would create a pipeline for Purdue. His vision was always to create a project-based learning environment for high school students with community involvement. He ran into many obstacles around the current system, but continued to navigate through these challenges with the vision in mind. 

Scott shares how the essence of the school has stayed the same over its 8 years. When graduates are asked what their biggest take away from their time at the school is that they learned to fail. They focus on the skills students will need rather than the dense content, while also maintaining the parts of school that kids love like the extracurricular activities. Scott is also advocating for policy change around diploma requirements in Indiana as a state board member. 

Throughout this episode you will learn about Scott’s school AND what is possible when you follow a vision and a belief that comes from the depths of your heart. Scott is the embodiment of service and keeping to a vision that is pulling him in spite of all of the challenges of going against the status quo. I hope you find him as inspiring as he is a model education changemaker! 

Where to find him on social media:

Twitter (X) - https://twitter.com/scottbessindy

Threads - scottbessindy@threads.net

David’s mission is to reach as many education changemakers as possible to help them be the changemaker they have always desired to be. If you feel moved by his mission, please go and rate and review the podcast or share with a friend.