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Partners, PAIRS, Planpals, Destinations, mentors, tutors, buddies, volunteers: At IU Kokomo, it's all about service, partnership and leadership -- not just for one but for everyone. IUK's connections with students, graduates and with the multiple communities it serves never stop growing. Today those connections take every imaginable form.
Through Destination: Education IUK, now in its sixth year, students, faculty and staff of the campus join community adults in working as mentors for more than 120 area high school students. Through a project known as PAIRS, IUK faculty and staff team one-on-one with Kokomo Center Schools faculty and staff to pool knowledge and talent for the benefit of students in the public schools and in the university. Through VISION, IUK proudly joins with area businesses, hospitals and Purdue University's School of Technology in a venture to enhance teacher development and foster new curriculum projects.
IUK this year became a regional site for Indiana's Twenty-First Century Scholars Program (TCSP), serving some 700 high school students in five counties.The campus is a partner in the Kokomo Rotary Club's Computer Closet project and in Indiana's School-to-Workforce program.
IUK work-study students are engaged in President Bill Clinton's new and ambitious America Reads Program. Our nursing students serve in community agencies, including area schools, the YWCA Women's Shelter, Kokomo Public Housing Authority, Kokomo Rescue Mission, the Clinic of Hope and Nesting Doves. IUK business students, through the Students in Free Enterprise organization, have brought their growing entrepreneurial expertise to the aid of a number of community groups, including area food banks and clothing distribution centers. Every spring, IUK alumnae join with other women in community leadership roles to host and mentor undergraduate women.
The United Way drive comes only once a year, during the fall months, but at IUK almost every week brings a new drive, a new campaign and new collection boxes at strategic hallway corners in our heaviest traffic areas, as students seek to bring needed warm clothing, health-care articles, food and other necessities to the less privileged families in our community.
A new publication from Indiana University, which provides an inventory of service-learning classes throughout IU's eight campuses, lists 15 different courses that engage IUK students with schools, small businesses, health delivery centers, and various community and cultural sites.
IUK celebrates diversity through its Enhancing Minority Attainment conferences, and our annual International Day Festival is a time when community connections are unusually visible.
Many of us on campus are privileged to serve on the boards of not-for profit organizations in the community.
In turn, literally hundreds of area leaders serve on advisory boards at IUK, the majority from Howard County, but 10 to 20 each from Cass, Clinton, Tipton, Carroll and Grant counties.
From partnerships and programs highlighted in this issue (See IUK Links, page 3) to instructional involvements that reach well beyond campus borders, IUK daily engages in an evolving and expanding concept of community service and leadership, not just for one but for everyone; not simply for today, but also for the future.
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