INDIAN RIVER STATE COLLEGE NEWS
IRSC President
Dr. Timothy Moore
TCBusiness.com 23
GUIDED BY MISSION
IRSC is the only open-access, public institution
of higher education serving Indian
River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie
counties. Its student body is more diverse
than the country, with the majority, 53.5%,
being minority students. Thirty-seven
percent 37% of IRSC students are firstgeneration
students and 40.1% of students
receive a Pell grant. Most students 71.8%
are enrolled part time and female students
make up the majority 61.4% of enrollment.
Its mission is to transform lives by offering
high-quality, affordable and accessible
education.
Guided by its True North — Mission,
Students and Community — the college has
embarked on the first of a series of strategic
initiatives aimed to provide economic uplift
to historically underrepresented populations;
meet the increasing demand for
trained, diverse workforces; advance student
success and well-being; invest in future generations;
and develop critical partnerships
that bring new opportunities and ideas to
our students, region and nation.
In pursuit of those goals, the college
is deploying $24 million of the donation,
which is about 53% of the total gift.
BUILDING A WORKFORCE
Exactly one year after receiving Scott’s
gift, IRSC, along with area hospital leaders,
announced in December that it would
double the size of its nursing program to
address the critical need for more nurses
in Florida.
Funds will be used to transform 50,521
square feet at IRSC’s Pruitt Campus in
Port St. Lucie into state-of-the-art nursing
classrooms and simulated clinical settings.
It would also create new pathways for students
who earn a certified nursing assistant
CNA, emergency medical technician
EMT or other allied health certificates,
offering them credit for prior learning
when entering the Associate Degree in
Nursing RN program.
This exclusive pathway program reduces
time to degree completion and costs,
while adding diversity to the nursing
class by prioritizing field experience and
prior learning in the application process.
Roughly $13.5 million will support this
largest program expansion in IRSC history.
ECONOMIC UPLIFT
IRSC is moving quickly to support initiatives
that provide access and outreach to
low-income, first-generation and historically
underrepresented populations. To
that end, a portion of the funds from the
Scott gift will be used to create an endowment
that builds on the success of the Lincoln
Park Career Pathways Initiative.
The program, centered at the Blackburn
Educational Building in Fort Pierce,
provides funding for tuition, transportation
and other support service for students
receiving college credit or noncredit
coursework that will lead to an industry
certification and ultimately to a goodpaying
job.
To date, 71% of those who have completed
the program have received credentials
and are working in industry-related
jobs. A million dollars has been committed
to this endeavor.
SUCCESS AND WELL-BEING
During the pandemic, IRSC learned a
great deal about new challenges students
face. Students reported that they often do
not have quiet places to study or reliable
internet connections.
They have missed the opportunity to
study and interact with peers and classmates.
As a result, IRSC is re-imagining
student learning and social spaces, tools,
academic support and more to advance
student success, well-being and sense of
belonging, which are essential elements of
student retention.
IRSC has set aside $1 million dollars to
develop a Student Learning Commons on
its main campus in Fort Pierce. Located in
the library, the area will be a supportive
and nurturing place for students to meet,
study and relax. Study skills are the most
difficult to develop, and peer-to-peer
tutors — prominent in the learning commons
— are the most efficient way to assist
students with learning. IRSC intends to
duplicate a Student Learning Commons at
each branch campus, furthering the reach
of study services to all students.
FUTURE GENERATIONS
IRSC understands that high-quality preschool
is the essential difference maker in
the success of a child. It intends to allocate
$2.5 million in its Child Development Center.
It provides quality, low-cost education
and care for the children of our students,
community members and faculty. It also
provides hands-on learning experiences
for students enrolled in IRSC Early Childhood
Education programs.
CRITICAL PARTNERSHIPS
An indirect effect of the gift includes
increased passion, energy, and visibility of
IRSC and its mission.
Such attention
has enabled IRSC
to develop unique,
groundbreaking
partnerships
with Adobe, Bloomberg,
and Wolfram
Research to name a
few. These partnerships
have resulted
in student, faculty and staff access to bestin
class research and technical software
tools at no cost to them.
No other community college in America
offers these elite tools for free. As a result
of these partnerships, IRSC students are
uniquely poised for success in the classroom
and gain a competitive edge for the
modern workplace.
MULTIPLIER EFFECT
“We chose to make relatively large gifts
to the organizations … both to enable
their work, and as a signal of trust and
encouragement, to them and to others,”
Scott wrote in her blog.
IRSC has seen and will continue to see
the direct effect of this generosity.
Recently, it received two large restricted
gifts.
The first is a $2 million naming gift
for the Eastman Advanced Workforce
Training Complex, a purpose-built facility
that will link advanced technology
and leading-edge industry training in
specialized technical career fields. The
complex, set to open in 2023, is cited as
critical for closing the regional skills gap
and preparing residents for high-wage,
in-demand careers.
It also received a $10 million restricted
gift to develop and build a first-of-its-kind
vocational charter high school in Indiantown.
The new high school will be home
to more than 400 students. Details about
that project are forthcoming.
CHANGING LIVES
“IRSC exists to change the lives of those
we are here to serve,” Moore concluded.
“We are grateful to Ms. Scott for the
generosity and the trust she has placed
in IRSC. We will continue to invest wisely
to increase our capacity to educate
and support more students, endow
scholarships and instructors to propagate
our mission in perpetuity, and expand
programs of distinction which highlight
IRSC as the education partner of choice for
our community.” v
/TCBusiness.com