It's Your Business: Ivy Tech Bloomington celebrates graduation, positive impact
Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington continues to be your community college by enabling student and industry partner success. On May 10, Ivy Tech celebrated its graduation ceremony, awarding over 1,750 credentials to 1,300 graduates. More than 2,000 family members, friends, faculty, staff and community leaders attended the ceremony at the Indiana University Auditorium and cheered on the graduates' achievements.
The graduation ceremony also highlighted the significant economic impact of Ivy Tech graduates on the region. More than 90% of Ivy Tech graduates stay in Indiana and together with the Ivy Tech Bloomington campus create approximately $80 million in economic impact for our region.
Many local employers take advantage of Ivy Tech’s Achieve Your Degree program and their employee students were well represented, including 28 graduates from the Cook family of companies.
The graduates came from a wide range of diverse backgrounds, ages and goals. There were 445 students who earned transfer degrees and 370 high school students who earned a college credential through the early college program prior to graduating high school. One hundred sixty-two students received their official nursing pin, a symbol of the nursing students’ hard work and dedication. The Accelerated Associate Program (ASAP) graduated 39 students who finished their associate degrees in one year. Some of this year’s graduates were the first in their families to attend college, some returned to school after years of work or military service, and some pursued new careers or advanced in their current ones.
One notable graduate was 90-year-old Norma Nichols, who walked the stage Friday night with her Entrepreneurship Technical Certificate. Nichols is a true testament that it is never too late to start your journey at Ivy Tech. She balanced coursework, regular visits to the library and always made time to knit between classes. She also competed in Ivy Tech's Duke It Out Pitch Competition, where she promoted her own small business. Look out for her new Etsy shop, "Eileen Creations," launching this summer.
Kevin Nguyen, president of the Student Government Association and computer science graduate, gave a memorable commencement address about the benefits of getting involved in your community. Nguyen is graduating with summa cum laude honors and was named his program’s outstanding student.
Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington is your community college and this year’s graduates will leave a lasting, positive impact on our community through their work in a variety of healthcare, trades, business, culinary, manufacturing and service industries. You have much to be proud of and even more to look forward to as we now welcome our next class of Ivy Tech students — registration is open — visit us at www.ivytech.edu/Bloomington or contact us at bl-info@ivytech.edu to get started on your Ivy Tech journey!
Erik Coyne is chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Ivy Tech Bloomington celebrates graduates, economic impact in region
