The MCIULearns Podcast

Passion Meets Purpose at MCIU: Empowering Education with Jared Rohlfing and John Kikrilis

• Montgomery County Intermediate Unit • Season 6 • Episode 5

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Discover the journey of two remarkable professionals in education as we explore the dynamic services at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit (MCIU). Jared Rohlfing, our Marketing Communications Coordinator, brings his unique blend of media expertise and educational passion from Temple University to his current role, while John Kikrilis, a dedicated English and Philosophy teacher, shares his heartfelt commitment to supporting underserved students. From urban classrooms in Arkansas to the Southeast Youth Development Center in Pennsylvania, John's experiences fuel his dedication to empowering students who need it the most. Together, we hear firsthand how their diverse backgrounds and shared mission elevate the educational experience at MCIU.

Jared Rohlfing:

When you're at the IU, everybody kind of has this common focus and this mission.

John Kirilis:

They're becoming the best versions of themselves because they want to. My playing a role in that and my colleagues in principal and program director playing a role in that and having a unified front with that, makes this the best experience of my life so far.

Brandon Langer:

Hello Montgomery County, Welcome to the MCIU Learns podcast. My name is Brandon Langer and I'm the Director of Innovation and Strategic Partnerships here at Montgomery County Intermediate Unit in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and this is our conversation with professionals, leaders, thought leaders in the field of education, driving education forward. And really today we're taking a deep look at how MCIU continues to diversify what we're offering and the wide range of services and programs we provide. So I'm actually joined today by two newer employees with the organization and I'm going to let them introduce themselves, and then we're going to have a conversation about what it means to be an IU employee, and so I'm going to hand it off to Jared to get us rolling here.

Jared Rohlfing:

Yeah, thanks for having me. My name is Jared Rolfing. I'm the Marketing Communications Coordinator here at NCIU. I'm the Marketing Communications.

John Kirilis:

Coordinator here at MCIU and my name is John Kukrilis. I am over at the Southeast Youth Development Center, where my role is an English teacher and philosophy teacher.

Brandon Langer:

Awesome. So you hear there's two very different roles in the room here at the. Iu. John, we're going to start with you today.

John Kirilis:

Yeah, sure.

Brandon Langer:

Love to hear a little bit about your journey, how you got to MCIU. Obviously you're a teacher by trade. Where did you, how's your career built and then what brought you to MCIU?

John Kirilis:

I've always worked in urban ed. That's where my heart belonged. I always feel like there are certain pockets in urban ed where kids need education but they also need to be loved and you don't really have that type of sensibility in a suburban school where kids just go to work. I spent my first seven years teaching in Arkansas in a high needs area. I came to Pennsylvania, stayed in urban ed and I was in the Allentown School District most recently, saw the job posting for MCIU and the description and the type of young gentlemen and scholars I'd be working with and said that's where I need to be. These are the people that I need to serve. These are the young men that need me more than the students that I currently have. So I saw the ad and I just thought that it was a bit serendipitous and that that was the place to go for me.

Brandon Langer:

Yeah, absolutely. Where in Arkansas were you before you came here I?

John Kirilis:

was in Little Rock, arkansas. Yeah, I was taught there for my first few years and then I began my doctoral program at University of Arkansas, fayetteville.

Brandon Langer:

Okay, I got my. My master's is from Arkansas State. My master's is from Arkansas State.

John Kirilis:

Oh, nice yeah it was online.

Brandon Langer:

I wasn't there in Jonesboro.

John Kirilis:

Oh, you're not missing much.

Brandon Langer:

Yeah, no offense to anybody in.

John Kirilis:

Arkansas? No, no, we all love you in Arkansas, yeah, no.

Brandon Langer:

It's really interesting because I think it's fascinating how people come to the IU. We've had various employees that find the work we do to be a little bit. You mentioned the specific audience that you're looking to serve and you found yourself and you're like yes, that's something that I can contribute to and I love the passion for urban education. The IU serves in a variety of different ways, oh for sure.

Brandon Langer:

Now to contrast that with Jared you came in, as you said, the new marketing communications coordinator. What brought you into this? From the marketing communications field to work at the IU?

Jared Rohlfing:

Well, I went to school at Temple University. I studied at the Klein College of Media and Communication. So initially in my career I kind of thought I was going to go into like a broadcast kind of behind the scenes role kind of thing.

Jared Rohlfing:

But I left college and started working at a PR firm based out of Philly, worked there for a couple of years and did a lot of social media, did a lot of writing press releases and stuff, and didn't really find it to be very fulfilling. You know, I really wanted to be more like a mission oriented organization. So that's the way I found the IU was really just going on the website and seeing the careers there. So, yeah, this was really just an opportunity to kind of grow into an organization that I, you know, had a mission that I was really passionate about.

Brandon Langer:

Well, I think the cool thing Jared, when we were looking at you to join our team here in the marketing communications team. You had that unique experience last year with being a paraeducator right, you had that classroom lens and I think that's such an important thing that you were able to bring to the team here.

Jared Rohlfing:

Right, yeah, so you know, speaking on that, I I was working in PR for a couple of years and kind of thought about I wasn't really fulfilled by the work I was doing. So I considered being a teacher. So I decided to go back and work at Methacton school district where I was, as Brandon was saying, a para educator. So I did that for about a year and that was a really great experience getting to, you know, work in the classroom and work with students one-on-one. And you know, I kind of thought this role would be a great way to kind of bridge the two worlds together the marketing communications world with the educational role I had.

Brandon Langer:

So yeah, and I think that's really neat. I mean, as you hear both of you speak, you both come from a different background. What we're hoping to bring impact to at the MCIU is not just one population. A lot of people don't know all the different programs and services the MSIU provides. Many people's first impression, or only impression, with the IU is that their student may have received early intervention or speech services.

Brandon Langer:

but we all know it goes so much deeper and, john, you know you're dealing with students that are significantly older than that range, right?

John Kirilis:

Oh, for sure yeah.

Brandon Langer:

You know, what can you tell us about getting in and learning more about the students we serve, and particularly with the Southeast Youth Development Center, what that launching that has been like for you?

John Kirilis:

It's been fulfilling, to say the very least. We have students that we can hold, students between the ages of 13 and 20, and having that amount, that large amount of space between their age groups, and being able to come up with curricula and being able to come up with strategies that appeals to every single learner in the classroom. But the common thread between the young gentleman, the occupier program, is that they're very eager to learn and you would think that being in a program where the students are adjudicated or they're sent by a judge, that they you would think they wouldn't want to be there. But they're so eager and so happy to be receiving educational services. School is the highlight of their day. They enjoy coming to class, they're respectful, they're courteous, they're incredibly smart, which makes our jobs as teachers relatively easy. But to see a group of students, a demographic of people, who are so invested in their own education, married to the situation or circumstance that they're in, is pretty powerful.

Brandon Langer:

And how many students are you working with?

John Kirilis:

daily. We're going to top out at 48, but we're introducing the kids slowly as the whole program is just getting off the ground. So the highest that we've had at this point has been six and we're currently down to four. But we'll be having people new scholars joining us next month. We are envisioning the possibility of being at half mass by next year, but by February or March maybe having 20 or 22, but we will have 48 by the end of the school year.

Brandon Langer:

So everybody so you know how everybody speaks of what you guys have going on over there Everyone keeps calling you guys the dream team. So a lot of positive what's going on in that facility and with those students and amongst your team, so we just feel so grateful to have you.

John Kirilis:

And thank you for the shout out for the team, because we are a small team, one for each discipline, and, of course, we have our principal, we have our school counselor, we have our core teachers, and then you know, we have our class or our secretary as well too. All this coming together with a very similar vision as to what this ought to look like. And you know, each of us bringing our skill sets, whether it be someone who's strong with math and financial planning they can teach the older students how to you know personally finance and a person like myself who brings morality and ethics and philosophy to the conversation, having them question the fabric of the decisions that they made and how they ended up there and what can they take from that. But again, the commonalities that all these people that I work with, we have this common goal of watching these students be the best versions of themselves that they can possibly be.

Brandon Langer:

Yeah, and help navigate that, and I think the cool part. You know, jer, when I think about what you've been able to bring to our team early on here is just Honestly getting a lens on that and helping capture it and share it out. How do you feel it's been coming to this organization, which is very mission-driven?

Jared Rohlfing:

Well, I think what's been really cool about working here at the IU is that, despite all the different roles we have at the IU, all the different offices, I think what I am realizing is that everyone works towards the same mission. The focus is on the students, so I think that's been really inspiring to get to share that story.

Brandon Langer:

What's something you've done, or a moment or day we've been out shooting, or something interview we've had, or a piece that you were putting together. What's been something that stood out to you in that time?

Jared Rohlfing:

Yeah, so well. One thing that stood out to me is you know how passionate all the employees are about working here. Everyone you talk to at the IU is so focused on the mission and really just happy to be part of this organization because the work we do is impactful and it's a lot different than working at a firm where you're kind of focused on so many different clients and it feels very frenetic. But when you're at the IU, everybody kind of has this common focus in this mission and the work that we do. So I think just getting to look through all the footage that we've already had and get to interview people for some of our videos we've done, being able to share their stories, has been really amazing.

Brandon Langer:

Yeah, and I think we get to see that too. The longer you guys are here, you're going to see. I mean, it comes out in so many different ways, you know, obviously with the teachers. It comes through business services, it comes through human resources, it comes through technology services, which we do a lot with our districts in, and it's cool to see people come in even from outside fields that maybe didn't come from education, whether that be in firms or I think about our technology team. A lot of them are from industry coming out, you know, getting involved with education, seeing them bring that lens, but then seeing just how much impact you can have here in the scale at which you can build that out. My last question for the two of you is, I think, hard to quantify for myself because people ask me this a lot, but I'm just where do you go? What are you hoping to accomplish in your role? How do you want to grow as a professional, or what's the contribution you're hoping you personally are going to get to make to the IU?

John Kirilis:

Especially with this population of young men, my young scholars. As a teacher, when I walk into a classroom, there's an immediate sense of ownership that I have over my students. They come from troubled pasts and a lot of us also come from troubled pasts, but a lot of us as adults have made it through the fire and navigating to use that word again navigating students through that fire and showing them that fires are a part of life. It's how you put the fire out that really matters and what you do with the ashes when you're done.

John Kirilis:

And these students are so, especially through our study of philosophy, which separates us from a lot of these other facilities that are around, you know, offering them a program that has them do a lot of self-reflection and introspection. They're becoming the best versions of themselves because they want to. They admit that they have done things that did not work, but they're willing to take the steps to maintain a road that does work for them in the future. And my playing a role in that and my colleagues and principal and program director playing a role in that and having a unified front with that, makes this the best experience of my life so far being able to transform a person who's in a space where they have lost all hope, where they think that they can't accomplish anything because they've been told that their entire lives. Now they have eight or nine adults as their cheerleaders who are encouraging them and loving them and supporting them, but also make them work pretty hard Absolutely.

Jared Rohlfing:

Yeah, that's fantastic. I think what I'm really excited for more from a marketing communication standpoint is we have the new studio which is going to be opening up sometime in the next few months, and I think that'll be really great to be able to share all the different offices, their stories, the faces of MCIU. A lot of these people, you know, might not have the opportunity to be spotlighted very often, but it'll be really nice to give them, you know, just a venue to share their stories and you know what makes them inspired to work at MCIU.

Brandon Langer:

And yeah, absolutely Well. And Jared, just to echo that, as you can hear, we have one, you know shining example here with John and the team over there. There's so much to unearth in this organization and share with all of you that are listening about the MCIU's contributions. Thank you both for sitting down and talking with me today. Thank you both for deciding to come join the mission and vision and help execute what the MCIU is all about. Really appreciate it.

John Kirilis:

Thank you so much. Thank you for acknowledging the work that we do as well, too. It's always nice to hear from one of your superiors that you're doing the right thing.

Brandon Langer:

It really is amazing. I'm in my sixth year here and I joke with Becky Coyle on our team all the time because she's kind of the queen bee and she knows everybody.

John Kirilis:

She knows every program.

Brandon Langer:

And every week it seems like she's unearthing another thing this organization does. I'm like what can you tell me about that? I haven't heard that one before.

Brandon Langer:

So hopefully, through these conversations and through meeting great, great people like the two of you and other people that have come join the IU to Jared's point with our new studio, we'll be able to sit down and just capture these so people can be aware of what's available. But thanks again to the two of you. Anyone listening If you haven't heard our podcast before, we cover a wide range of topics. They're all available on the MCIU learning network, which is learnmciuorg. You can find two different podcasts there, multiple videos upcoming professional learning, a lot going on there. Follow us on our socials, which is at MCIU or Montgomery County Intermediate Unit. We also have a lot going on on the MCIU Learns channels. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next time you.