Duke Energy partners with Ivy Tech Bloomington to support rural biotechnology career education

BLOOMINGTON – Ivy Tech Community College’s Bloomington campus was awarded a Perkins Competitive Grant from the Indiana Department of Education in the fall of 2016 to increase rural career and technical education in biotechnology. The $85,000 grant was used to establish dual credit biotechnology classes at the high schools. Starting last spring, students at high schools in Bloomfield, Brown County, Eastern Greene, and Owen Valley, had the option to earn dual high school and college credit at no cost to their families.

The biotechnology courses were taught by an Ivy Tech Bloomington instructor and the grant also provided training this summer for high school science teachers to gain credentials to teach the coursework in the high schools beginning this fall.

Duke Energy provided an additional $15,000, supporting the purchase of textbooks, not covered by the grant funding.

“It is part of our mission at Ivy Tech Community College to be responsive to the communities we serve and one way we do that is through local partnerships,” said Chancellor Jennie Vaughan. “Together with Duke Energy, we are working to establish a workforce pipeline into higher-paying careers for students while also fulfilling industry need.”