By Marissa Sweatland
InkFreeNews

Corey Sharp, right, joined the Elkhart County Purdue Extension team in June 2023. He was looking for a local job when the extension educator position opened. Sharp has three decades of education experience under his belt. Pictured behind him is fellow extension educator Sthele Greybar. Photo provided by Corey Sharp.

ELKHART — Corey Sharp has only been with the Elkhart County Purdue Extension office since June 2023, but he is no stranger to education.

He moved to the Elkhart area in 2021, after living most of his life in the Muncie, Anderson area. Sharp is a Ball State University alum, receiving his Bachelors of Science in social studies education in 1997.

“I’ve been in education my entire career, so I have 30 years of experience in education,” Sharp explained. “I have taught everyone from kindergarten to college.”

Five years later, Sharp found himself siting at a student’s desk, earning his Masters of Science in executive development for public service.

“My first job teaching was at an alternative school in a juvenile detention facility,” Sharp mentioned. “We had a program for the kids that half day we worked with the kids in detention, and the other half is what we called our ‘cottage program’ and those kids were in foster care or transitioning into foster care.”

Sharp has been passionate about education his whole life, and he attributes his passion to two people: his grandmother, Eleanor Sharp, and one of his high school teachers, Glenn Dellman.

“My grandmother was a natural when it came to teaching,” Sharp explained. “There was not a conversation she had that didn’t involve education or her students in some way.”

Dellman was Sharp’s history teacher. Although Sharp was only in Dellman’s class for a school year, he left an everlasting mark on Sharp.

“He always made learning so engaging. It was never just reading out of a book or off a presentation,” Sharp said. “He would frequently perform first person characters, like a pioneer, and teach as that character.”

Through his three-decade career, Sharp’s passion for teaching has not dulled for even a second. He attributes his focus on his students to keeping the fire alive.

“Students are what make teaching great,” Sharp mentioned. “Seeing the light bulb go off and knowing that your student made a connection or understood is what keeps us going. It’s amazing how much students can grow.”

Sharp served as an admission adviser at Ivy Tech Community College for nearly a decade before he took the director of enrollment management position. As the director of enrollment management, Sharp was responsible for developing marketing and recruiting strategies to achieve higher enrollment and retention.

Once he left Ivy Tech, he transitioned into a director of college of technology for Purdue University. He held this position for just over 12 years. While there, he was tasked with providing leadership and strategy developments that would enable and enhance student success.

“Watching your students walk across the stage and graduate as a culmination of four years of hard work is something you do not forget,” Sharp reminisced. “It was extremely gratifying because they took it so seriously.”

Sharp was drawn to the Elkhart County Extension office because he was “looking for opportunities to stay local.”

“My travel used to be extensive,” Sharp recalled. “I would be on the road for my Purdue job anywhere from three to 10 days at a time.”

Once he became a grandfather, Sharp knew it was time to put down some roots.

“I was looking for opportunities to stay with Purdue but be local and as soon as I started to look, this job opened up,” Sharp explained. Sharp serves as an extension educator for 4-H youth development. “It was like going back to my roots in terms of working with youth.”

As an extension educator, Sharp’s main focus is providing STEM education for Elkhart County’s 4-H youth.