IUPUC helps out Columbus community
During the past decade, the Staff Council Outreach Committee at IUPUC plans, solicits and collects annual donations as a way to give back to the Columbus community.
Geneva Foster, credentials analyst for the Office of Recruitment and Admissions, leads the group with an intention to bring holiday cheer to those less fortunate within the community. The SCOC coordinates and organizes two community outreach efforts from the IUPUC campus.
IUPUC Jeans Day raises record of funds
Beginning in 2003, the SCOC requested monetary donations from IUPUC faculty and staff to purchase hams for the baskets distributed during the holidays by Love Chapel.
As the need became greater, SCOC developed a method to generate donations throughout the year. Each month, faculty and staff would pay $5 and wear jeans on one Friday.
In 2006, students were included in the challenge. In 2007, with the Vice Chancellor’s permission, a second Friday was added each month to the Jeans Day/Love Chapel ham drive. A record number of donations was received in 2015. Since 2010, the group has purchased and donated 1,200 hams.
University supports older adults with Angel Tree
In 2010, as a Salvation Army volunteer, Foster approached the Salvation Army with the idea of bringing a senior angel tree to IUPUC.
“As a Salvation Army volunteer, my daughter Nikki and I were asked to hang cards on the Angel Tree at the FairOaks Mall. As we began, we read some of the wants and wishes of the angels. To our surprise, they were not children but adults, mostly over the age of 60. Through the tears, we kept reading and at that moment starting adopting name cards for ourselves and family members,” remembers Foster.
In 2015, IUPUC adopted 105 senior angels.
Students inducted into honor society chapter
Ten Ivy Tech Community College students have been honored for their academic achievements.
The Alpha Rho Tau chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society at the Ivy Tech Columbus campus inducted the following new members for the fall term. They include:
Denise Aldridge, paralegal sciences, Shelbyville
Hollie Brown, cybersecurity, Columbus
Mary Lucas, elementary education, Franklin
Sydney Perkins, liberal arts-ASAP program, Edinburgh
Monica Miller, health care specialist, North Vernon
Gregory Simo, information security, Columbus
Jessica Yoder, liberal arts-ASAP program, Scipio
Jacob Meyer, liberal arts-ASAP program, Greensburg
Kirsten Hoffman, liberal arts-ASAP program, Columbus
Mika Mosier, accounting, Seymour
Suzanne Gould, an assistant department chair/associate professor of science, was inducted as an honorary member.
Phi Theta Kappa is an honor society for two-year colleges that recognizes academic achievement and provides opportunity for individual growth and development through participation in honors, leadership, service and fellowship.
