$5 million endowment awarded to Ivy Tech Community College

The grant to Ivy Tech Community College was made through Charting the Future for Indiana's College and Universities, a statewide effort in Indiana to help first-generation college students and students from minority communities. Lilly Endowment Inc. awarded the $5 million dollars to Ivy Tech in the second phase of the three-part Charting The Future program. Ivy Achieves provides incentives to students in an effort to encourage awareness of and participation in college programs that have been shown to increase success rates of students.

Ivy Achieves, a program geared at providing tools to those who enter college as a first-generation student, incentivizes students to learn about and access services that have been shown to lead to higher retention and graduation rates. Often, students who are the first in their families to attend college lack the knowledge and resources to access the services that can help them achieve success. To remedy that, students who qualify for Ivy Achieves will earn points for completing tasks that are commonly associated with higher classroom success and graduation rates. Activities can include seeing an academic advisor, obtaining all required textbooks, as well as participating in campus life events. Incentives can be earned as students earn points. Additionally, participating students are entered into a drawing for one grand prize each academic year.

Lilly Endowment Inc. solicited proposals from colleges and universities throughout Indiana for programs that would advance the goal of Charting The Future to increase education attainment in Indiana by helping institutions of higher learning to better prepare students for completing degree programs and moving on to successful careers. The program is broken down into three phases. Phase one grants were awarded earlier in 2020 and were aimed at aiding in research driven projects designed to hone in on the specific needs of students and potential employers, ensuring that colleges provide an educational foundation that can shape students into the job candidates that local businesses desire. Ivy tech received an $8 million grant for their phase-one proposal, the statewide Career Coaching and Employer Connection program. The CCEC is focused on employer engagement and career advice. Utilizing the knowledge gained in phase one, Ivy Tech then developed the second phase program, preparing students to access the services that lead to graduation and job preparedness. Phase three will concentrate on collaborative initiatives between colleges and universities to map out a future for continued growth in Indiana.