Pictured: Suzi Bruin has retired as director of the Bartholomew Consolidated School Foundation (BCSF).
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Suzi Bruin’s grandmother taught first grade for more than 40 years, and her mother was a teacher as well. When she would shop with her grandmother, there were always two carts: one for home, and one for the classroom.
Now, as Bruin retires from the Bartholomew Consolidated School Foundation (BCSF), she remarked that things have come “full circle” for her — from seeing her grandmother spend money out of her own pocket for her classroom to helping fill other teachers’ carts using donations to the foundation.
Bruin’s last day at the school foundation was Dec. 7, marking just over five years since she joined as executive director in October of 2016. Her successor is Nicole Cunningham.
While growing up with teachers taught her the value of education, Bruin originally had intended to go down a different career path and majored in criminal justice at Indiana University in Bloomington. Her plan was to work with juveniles who were in trouble, but she found that the work was “emotionally draining” and not healthy for her.
After getting married, Bruin moved with her husband to Houston, Texas, where she was recruited by the American Productivity Quality Center. She worked with the nonprofit for 13 years. She later worked for a naturalist doctor and Sysco Foods before moving back to Indiana.
Bruin started working with the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. in February of 2013 at CSA Lincoln Elementary. Her daughter was a fifth grader at the time, and Bruin was there so much as a volunteer that she ended up getting a position at the school. Bruin later became the food assistance coordinator for BCSC.
While she was still at CSA Lincoln working as a project manager, then-principal Chad Phillips gave her the idea of working at BCSF when they were talking about her future.
“He mentioned the foundation, and at first, I thought, ‘I don’t know that I could do that,’” Bruin recalled.
“And he said, ‘You would do anything for a kiddo.’ And that kind of just stuck with me and four or five years later, I became the executive director of the foundation.”
In looking back at her time as director, Bruin said she’s proud of the increased awareness of the foundation, which the board and community development coordinators have contributed to. Greater awareness, in turn, led to increased donations and greater impact by the foundation.
“I think people, once they knew we were here, they want to be a part of it, because they’re seeing the impact of what we’re doing,” she said.
During her retirement, Bruin plans to travel to see her daughter play college softball.
She has “mixed feelings” about leaving. However, she’s excited to focus on her health and family — and excited to see what the foundation continues to achieve with Cunningham as director and Angie Emmitt as community development coordinator.
“I know that Nicole and Angie are going to move it to the next level,” said Bruin. “…Those that came before me set me up for a great deal of success, and I’m hoping that I’ve done the same for the foundation moving forward. There’s a big excitement about where it’s going.”
