Every community needs people willing to provide medical care, which requires more specialized education than many other fields.

In the South Bend – Elkhart Region, a number of educational institutions have strong nursing programs and the Community Foundation of Elkhart County is helping them expand, as well as associated programs.

Three local colleges and universities are expanding offerings so more local students will have opportunities to learn and then serve others in the community.

Speech language pathology students at Indiana University South Bend’s Elkhart Center pose for a photo in the simulation lab.

Ivy Tech Community College, South Bend/Elkhart campus

Nursing Program Expansion in 2021, $24,554; Dental Lab Capital Project in 2022, $125,000

Ivy Tech Community College had 300 applications for 60 seats in the nursing program in late 2019 and its administrators saw an opportunity to expand.

“Students wanted to be nurses but we just didn’t have the capacity to enroll more than we were taking in,” says Sharvon D. Robinson, dean of the School of Nursing for the South Bend/Elkhart campus.

Ivy Tech got a matching grant from the Judd Leighton Foundation and the Community Foundation of Elkhart County was one of the partners who stepped up. “We were able to expand our lab and increase our enrollment by 50 percent, which was great and awesome,” says Robinson.

With support from the Community Foundation, Ivy Tech partnered with Beacon Health System to help remove barriers for students by offering tuition support, stipends, job opportunities after graduation and a state board review course.

Ivy Tech offers a two-year associate degree program for registered nurses and a three-semester program for licensed practical nurses. A transition track helps students merge into the two-year program. Altogether, enrollment has expanded to 160 students a year who can seek nursing degrees. A partnership with Goshen College helps them transition easily into a bachelor’s program.

Robinson says the community effort and partnerships have helped expand labs and bring in more students. With additional faculty, they could add even more to serve the community.

In Elkhart, Ivy Tech is also offering programs to help students who want degrees and certifications in dental, emergency medical, and respiratory therapy fields. Medical assistant programs are also at the Elkhart location. “We’re just looking to partner with others in the area to increase those enrollments as well,” Robinson says.

Indiana University South Bend

Elkhart Center Health Sciences Expansion in 2016-2018, $500,000

The Elkhart campus of Indiana University South Bend is centered around three master’s programs in the health sciences: nursing, speech language pathology, and occupational therapy.

Most undergraduate studies in the nursing program happen in South Bend, but in Elkhart, students can get master’s degrees that further their careers in the South Bend – Elkhart Region.

“The three programs receive a lot of applicants from Elkhart County. Most of the students come from the region,” says Jesús Garcia-Martinez, dean of the Vera Z. Dwyer College of Health Sciences. “Our students are from the community and then when they graduate they stay here.”

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The first cohort of 18 students graduated from the speech language pathology program in May 2023. The program started in the Elkhart Center, as the campus has come to be called, and 100 percent have passed the licensing exam. Nearly all of them had jobs awaiting them at graduation, working in educational or healthcare settings. Students work at a clinic at Elkhart Center, which has a waiting list of children, and helps with screenings in local schools. Two other cohorts are in progress for the 24-month master’s program.

Students are required to work in clinics in the community. “All of our community partners tell us how well-prepared our students are. That speaks really well of the program and the program directors,” says Garcia-Martinez.

The master of science in occupational therapy impressed accreditors and is graduating its first cohort this fall. A lab in the Elkhart Center helps students learn how to help patients navigate cooking and other tasks that challenge them.

The Elkhart Center is thriving with the new focus on health education. “The investment from the Community Foundation has paid off,” says Garcia-Martinez.

Goshen College

$1 million grant in 2022 for the Nursing & Health Sciences Capital Campaign

Goshen College is renovating Westlawn to create new spaces for the nursing and public health programs, among other things. Architectural renderings (above left, above center, and above right) show how the exterior and interior will look. (Renderings by Credo Design Architects)

One of the oldest nursing programs in the state of Indiana will get a boost from the renovation of a historic building.

Goshen College’s first nurses graduated in 1950, the same year Indiana University first awarded bachelor’s degrees. Even now, 12 to 15 percent of GC’s grads leave with nursing degrees. “It’s certainly been a strength of ours and consistently one of the best-enrolled programs for us,” says Ann Vendrely, academic dean. “Enrollment is really diverse and that really helps us serve the community.”

After President Rebecca Stoltzfus arrived in 2017, she began focusing on how to modernize a strong program with great faculty, but cramped, old facilities. Administrators and the board agreed to pursue grants, including a unique one from the federal government, to rehabilitate Westlawn, a building on the most public corner of campus that was underutilized after it stopped being a dorm nearly three decades ago. The Community Foundation’s Career Pathways Committee and board awarded a $1 million grant to the project. A $4 million grant from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration is helping fund the $21 million project.

The project has begun to put an 18,000-square-foot nursing education complex on the second floor, tripling the space of the current program.

The college offers a bachelor of science in nursing, a master of science in nursing, and a program for adults to complete an associate degree. Students in the public health track are also part of some classes. Students can also come to GC for degree completion to get a bachelor of science in nursing in 18 months, Vendrely says. A partnership with Ivy Tech Community College will allow students to transfer credits into GC’s bachelor degree programs.

The college has a strong partnership with healthcare providers, particularly Goshen Health, whose hospital is across the street from GC’s campus.

“Students often get hired during their clinicals and they stay. And we enroll a lot of local students,” says Vendrely. “We are certainly grateful for the Community Foundation’s support, but also Ivy Tech, and the hospitals. It really is a connected effort across the community.”

This story appeared in the 2023 Annual Report.

Photos submitted by IUSB and Goshen College.