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With love in the air, there are many things which Independent Colleges of Washington, our ten member colleges and 40,0000 students can open our heart to:Committed board members, who help shape our goals and strategy Public colleges and universities in Washington, who collaborate with our member colleges to help increase access and success of students - Generous donors, corporate, foundation and individual, who contribute to ICW for scholarships or in-kind support each year, and help increase access to students with financial need Dedicated and open minded public servants: legislators, the Governor, and state agencies - and their hardworking staff - for prioritizing higher education and Washington’s future in this difficult budget year Committed faculty and staff who give the highest level of service and quality to the 40,000 students and 200,000 alumni in Washington who chose the college that fit them best. Innovative and intelligent organizations that we work with, both local and national, to help students, prepare an educated workforce and engaged citizenry: Association of Washington Business, Coalition on College Cost Savings, College Success Foundation, Council of Independent Colleges, Joint Transfer Council, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities State Executives, Seattle and Washington College Access Networks, Washington Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, Washington Council of High School-College Relations, Washington Scholarship Coalition, Washington Financial Aid Association, Washington Higher Education Facilities Authority, and many others. We have lots of love to give, and our campuses do too. Our Colleges Share the LoveCollege campuses are independent communities within the cities and towns they are based. They have physical plants, security and health services, housing and recreation facilities, and their own personalities. The surrounding community is also an integral part of our colleges. Working together both communities mutually flourish. Local residents love attending the thousands of cultural and educational activities taking place on our member campuses - many at no charge. Students, faculty and staff love supporting area businesses and volunteering their time with community organizations. And our campuses can rally resources in a way like no other when a greater need is identified. Across the state, our colleges have been recognized 22 times on President Bush and President Obama’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll since 2006. Here are a few notable examples of how our colleges share the love with neighbors, businesses, and other educational institutions: We Love Our Neighbors in NeedGonzaga University’s Center for Community Action and Service-Learning (CCASL) launched the new Justice in January program last month. The immersion program brought a cohort of Gonzaga students to Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood to help the developmentally disabled and homeless at Guadalupe House and L’Arche Tacoma Hope Farm and Gardens. “Our hope is to structure the week around the Social Change Model, which looks at the individual, the community, and the society as a whole,” said student leader Nate Garberich of Seattle. “We hope participants will walk away more aware of their leadership style, more confident that they can ignite social change, and better able to work with other different leaders when back on campus.” The program adds to the many service opportunities organized by CCASL for Gonzaga students.Students love to eat. While college food is increasingly local and healthy and the “Freshman 15” has been debunked, Seattle Pacific University and Saint Martin’s University students are not ignorant of hunger in their community. When the SPU Nutrition Program recently renovated its food lab, students and faculty organized to join the international “Community Kitchen” movement and started a monthly meal program that brings neighbors in need onto campus to prepare, cook, clean, and converse. Healthy and affordable menus are designed by nutrition majors, the resulting meal (and leftovers!) are shared, and invaluable bonds are made between the campus community and those in need from across Seattle. With Tent City 3 on campus through March, the culinary creativity and nutritional expertise will help even more community members living at the margins. http://www.spu.edu/depts/uc/response/new/images/2011-autumn/community-kitchen.jpg Over the past 20 years, countless Saint Martin’s students have assisted the CCS Community Kitchen at the Salvation Army, and the Community Dinners program at Saint Benedict Episcopal Church.Open to the public, the community kitchens serves more than 300 meals per day, on average, to the “ homeless, needy, and lonely people and families” Thurston county. SMU students meet on the first Friday of each month to share a ride downtown and help with food service and cleanup. In the words of the Saint Benedict program: “There is a philosophy to treat people with respect and dignity, no preaching or judgements.” A philosophy underscoring community outreach across all of our colleges. Whitworth University loves bringing the classroom to the community, such as the community engagement partnership with The Arc of Spokane, an organization serving Spokane’s developmentally disabled. In 2010, in a synthesis of coursework and service, students in a Small Group Communication class began working with The Arc to facilitate the inclusion of people with developmental disabilities on college campuses, with visits by Arc clients to four Whitworth courses. Collaboration has continued: students in a software engineering course designed an interactive computer tutorial for individuals with cognitive disabilities. Students in a January Term Art course designed a community mural at the new Arc of Spokane Community Center location, with creative input from individuals served by The Arc. “This really gets to the heart of what we’re trying to accomplish both as an agency and through the Community Engagement program.” said Brian Holloway, Director of Development for The Arc,” I can’t help but think that this is very much a cutting edge model that could (and should) be duplicated elsewhere”. Since the partnership began two years ago, over 150 Whitworth students, faculty and staff have volunteered, including President Beck Taylor and his wife Julie during the 2011 Community Building Day. We Love Preparing the WorkforceWalla Walla engineering students love their coursework, but are enamored with the opportunity for real-world application - and the chance to make money for school. In a program run by professors Don Riley and Qin Ma, industrial businesses are paired with junior and senior engineering students who serve as research interns for a semester. Students working as “junior research engineers” have developed technologies in a number of industries, including helping agriculture in eastern Washington with “Vibratory Conveyer Optimization” for moving produce, a wielding shield gas study, an “analysis of testing of prism blocks” used on sorting machines, and irrigation equipment. Says Professor Riley, “[students are] solving industry problems...[and are] making twice as much money as they would on campus,” Nursing students at Heritage University love putting their skills to work by volunteering at local clinics. Licenced Practical Nursing (LPN) students have volunteered at Compassion Connect in Yakima, in a health fair to provide free medical, dental and social services to some of the community’s poorest citizens. The nursing students provided triage nursing care, taking patients’ vital signs and medical histories before they saw a doctor. This year, about 100 people received medical care through the clinic. “We want to instill in our students a commitment to give back. Events like this help illustrate just how much need there is for quality, affordable healthcare and make students more aware of their future roles in providing that care,” said Michelle Bartholet, director of the nursing program. The well-regarded LPN program dovetails with the launch of Heritage’s new Registered Nursing program last fall, and if poised to further address the nursing shortage in the Yakima Valley. Seattle University students love assisting idealistic (and often untraditional) entrepreneurs in developing business ventures. Albers’ School’s seniors and students in the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) program have long helped community members develop small business plans, and for the past five years, help has been extended to inmates at Monroe Correctional Complex participating in the NuLife Reentry Program, who hope to launch businesses when they’re released. Students have worked on about 20 business plans with inmates, from greeting card production, green janitorial service and a cosmetology start-up. Students also assist in evaluating ideas objectively and market research. “...if you’re trying to have any realistic idea about the demand for your product, you’re doing a lot of by guess and by golly from the inside,” explains Professor of Management Harriet Stephenson. Because the inmates’ ventures continue to develop long after the capstone courses are over, Stephenson enlisted the SIFE group at Albers to advise the inmates for the long haul. One SIFE team won a national award in 2009 for its help with a Native America art business launched by a former Monroe inmate. Students get the opportunity to hone their business skills, while soon-to-be released inmates are given encouragement and a head start upon their reentry to society. PLU loves to honor and help their elders through the Comprehensive Gerontologic Education Partnership (CGEP). The mission is to better prepare nurses dedicated to the care of older adults, and to simultaneously improve quality of life and care to patients and their caretakers. Gerontological subjects have been expanded in the the curriculum, and expert faculty positions have been added. In the community, CGEP has created and provided continuing education offerings across a four county region (Pierce, Thurston, Kitsap, and South King). CGEP also created two original community outreach programs, both of which are successful and continuing: the Heart Failure Community Transition Program partners nursing students with recently discharged surgical patients to provide structured home visits and telephone support, and the Kinship Caregiver Program involves Community Health students providing home visits, health assessment and teaching, and care coordination to local kinship caregivers, a high-risk health group. CGEP has been an unqualified success, with recent grant awards allowing programs to be endowed in perpetuity, and with expansion of community programs. We Love Helping YouthWhitman College students love to teach students to stand up to injustice and help improve the state’s failing ‘civil rights education’ grade by Teaching the Movement. In a partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Walla Walla Public Schools, about 100 Whitman College students joined the project and presented to 2nd, 5th, 7th and 11th graders at all 10 Walla Walla public schools. Topics ranging from the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins, Jackie Robinson, Women in the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. Walla Walla Public Schools Superintendent Mick Miller noted the benefits to collaborating with the college and its students: “We chose to participate in the Whitman Teaches the Movement project because we wanted our students to learn more about the Civil Rights Movement, have strong role models in our classrooms, and to strengthen our ties to Whitman College.” And Noah Leavitt, Whitman assistant dean for student engagement, recognized the “ extraordinary opportunity for Whitman students to address real world issues of non-discrimination, justice and citizenship in a way that enables them to serve and engage with our community.” Video hereUniversity of Puget Sound loves to build relationships and safe spaces for children. University of Puget Sound and University of Washington Tacoma joined McCarver Elementary School and the Greater Metro Parks Foundation to renovate a playground in memory of Zina Linnik. At first, the project focused on the physical transformation of communal space in the aftermath of tragedy. But in the years since, an incredible relationship between overlapping communities has formed. Students, faculty, and staff at all three institutions and Hilltop-Central area neighbors demonstrate the power of collaboration: professors engaging with school teachers, college and elementary students learning from one another, and the students faculty and staff from two universities working together to transform theory into real-life practice. A second park was renovated, and in May 2011 over 1,500 celebrated Play in Peace Day at their opening. On Nov. 2, the three partnering educational institutions were presented with the Outstanding Project Award from Greater Metro Parks Foundation for their exceptional leadership and contributions to the project. With ten campuses across the state, Washington’s independent colleges revitalize surrounding (and distant) communities, improve the lives of neighbors in need, and instill the importance of service and civic responsibility in students of all ages. _________________________________________________________________ The Heart of ICW"Thank you! This scholarship has helped me to be able to get a degree in Elementary Education. Now, I will be able to share the joy of learning with many children." Kendra, Walla Walla UniversityThe heart of any non-profit organization is always the clients or cause they are dedicated to serve. At Independent Colleges of Washington, the center of our organization and the focus of our work has always been the 40,000 students who attend our colleges and universities each year. In recent communications with our donors, I have explained the importance of scholarships for our students and how this annual fundraising effort is really the heart of ICW’s work. Scholarships provide an immediate and measurable benefit to our students. They not only help students who are struggling financially, but also recognize those who are high achievers and doing exceptional work at the college they attend. For Brittany, a community college transfer student at Whitman College, the new ICW Next Step Scholarship, a partnership with law firms across the state, is helping with her goal of getting a four-year degree. “I come from a single parent background where funds for college are very limited. This scholarship is helping me gain an excellent education, one that will aid me in my pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in history and then hopefully to law school! Scholarships often make the difference whether a student stays in college to complete his or her education. We receive many thank you letters and notes from students who tell us how it helped."Halfway through first semester, I discovered I was short the money necessary to continue my education here since my parents can't afford to pay any of my tuition.” said Jasmine, a student at Whitworth University, “Thankfully, I received an ICW scholarship which made it possible for me to stay at this school." With a still uncertain economy and limited state and federal dollars available to help these eager and capable students, every dollar we raise and send to our colleges helps to convey the right message of encouragement and possibility. Our generous donors make this happen each year with their investments in our student leaders for tomorrow. We heart you! 100% of every dollar ICW raises for scholarships is distributed to our member colleges. For more information about contributing to or creating a new scholarship, please contact Anne Cassidy at Anne@ICWashington.org or call 206/623-4494. We Love Giving Scholarships!Every January, Independent Colleges of Washington makes an announcement that catches the attention of students statewide: “Applications to our ICW named scholarships are open!” From now until the application closing date at the end of March, our mailbox is filled daily with insight into our 40,000 students. The stories our scholarship committees read are diverse and they get to know each student through their application which includes essays, recommendation letters, and resumes. We learn of personal achievements, future ambitions, and often family struggles or financial hardship. Students explain the challenge of balancing study, service and work with recreation and family.For the 2012-13 academic year, ICW is pleased to confirm five scholarships for students attending or applying to our colleges. These endowed and named gifts keep giving year after year, and honor long-time supporters of independent higher education in Washington, including Richard E. Bangert, E.K. and Lillian F. Bishop, The Boeing Company, the Goodchild family, and Stanley O. McNaughton. These funds supplement the $1 million in cash and in-kind gifts that donors generously give each year to ICW, with 100% distribution to students through financial aid offices. It is exciting (and humbling) to witness the enthusiasm and appreciation for learning of our students who choose an academically rigorous liberal-arts environment that fits them best. For more information on these scholarships and how to apply, please visit www.ICWashington.org/scholarships |
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Thank you for taking the time to read our electronic newsletter and have a great winter holiday! Please email any comments or suggestions to violet@ICWashington.org, or call us at 206.623.4494. To keep up to date on the activities in Olympia, sign up for our Legislative Action Center. Also follow ICW campus news on Facebook and Twitter
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