About

Who We Are

Ingenium—originally School-to-Career Progressions—was started in 2000 by Cascade Engineering as a derivative of its successful Welfare-to-Career program that hires welfare recipients and guides them from welfare into a meaningful career. The Welfare-to-Career program has guided some 800 individuals off welfare. Its success has been recognized and replicated across the nation. The program was the vision of Fred Keller, founder and chairman of Cascade Engineering in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Ingenium’s Strong Character program helps kids
to stay in school, graduate from high school, and enroll in college or
join the workforce with a job that offers opportunity for advancement.

The curriculum is in line with evidence-based leading practices. It was developed from the experiences of individuals who had overcome personal adversity and was first used in several Kent County school districts.

In 2007, the character skills program added a Diversion Program for first-time young offenders in the Kent County justice system. The program teaches kids Strong Character skills they need for long-term success. They learn the importance of doing what is right even when it’s hard to do. They set and achieve goals, both short-term goals and long-term goals. According to a Kent County Family Division judge, nearly 90 percent of the first roughly 500 students who successfully completed this program were not referred again to the court by police in the following year.

The Strong Character program is expanding again, this time under
its new name—Ingenium. That’s Latin for “character.”

Ingenium has a new workbook for students, a workbook for parents on how to coach their children, one for adults who work with kids, a coach and teacher edition of the student workbook, plus online courses for students, parents, and adults who work with kids. See Our Programs for the full list of courses.

Our Mission

Preparing students to be successful
in school, the workforce, and the community.

Michael Daniels

Executive Director

Michael Daniels developed the highly effective and research-supported “positive mindset, healthy emotions, and successful behaviors” approach to building character based on his own life experiences. Michael started life in the inner city of Grand Rapids and learned firsthand how challenging school, work, and life can be.

Domestic violence caused the death of Michael’s mother when he was five. He then lived with his grandmother. Because of his limited exposure to anyone in a professional career, he saw black people as only bag boys in the grocery store or hustlers on TV. This view of life shaped how he viewed himself.

Michael struggled in school, even failing the third grade. In seventh grade, Michael ran away from home to live with a brother in Cleveland, who introduced him to his father. Bullied throughout high school, he suffered another tragic loss months after graduation. His brother was shot and killed during a situation involving gang violence.

In his twenties, Michael worked in factory jobs and at Zondervan, a Grand Rapids publishing company. He learned to apply strong character skills in his life from a group of positive-minded friends. One friend, who was directing Cascade Engineering’s nationally recognized Welfare-to-Career program, asked Michael to help him launch a youth-support program, called “School-to-Career Progressions,” to help kids stay in school. Michael began to teach Progressions courses as a volunteer.

It quickly became clear to the organization’s board of directors that Michael had a calling to connect with, encourage, and inspire kids. He taught the kids to apply the character skills we now know to be so fundamental for success in school, in the workplace, and in the community.

Drawing on his ability to connect with others and build highly effective teams, Michael soon stepped into the role of executive director of Progressions. Recently he directed a major expansion of the program under its new name, Ingenium, which is Latin for “character.” He has led the Strong Character program as the executive director for twenty years.