Category Archives: Inside Ivy Tech

Special topic courses keep things interesting for students

Posted on by

Over the years, Ivy Tech Community College Fort Wayne faculty get creative in the classroom by offering some special topic courses for students. Who would ever thought you could take a writing class themed after the popular series Harry Potter? We have put together a sampling of introductory classes offered this spring semester. Most start this Monday (Jan. 14), but may be offered in the fall, summer, or future spring semesters as well.

ENG 111 English Composition

Want to come back to school but worried about getting through the prerequisites? In the past three years, the English program has been revamping their introductory writing courses to incorporate interesting themes. This spring, Susan Howard is running a Harry Potter themed class entitled, “Harry Potter—The Innocence and Experience.”

Contact Howard at showard62@ivytech.edu for more information.

HLHS 123 Meal Planning Course

This class combines healthcare, nutrition, and culinary arts. It’s a great for anyone interested in meal preparation for homecare, family members, or just yourself. Students learn basic cooking skills along with learning how to prepare meals for individuals with certain diseases/conditions, i.e. diabetes, heart disease, allergies, etc. Upon completion, students can earn a Basic Cooking Skills Certificate as well as a Certificate for each special diet. 

Contact Shelly Ann Dobler at sdobler@ivytech.edu  for more information.

MKTG 252 Introduction to Digital Marketing

Students learn digital and social media marketing from Patrick McCormick, who has successfully started a brand, Travels with Delaney, using social media. Students will learn about the goals of social media marketing, and how it can either create or enhance business.  The class will focus on creating value in content, maximizing search optimization, and creating relationships with subscribers, followers, etc.

Contact Patrick McCormick at 260-480-4253 or pmccormi@ivytech.edu for more information.

VISC 183 Introduction to UI/UX

This fun tech class covers user interfaces and user experiences on websites, mobile apps, and more. If the user interface (think Netflix menu) isn’t designed well, then the user experience won’t go well. Students will use Adobe XD to create or improve existing interfaces. Some technology experience is highly recommended.

This class is one of our 2nd 8-week class offerings, which begin March 18. Contact Erin Salyers at esalyers@ivytech.edu for more information.

Interested in learning more about our spring offerings? Check out our online class search tool.

NOTE: Several classes start in March! Take a look.

A season of giving

Posted on by

Starting in August 2018, Ivy Tech Community College Fort Wayne’s Paramedic Science students perform at least 24 hours of community service. To fulfill part of this requirement, a group of students decided to donate first aid items to Mission Donate during The Rescue Mission of Fort Wayne’s National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week, Nov. 12–16.

The students not only chose to participate but were determined to make a difference. They created 120 first aid kits for Mission Donate. The kits had bandages of assorted sizes, alcohol preps, 2×2’s, antibiotic ointment, a hand wipe, antiseptic wipes, antifungal cream, a toothbrush, floss, shampoo, conditioner, bars of soap, lotion, a pair of socks, a mylar blanket, and an encouraging quote. 

“When I dropped the first-aid kits off at the rescue mission, the workers were so excited,” says Jennifer Knapp, instructor of paramedic science. “They told me people rarely donate first-aid kits even though they’re in demand. They were so happy to be getting their need filled; and filled well beyond their expectations.”

Students were overwhelmingly supportive and enthusiastic for this program. After they were finished, some students even inquired about additional opportunities to help others and give back to the community.

“The community service project helped enhance my education through giving me a visual aid of what some of the less fortunate members in our community could benefit from,” says Deborah Angstrom, paramedic science student. “I thought this was a very insightful project, because it helped me a little to put myself in the shoes of people in need. It also made me think about all the little luxuries we take for granted. It was an awesome learning and giving experience!”

‘He perseveres’: Ivy Tech Fort Wayne graduates first Achieve Your Degree student

Posted on by

Jonathon Mossburg wears glasses. He wears cargo shorts, sandals, and a T-shirt. His hair’s a little messy. To any eye, he appears to be exactly what he is: A new college graduate a few days after spring commencement: no more classes, no more books.

But Mossburg is one of those “more than meets the eye” fellows: He has cerebral palsy, a movement disorder that affects muscle tone, most often caused by something that happens in utero to a developing brain. When he was born, he says, he had no oxygen. Doctors told his parents, “Your son may never walk or talk.”

He walks and talks, with only a slight stutter.

He received psychological testing, and doctors told his parents, “College isn’t a good route for your son.”

On May 11, 2018, Mossburg got his associate degree from Ivy Tech Community College’s Fort Wayne Campus in Healthcare Specialist.

Mossburg

“My dad thought I could do it,” Mossburg says. “He was one of those people that education was (important). He got his master’s degree. He was a smart guy.”

Mossburg agreed with his dad, and he has spent seven years proving him right.

“I always thought I could do it,” he says. “I kind of wanted to do it in his honor too, even though it was for me.”

In 2008, Mossburg’s father was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. He died in 2013.

“He helped me with high school homework and some of my college homework,” Mossburg says. “He was one of the few who said, ‘You can do anything.’”

Achieve Your Degree

Mossburg delivers patient trays at Parkview Regional Medical Center. Last summer at work, he heard about a program at Ivy Tech called Achieve Your Degree, a partnership between Ivy Tech and community businesses where the employer covers its employees’ tuition costs. So long as Mossburg kept his grades at a C or higher, Parkview covered his tuition.

Mossburg is the college’s first graduate from the program, which started at Ivy Tech Fort Wayne last summer. Currently, students from 14 different companies are enrolled at Ivy Tech as part of Achieve Your Degree, including 80/20 Inc., Warner Electric, Lutheran Life Villages, and Lake City Bank.

“It makes it easier for people who work full-time to come to school without having to worry about the financial barriers they would normally be worrying about,” says Jennifer Krupa, who coordinates the Achieve Your Degree program.

Plus, it helps with brain drain, when talent leaves a geographic area, because participating companies require that students stay employed with the company.

“What it does is open students up to different opportunities with their same employer that they would not have if they did not possess a degree,” Krupa says.

Mossburg, for example, is looking to transfer to a different department now. He’s eyeballing positions in doctors’ offices, instead of the main hospital where he works, on the administrative or clerical side of things.

Mossburg, center, with his stepdad, John Glass, and mother, Diane Glass.

‘He perseveres’

Since graduation, Mossburg has been in pretty regular touch with Ivy Tech’s Career Development office. He’s assuring his resume is in top shape, and he’s looking for advice on moving up, says Joyce Baker, Career Development assistant director.

Baker has known Mossburg for nearly two years.

“When I first met him, he was shy,” she says. “I’ve definitely seen him blossom and become more confident.”

Baker is the one, in fact, who helped Mossburg decide to study Healthcare Specialist. She provided a career assessment test, which showed that Mossburg would excel in medical billing and coding. He wanted to work in healthcare, but his skillset was in the behind-the-scenes end of things instead of direct patient care, which is often all people consider when they think of working in healthcare, Baker says.

In addition to Career Development, Mossburg made use of other Ivy Tech resources like the Center for Academic Excellence tutoring center. His tutor, he says, is encouraging him to return to Ivy Tech for another degree, in Health Information Technology. She tutored him for his advanced coding class and saw how well he did, Mossburg says.

He also worked with Disability Services, which provided, among other things, accommodations for Mossburg to receive extra testing time.

“You just have to look at each individual, at where their strengths and weaknesses lie” to determine the necessary accommodations, says Todd Nichols, director of Disability Services.

Nichols has worked with Mossburg since April 2011.

“He has a lot of grit, and he perseveres,” Nichols says. “It’s not just enough to say he works hard: He looks at how he’s working and makes adjustments as he needs to. He really knows how to hang in there.”

‘How you live’

Mossburg has a photo of and quote by Stuart Scott on his Facebook header. Scott was an ESPN sportscaster who died in 2015 from cancer. This is the quote:

“You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.”

For Mossburg, that manner might be best described by Aesop’s “The Tortoise and the Hare” fable, Baker says.

“He’s like the turtle,” Baker says. “He keeps going forward. He doesn’t give up.”

Alumnus excels at global web services provider

Posted on by

From Zayed Ahmed’s vantage point, he has the world at his fingertips—or at least nearly half a billion global consumers who access Yahoo’s web services each month.

As a production operations engineer at Yahoo’s Network Operations Center in Lockport, N.Y.—about 30 miles northeast of Buffalo—Ahmed specializes in uptime, or ensuring that the company’s vast network of servers maintain continuous operation to benefit online users in more than 30 languages.

“We are the first line of defense,” Ahmed says. “We use our judgment very carefully to distinguish between critical issues that could impact users internally or externally and noncritical ones.”

Ivy Tech Fort Wayne alumnus Zayed Ahmed is a production operations engineer at Yahoo’s Network Operations Center in Lockport, N.Y., where he specializes in uptime, or ensuring that the company’s vast network of servers maintain continuous operation.

The 2015 computer information technology graduate from Ivy Tech Community College’s Fort Wayne Campus says such judgment calls require vigilance, familiarization with current issues and protocols, and teamwork through a variety of communication channels.

Ahmed says the College prepared him well for the technical and soft skill challenges associated with on-the-job debugging, troubleshooting, networking, and systems administration.

In addition to rigorous course requirements, he applied himself at Ivy Tech through a number of problem-solving pursuits: an advanced networking internship, a systems administration internship, completion of four computer certifications, and participation on the Cyber Defense Competition team.

“That competition is what really got me exposed to what’s out there in the real world,” Ahmed says. “The friends I made showed me so many things I didn’t know about. Having acquired those skills, they’re now knowledge I use at my job every day.”

That knowledge may have remained elusive if his first attempt at college had been successful.

Born in Saudi Arabia to Yemeni parents, Ahmed enrolled at Yemen’s University of Science and Technology in Sana’a to study civil engineering in 2011. Two years into his studies, the university closed due to militant uprisings around the country. Yemen spiraled into a civil war in 2014 and the fighting continues.

Soon after his return to Saudi Arabia for safety, Ahmed met a graduate from an American university who encouraged him to study abroad. He followed the peer’s advice and lived in a few states briefly before settling with family and friends in Fort Wayne and selecting Ivy Tech.

“I’ve been passionate about IT from day one, but now having the ability to study it in the U.S.—one of the greatest places to learn about technology—was an even bigger motivation,” Ahmed says.

Near the time of his graduation, Ahmed got married, and his wife relocated to Fort Wayne. It wasn’t long before she grew homesick for her family and hometown of Buffalo, Ahmed says. The couple moved to Buffalo, and Ahmed secured employment as a contractor for Yahoo in October 2016. He became a full-time associate last July.

Ron Tumiel, associate manager of Yahoo’s Network Operations Center, oriented Ahmed to the company’s complex system architecture and remains his supervisor.

“During his time, Zayed has learned a great deal, and I now see him explaining complicated topics to other new employees,” Tumiel says. “This includes stuff I know I didn’t teach him, which to me demonstrates his ability to be open to new ideas and to learn from people around him in order to keep pushing himself further.”

That intrinsic “push” is an attribute Ahmed plans to apply in both the short-term—completing a bachelor’s degree in computer science—and long-term—becoming an entrepreneur and developing mobile apps with the potential for an international audience.

Ahmed says “remaining curious and seeking knowledge” is his personal mantra. He recommends the same ideals for others pursuing opportunities and a better life.

“Remember, a college degree will help get you a good career, but being good at what you do is what’s going to keep you there,” he says.

Special topics classes reach students through uncommon means

Posted on by

A state is considered “landlocked” if none of its borders touch an ocean, gulf, or bay. It is “singly landlocked” if you have to go through just one other state or Canadian province to reach an ocean, gulf, or bay. Two states? “Doubly landlocked.”

Three? “Triply land-locked.”

Nebraska is the only triply land-locked state in the country. Ten are doubly—including Indiana.

So how does a college in a state so far from an ocean, gulf, or bay get a marine biology class?

Easy: Chris Barlow.

Barlow is associate professor of life sciences at Ivy Tech Community College’s Fort Wayne Campus. She spent spring break 2016 with a Goshen College marine biology class at the J.N. Roth Marine Biology Station, which Goshen owns on Long Key, Fla. Her goal? To figure out how Ivy Tech students can get that same opportunity.

Long Key, Fla.

Special Topics in Marine Biology is being offered to Ivy Tech students for the first time this spring semester. Special Topics classes are those that aren’t already part of the curriculum rotation, says Kim Barnett-Johnson, the College’s vice chancellor for Academic Affairs. They typically come about from student or instructor interest.

“They are things that we feel are going to be value-added to the students’ educational experience,” she says. “Sometimes they are areas that the instructor or program chair feels like, ‘Hey, if we can give our students this experience, that will only make them more valuable in the marketplace.’”

Barnett-Johnson

Take Harry Potter: The Innocence and the Experience. This English 111 class was offered for the first time at the Fort Wayne Campus in fall 2017, and it is being offered again this spring.

English 111 is a class where students sometimes struggle, Barnett-Johnson says, so Susan Howard, assistant chair in English, came up with a creative way to base a class on a popular subject.

The primary goal of English 111 is to teach students how to write academic essays, Howard says, and her students write the kinds of essays they would in any other English 111 class—it’s just that the topics are Harry Potter-specific. Students write

  • A personal literacy narrative, which is a life event related to literacy, about how they became fans of Harry Potter and why
  • A research-based paper on how Harry Potter changed the world
  • A rhetorical analysis—where students evaluate a book’s purpose, audience, content, context, and more—of a chapter from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth book in the series
  • A research paper focused on any argument they’d like to construct, such as “What is Harry Potter’s impact on the moral development of children?”, “Is Hermione a feminist?”, “How does J.K. Rowling deal with ethnic differences between pure-bloods* and Mudbloods*?”, and “How does she address slavery through the house elves*?”

Clearly, it helps to know the Potter lore before signing up for the class, though that was not a problem for enrollment.

“I got so many emails from students who wanted to get into the class once it was closed,” Howard says. “It filled up very quickly once we advertised.”

The success of the Harry Potter class has led to more themed English 111 classes; there is also saw a class taught around the Lord of the Rings books this semester, and Howard says she knows of other instructors who are interested in teaching classes around literature in sports and dystopian literature.

The Potter class is one of the first Tiffany Fitzwater ever took at Ivy Tech. She says her advisor encouraged her to take the class because of her love of reading. She enjoyed the class because it introduced her to the books—she had only seen the movies prior—and because of the modern subject matter.

“I definitely feel like (the topic) gives us a piece of literature that students can relate to,” says Fitzwater, an engineering technology student. “Most of the people in my class are younger students, so with this novel we have, we grew up with it. I wasn’t the biggest Harry Potter fan growing up. Reading the books has kind of opened the real Harry Potter world for me. I am just in love with the books.”

Hannah Huffman took the Harry Potter-themed English class last semester. “It’s definitely not just a super easy class,” she says.

Just because the topic of Howard’s class is a modern one, Howard points out, it should not suggest that the material is easy.

“I’ve had some people suggest Harry Potter is going to be a lightweight course,” Howard says. “I think my students will tell you that the class is not just a Harry Potter fan club getting together once a week.”

Hannah Huffman, a nursing student, says this is her second time taking English 111—when she took it 10 years ago, she was just out of high school—and while being interested in the topic is helping her succeed, the class is by no means easy.

“It’s definitely not a fluff class,” she says. “The thought going into it was, ‘Oh, it should be pretty easy. I’m really familiar with the books,’ but I’m being challenged in a whole new way. Right now, we’re working on our informative paper, and I’m really struggling to find the information I thought I was going to use.”

Plus, the material covers all seven Harry Potter books—a total of 4,224 pages.

“So no, it’s definitely not just a super easy class,” Huffman says.

Barlow

Similarly, students who look at Marine Biology as an easy class where they get to spend a week in Florida will be been sadly mistaken.  Yes, Barlow and her students will spend Spring Break at Goshen’s biology station in Florida, but the trip will hardly be a vacation. The days will start with an 8 a.m. briefing about the day’s activities, followed by 2 ½ hours snorkeling, lunch, exploring a new site, dinner, and evenings spent with microscopes to identify everything they found throughout the day.

“Getting into the ocean and seeing the things you read about is so exciting,” Barlow says. “The diversity and biology of the ocean will give students this sensational experience that I’m hoping will excite them on a deep level.”

Ivy Tech’s isn’t the only marine biology class in the area—IPFW and St Francis offer one, too, Barlow says, in Costa Rica and the Bahamas, respectively—but Ivy Tech’s is easily the most affordable. The fees were about $375, which covered renting the J.N. Roth Marine Biology Station (it’s a private rental, so Ivy Tech students will be the only ones there), two snorkel trips, and a van.

“I wanted to provide a high-quality, sub-tropical field experience at a fraction of the cost of other colleges in town,” she says. “I wanted to keep the cost below the cost of a new cell phone. That was my goal.”

Ivy Tech: Graduating Fort Wayne since 1969

Posted on by

The Fort Wayne Campus at Ivy Tech Community College has been teaching students since 1969. From 1990-91 to 2016-17, a total of 17,299 students graduated from Fort Wayne.

Our graduates help you out at the doctor’s office and feed you. They do your taxes and fix your cars. They start their own businesses and build robots.

Not too shabby.

It’s easy to focus on each year’s graduates and what their immediate plans are, but there’s something to be said for going back, for honoring and checking up on those who graduated 10, 12, more years ago. We put a call out to some of those graduates to see what they’re up to. Here’s what we found!

Adam Carnahan, of Fort Wayne
Studied Computer Information Technology
Graduated 2005
“Upon graduation I started working in technology consulting with Microsoft gold partner Strategic Solutions. I’ve done consulting for 11 years now and also taught part time at Ivy Tech Fort Wayne for a few years.”

Carnahan
Greer

Jody Greer, of Lagrange
Studied Accounting
Graduated 1992
“I earned my two-year accounting degree after I was married and had two daughters. My youngest was one when I started school. After I earned my degree, I got a job in accounting at a small trucking company and then at the City of Fort Wayne in the accounting department. It was a part-time job that gave me the flexibility to continue my education because I decided I wanted to become a certified public accountant. I obtained my bachelor’s degree in Business Management at Indiana Tech. Shortly after I successfully passed the certified public accountant exam, I moved on to Trine University as the controller for six year and then to the vice president of Finance position, which I’ve held for the last nine years. Ivy Tech provided a great base accounting education that I was able to build upon.”

Andrea Jacquay, of Fort Wayne
Studied Accounting
Graduated 2000
“After graduation, I started working for a temporary agency and was placed at Ivy Tech’s Finance office.  I was officially hired as an Ivy Tech part-time employee in February of 2001.  I am still working for Ivy Tech, but I am full-time and the assistant director of Finance and Budget. Two of my three children have attended and completed a degree and a certification at Ivy Tech.”

Jacquay
Garver

Charleen Garver, of Spencerville
Studied Practical Nursing
Graduated 1992
“After graduation I applied at Beverly Rehab with the goal of becoming a registered nurse.  While taking classes at IPFW, I began to realize how much knowledge I had gained while doing my studies at Ivy Tech. After Beverly Rehab, I worked for 16 years as a clinical reimbursement coordinator at Extendicare. My time at Ivy Tech definitely made me a better nurse for my patients. I feel the background knowledge I received from Ivy Tech is what made me very successful in my career. The nursing instructors at Ivy Tech were the best in the field.  They were strict, and all they wanted was for us to be the best nurses we were capable of being. I would never have been offered the promotions as years went by if I would not have had top-notch training in the nursing field provided by these wonderful instructors.”

Inside Ivy Tech: Events Calendar

Posted on by

 Visit the Ivy Tech events calendar for regular updates.

 NOVEMBER

Gaming developers lecture (Fort Wayne)
Nov. 10
6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Directions: Coliseum Campus auditorium (Room 1200)
Interested in learning about gaming development? Two professional game developers will speak about their experiences: Brianna Wu, the founder of Giant Spacekat, a Boston-based independent video game development studio, and the co-developer of the online game Revolution 60; and Casey O’Donnell, the developer of the games Kerem B’Yavneh and Sparks of Eternity and a gaming lecturer and blogger.

International Education Week (Fort Wayne)
Nov. 13 to 16
Topics, times, and locations vary
Directions: Coliseum Campus, Student Life Center
As part of this international celebration, Ivy Tech is hosting a series of lectures and events.

Apprenticeship Fair (Fort Wayne)
Nov. 17
9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Directions: Steel Dynamics, Inc. Keith E. Busse Technology Center
National Apprenticeship Week is from Nov. 13 to 19, and Ivy Tech’s Apprenticeship Fair will let you learn all about apprenticeships. Check out live demos and meet with area companies that have apprenticeship programs.

MARCH

Environment and Culture in Belize (Warsaw)
Tentatively scheduled for March 10 to 17, 2018
Estimated cost: $3,149
This trip includes stops in Belize City, San Ignacio, and Ambergris Caye. We’ll interact with community members and visit an old sugar mill, a school, and jungle areas to identify how colonialism has had an impact on the peoples of Belize. For more information, contact Michael Slavkin at mslavkin1@ivytech.edu. Find full travel details online.

Ivyopoly Night (Wabash)
March 23
6 to 9:30 p.m.
Directions: Honeywell Center
Join us for our annual fundraiser to support students at Ivy Tech’s Wabash Site. This casual event includes a meal, silent auction, and one-hour of intense Monopoly play. Call 260-563-8828, ext. 6009 for more information.

 

Inside Ivy Tech: Beethoven-themed fundraising gala brings in more than $90k

Posted on by

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

The night belonged to German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, as well as his many admirers.

In its sixth year, A Reason to Taste–the largest annual fundraising event for Ivy Tech Community College’s Fort Wayne Campus–was influenced by German classical music and cuisine. The charitable gala raised more than $90,000 on Oct. 28.

Donations to the Ivy Tech Foundation came through corporate sponsorships, silent and live auctions, and individual donations and benefited student scholarships, academic programs, and the Ivy Tech Titans Baseball Program. (The Ivy Tech Titans is a self-supported intercollegiate athletics baseball team that will begin formal play in the spring).

“I asked one of the donors after, did she have fun,” says Margaret Sturm, executive director of Resource Development. “She was at a table where she didn’t know anyone. She said, ‘You don’t need to know anyone because we’re all here for the same reason. It’s for the students, so everybody has something in common.’”

Students who won the European Competition at Ivy Tech’s Fort Wayne Campus in January created the menu and prepared the dinner for A Reason to Taste guests on Oct. 28.

At A Reason to Taste: Moonlight Sonata, guests were entertained by Beethoven’s compositions, and they enjoyed a multi-course menu prepared by students in Hospitality Administration who won an opportunity to study culinary arts in France and Germany this spring. Those students were winners of the College’s European Competition, hosted in January. They created the fundraiser’s menu based on their trip, and they cooked the dinner at the fundraiser.

Linda Jackson of Fort Wayne’s NBC emceed the event, which was hosted at Parkview Health’s Mirro Center for Research and Innovation. Donna Packnett, a community volunteer who has worked with A Reason to Taste since its inception, won the evening’s Ivy Award, which is presented to someone who exhibits outstanding community service and leadership in northeast Indiana.

Next year’s event is tentatively scheduled for mid-October. Those who are interested in sponsorship opportunities and/or serving on next year’s planning committee can contact Sturm at msturm7@ivytech.edu or 260-480-2010. Donations to this year’s total can still be made at IvyTech.edu/reason.

Thompson and Nance

Approximately 220 guests were entertained by Emily Thompson and Robert Nance, who played a variety of Beethoven’s late 18th- and early 19th-century compositions.

VIDEOS
Check out two videos broadcast at the event and featured on the College’s YouTube channel:

  • Lawrence Davis and Lydia Yaste are two of eight students who won the Chopped-style European Competition at Ivy Tech Fort Wayne in January. They traveled to France and Germany to study the culinary arts with the other winners. Based on the trip, the group helped create the menu for A Reason to Taste: be/MZY3opNm_9Q
  • Hospitality Administration chair Jeff Albertson and Richard Owens, a student in the program, talk about Grasshopper, the College’s food truck. A portion of the money raised at A Reason to Taste will benefit the food truck’s operation: be/5uLilHmlwPQ

SPONSORS
Presenting sponsor: Parkview Health

Reception sponsor: Plumbers & Steamfitters Local Union 166

Beverage sponsor: Calhoun Street Soups, Salads, & Spirits

Corporate sponsors: 80/20, Inc., Auburn Gear, BFGoodrich, Barnes & Thornburg, LLP, Brooks Construction Company, Inc., Fort Wayne Metals, Greater Fort Wayne Inc., Hagerman Construction Group, Ivy Tech Foundation, The James Foundation, Inc., Kelley Automotive, Lincoln Financial Foundation, PNC Bank, Questa Foundation, STAR Financial Bank, Sweetwater Sound, Whitley Manufacturing Co., Inc.

Media sponsor: Fort Wayne’s NBC

Event partners: A Party Apart, Armstrong Flowers, Cap ‘n Cork, Coplin Piano Service, Schrader Real Estate and Auction Co.

Entertainment: Emily Thompson, violin; Robert Nance, piano

Inside Ivy Tech: Knowledge @ the College

Posted on by

Ivy Tech Community College faculty make their mark on northeast Indiana and beyond:

Automotive Author

Goodnight

Goodnight

Nicholas Goodnight has penned a textbook for community and technical college students. The assistant professor of automotive technology is co-author of Automotive Engine Repair, a part of the CDX Master Automotive Technician Series.

In addition, the North American Council of Automotive Teachers honored Goodnight with the Best New Automotive Teacher in the Nation award last July, a distinction that recognizes an outstanding automotive instructor who has been teaching for five years or fewer.

Tech Savvy

Andy Bell

Bell

Engineering department chair Andrew Bell spoke about two-year and four-year college collaborations to advance microelectromechanical system technology at the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education Principal Investigators Conference in Washington, D.C. in late October. Two of Bell’s students, Lucas Bazile and Isaiah Abel, were awarded highly selective sponsorships to join him at the conference.

Also, Bell was sworn in recently as the Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering’s  vice chair for the Micro/Nanotechnology Focus Group during the organization’s annual conference in Cincinnati. The ATMAE develops technology graduates and professional who lead, innovate, and collaborate in technology-related fields.

Cyber Speak

Togashi, Darryl

Togashi

Cybersecurity expert Darryl Togashi has been named to Indiana Gov. Eric J. Holcomb’s Executive Council on Cybersecurity. Togashi is the department chair for Cybersecurity/Information Assurance, Information Technology Support, Network Infrastructure and Server Administration programs at Ivy Tech’s Fort Wayne Campus.

Togashi has joined government (local, state, and federal), private-sector, military, research, and academic stakeholders to collaboratively move Indiana’s cybersecurity to the next level. With 28 council members and more than 50 advisory members, the council will deliver a comprehensive strategy plan to Holcomb by September 2018.

Ensuring Excellence

Rula Mourad Koudsia

Mourad

Rula Mourad Koudsia has been named the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Ivy Tech’s Fort Wayne Campus, a new initiative launched this fall to focus on faculty collaboration, enrichment, and innovation. The center aims to provide trainings, consultations, and resources to support faculty and create a more connected campus-wide teaching culture. Departments across the College, as well as external organizations, will assist in fulfilling the center’s mission.

Koudsia will retain her existing responsibilities as associate professor and department chair for the Communication, English for Speakers of Other Languages, and Student Success programs.

Inside Ivy Tech: Alphabet Soup

Posted on by

Ivy Tech Community College news briefs from across northeast Indiana:

Advancing Agriculture

This spring, Ivy Tech’s Warsaw Site will begin to offer Introduction to Agriculture, with the hope to offer related classes at the site in coming semesters. These classes allow students in and around Kosciusko County to begin an associate degree in agriculture close-to-home. They can complete their course work at the Ivy Tech Fort Wayne Campus.

Agriculture is one of the largest sectors of Indiana’s economy, making a $20 billion impact annually. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2015–16 Agricultural Statistics book, Kosciusko County ranks, with regard to Indiana’s 92 counties,

  • Fifth in cattle production
  • Fifth in total land area used for farming
  • Fifth in cash receipts from farm marketing
  • Seventh in corn production

 Educational Exchange

Ivy Tech’s Fort Wayne Campus is hosting two international students as a part of the Tunisia Community College Scholarship Program: Raki Glaii and Seif Edinne Chouaya.

Through a year-long program of study in the United States, scholarship program participants develop academic knowledge and skills in their field of study. By interacting with Americans in the classroom, in the community, and through service-learning activities, participants develop a broad and nuanced understanding of U.S. values, become citizen ambassadors, and create links between Tunisians and Americans to increase cross-cultural understanding.

The program is a part of the Thomas Jefferson Scholarship Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by IREX, an international nonprofit organization.

Pioneering Programs

Beginning academic year 2017–18, Ivy Tech’s Fort Wayne Campus will offer five new academic programs: aviation technology–flight, biology, diesel technology, patient care technician, and psychology.

Aviation technology–flight is an associate degree program that prepares students for their journey toward becoming pilots. Students will follow a syllabus approved by the Federal Aviation Administration to become “instrument rated,” which means students will need to have at least 50 hours of cross-country flight time as pilot in command.

Biology is an associate degree program where students can find employment as biological sciences lab technicians, forest conservation technicians, or medical laboratory technicians. Students can transfer their degree to any public four-year university in Indiana and begin as a junior.

Diesel technology is an associate degree program that places an emphasis on the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of diesel engines. This program complements the commercial driver’s license training already provided by Ivy Tech’s Fort Wayne Campus.

Patient care technician is an associate degree program that prepares students with skills such as taking vital signs, performing electrocardiography, drawing blood, and other procedures to help with the day-to-day care of healthcare patients.

Psychology is an associate degree program where students can find employment as mental health assistants, youth counselors, home care aides, and addictions rehabilitation assistants. Students can transfer their degree to any public four-year university in Indiana and begin as a junior.

Regional Realignment

As a part of its organizational restructuring initiative, Ivy Tech Community College recently announced that the Ivy Tech Warsaw Site will transition to the Ivy Tech Fort Wayne Campus service area. Warsaw is currently aligned with the Ivy Tech North Central service area, which includes South Bend, but the College announced a new structure earlier this year that proposed eliminating regions and moving toward a campus model.

During the 2017–18 academic year, the Ivy Tech Fort Wayne and Warsaw leadership teams will work together to ensure a smooth transition for students, faculty, staff, and the Warsaw community Ivy Tech serves. Full realignment is expected on or before July 1, 2018.

 

%d bloggers like this: