Megan Satkowiak, a business administration student at Ivy Tech Community College Northeast, has been named the Young Professional of the Year by the DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce.

This is the first year the chamber has named a Young Professional of the Year, says Judy Sorg, who is on the chamber’s board of directors. Sorg nominated Satkowiak for the recognition.

“I was aware of all of her community services, volunteering countless hours to benefit the downtown Auburn businesses,” Sorg says. “She’s somebody that I look up to as a life-long learner. I’m involved with a career development expo each year with the chamber, and she never fails to be there just to learn everything she can.”

Satkowiak, of Auburn, graduated from DeKalb High School in 2003. She and a business partner own Window Nook Studio, an art studio Satkowiak recently formed into an LLC. She has been taking classes at Ivy Tech Northeast since 2008, when she enrolled in the College of Working Adults program. She hopes to graduate in fall 2015.

“I loved it,” she says. “I don’t know if I could have gone back to traditional classes. It was so neat to be surrounded by other working adults. They would bring a variety of topics to the table when we would be discussing things. It was really motivating to be around other people who were working and trying to finish their degrees, too.”

Satkowiak was selected for the chamber award via blind vote against other nominees.

“We would like to clone Megan for our community,” Sorg said. “We need lots of young professionals just like her. She has her own business. She has two part-time jobs, and she does all this volunteer work.”