For years, Ivy Tech Community College did the right thing on campus.
As a student, you may have a room in one building, but your professor’s office may be in another. Some rooms were outside.
Classrooms, offices, libraries, all located where the college agrees.
Those days are long gone.
The $ 43 million renovation project of Ivy Tech Kokomo is a state-of-the-art facility that transforms students into a workforce.
After a $ 40 million allocation from the Indiana General Assembly, Ivy Tech successfully raised another $ 3 million. More than 250 donors have contributed to the cause. The names of those who helped make the project a reality are in the campus, with classrooms and laboratories.
With the flow of capital, Ivy Tech was able to redesign the campus to meet the needs of students on campus.
“There are many opportunities,” said Chancellor Dean Macrudi. When he works with students, he really changes the game.
That focus is visible from the moment one walks to campus. The entire college can walk on new sidewalks and green spaces. Every academic building can be reached on foot. This may seem obvious, but it was a time when students had to walk the right path, depending on where they were.
Each educational institution has a living room and dining area, and there are spaces for study. Faculty offices are located in the same building as their classrooms, making them more accessible to students.
Again, all the usual college features, but those Ivy Tech are finally happy to present it in Kokomo.
“He feels very much like a college campus with the facilities that await him on the college campus,” says Makurdi. “Night and day (special) is an understatement.”
Student numbers in each category, especially for first-time students, have increased, Makurdi said. Enrollment was for summer classes and the demand for first round courses this fall is still strong.
“We are really seeing a strong response,” he said.
Health professions
Nursing is a prime example of how Ivy Tech’s hands-on approach prepares students for the workforce.
The nursing program has a 10-bed laboratory where students can practice skills such as changing bedding and checking basics. As students progress through the program, they take on more complex tasks.
There is also a three-bed laboratory where nurses can simulate a variety of situations at work using interactive dummies.
In a recent class, students practice helping a mother give birth. Using a laptop, a professor supervised the contractors and inspected the students in the classroom.
After the cat gave birth, nursing students confirmed that the baby, as well as Dumi, had enough air. The simulation is very real. The baby has a heartbeat, cries and may get blue if he does not get enough air.
“We try to imagine what it looks like in doctors’ offices and hospitals,” said Dean Dean Kelly Williams. We want students to be prepared and ready.
Employers are confident that the nursing program has a 100% employment rate.
Next to the simulation laboratory is a classroom equipped with TVs. On the screen, students can see their classmates being transferred to another class.
The labs next to the classrooms are a comprehensive design near the converted campus. This design allows classes to cover lessons in the classroom and then implement them immediately.
The Ivy Tech Ambulance Simulator prepares the next wave of EMTs.
The ambulance simulator in the classroom looks like the back half of a real ambulance. Inside, students can practice many different medical emergencies. The simulator shakes and shakes, repeating the spin on the road, which adds another tangible layer to the students.
Managing IV in an ambulance is one thing. At Ivy Tech, students learn to do this in the face of congestion.
There is even a bathroom in the room, because many medical problems occur in the bathroom.
Surgical Technology Students have a classroom next to the Duplicate Surgery Room. Like nursing, you can see students practice other corrective techniques during surgery.
Surgeons prepare the operating room and provide the equipment to the doctor.
For dental assistants, going to class is like going to work. There are talks and lectures but there is a lot of laboratory work that looks like a dentist’s office.
The laboratory has six operating chairs and a full X-ray. Students have their own locker room.
Almost every program on Ivy Tech has locks. It is another small trait that is meant to repeat the feeling of “going to work”.
“It’s easy to forget that you are in an academic institution, not a hospital or a dentist’s office,” says Macurdi.
After enough practice, dental assistants work with real people, adults and children.
“They do everything here in the regular office,” said Bernie Higins, chairman of the Dental Program.
This includes everything from dental cleaning and fluoride administration to insurance handling.
Students complete overseas work in community dental offices. They usually hire after that.
The final dental assistant group consisted of 17 students, each of whom got a job when they graduated, Higgins said.
The Health Professionals Center also has a new community section at Government Hall, Ivy Tech. Hinges Hall was named after their children, Bill and Bob, by the late John and Hilda Hinges.
Ivy Tech has offered 300 seats for some community events and will continue to grow.
“I think this will make us better known in the community,” said Kelly Carrickhoff, executive director of wealth development.
Industrial Technology
In the industrial technology building, Ivy Tech’s relationship with employers is in full swing.
It is usually quiet in the afternoon, while full-time students are growing up, and with financial support from their employers, there is often a lot of activity at night.
Like the construction of health careers, industrial technology classrooms are connected to laboratories. Large upper doors allow students to work on a wheelbarrow in a classroom.
Ivy Tech’s advanced manufacturing program doubles the space due to local demand.
“We produce a different student than Ivy Tech,” said Dean Josh Spear, an advanced manufacturing, engineering, and application science major.
Multiple places can mean many parts at once. This provides opportunities for collaboration across industries. For example, equipment and dead students and manufacturing students may have classes at the same time.
“It gives us a lot of flexibility,” says Spar.
According to the dean, sophisticated producers will have to replace 4 to 5,000 baby boomers who will retire in the coming years.
“That many people will be replaced,” Sparr said.
Spear said the expansion of certain industrial technology programs is already underway.
“This project has enabled us to grow to meet the needs of our community,” he said.
Ivy Tech also provides training in collaboration with employers.
The training of industrial electricians doubled last year.
Certificates are also popular. Ivy Tech raises an average of 90 American Welding Association certifications a year.
The Community College is partnering with local schools to provide technical certificates that allow high school students to complete half of their college expenses before graduating.
After one year at Ivy Tech College, students can earn a bachelor’s degree and enter the workforce.
Automotive, agriculture and IT
In the campus, as in other laboratories, the Automotive Laboratory is designed to replicate the work of real-world setting students.
For automotive students, their lab resembles a distributor. Vertical and angular lifts prepare students for the task at hand.
“Now students get a sense of what it is (at work) when they come here,” Spear said.
The building at the entrance to Tube Pike also has an Ivy Tech agricultural program.
McRuody knows that elementary assignments reflect what students learn in the classroom. Dedicated to lifelong learning, Makurdi has taken several courses at Ivy Tech, including three automotive classes. It will be part of its fourth brake.
Learning how to work on specific vehicle brands is in line with employer requirements.
Local employers not only donated the project but also worked with Ivy Tech on the design.
Macruei says employers can be considered investors. Included on the advisory board for curriculum and programs.
“They want to do the right thing when they invest in the community,” he said.
Thanks to the Transformation Project, information technology has returned to campus. Downtown, the department’s chairman, Robin Schmidt, and your student have a new information center in the college’s main building.
“It’s good to be back here so they can feel part of the yard,” she said.
The data center – with newer computers and routers – is on its own network, which means that whatever students do has no effect on campus Internet.
“It’s great to learn how to troubleshoot the IT department with confidence,” Schmidt said. At the lower pillars, Schmidt hopes that students will feel more comfortable with their own hands-on experience.
“It really gives them a place to play and they don’t bother to break anything,” she said. This is the time when we can be safe without knowing it.
The program provides third-party certifications, such as Cisco, the most popular IT system used by employers. Students can also get a two-year degree, then go to a four-year school for a bachelor’s degree.
Students are often employed by banks, hospitals, and the military for civil service.
The IT program is partnering with Maconakuwa and Peruvian schools to provide two credits.
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