A recent gift to the Transforming Tomorrow's Workforce - Changing Lives, Changing Northeast Indiana Capital Campaign will ensure that Ivy Tech early childhood education majors are well trained to serve the needs of students.

At a ceremony announcing the start of the first regional capital campaign in the history of Ivy Tech Community College Northeast, the Dekko Foundation presented Chancellor Mark A. Keen, Ph.D. with a gift of $1.3 million for an endowed faculty chair in early childhood education. The gift is the largest ever for the local Ivy Tech campus and the first endowed faculty chair for the statewide Ivy Tech system. According to Tom Leedy, president of Dekko Foundation, the gift recognizes the leadership role Ivy Tech Community College plays in early childhood education throughout northeast Indiana and will help Ivy Tech elevate expectations and opportunities in this critical profession.

The $6.5 million Transforming Tomorrow's Workforce - Changing Lives, Changing Northeast Indiana Capital Campaign is designed to support scholarships, instructional equipment, new academic programs and endowed faculty chairs like the one made possible by the gift from Dekko Foundation. The campaign launch event also included the announcement of a gift of $150,000 from the Student Government Association, which will be used to furnish a wellness center in the new Community Mall building on the new North Campus. Chancellor Keen enthusiastically thanked all of those who have contributed to the campaign, and celebrated its early success.

"With today's gifts we have raised $3.5 million and are already over halfway to the campaign goal," he stated. "I am humbled by the strong support for Ivy Tech that our local community is showing in these difficult economic times. The support shown the campaign, along with our amazing growth in student enrollment, shows that Ivy Tech truly is transforming tomorrow's workforce and changing lives in northeast Indiana."

Significant gifts to the capital campaign have also been received from English-Bonter-Mitchell Foundation, the Foellinger Foundation, the McMillen Foundation, and the Wilson Foundation. In the family division- gifts from faculty, students, trustees and others close to the College - more than $850,000 has been pledged or donated, exceeding the $650,000 goal established for that division at the outset of the campaign.

Rebecca Carothers, Assistant Professor/Chair of the Early Childhood Education Department at Ivy Tech - Northeast, says the Dekko Foundation's gift will be a tremendous help in developing faculty.