Grant to benefit Ivy Tech students

Ivy Tech Community College students are benefiting from a technology grant provided by Putnam County Community Foundation.

The $21,000 grant is providing funding to fill technology needs of students in the Associate Accelerated Program (ASAP) offered at the Greencastle campus.

Through the technology grant, Ivy Tech has been able to provide laptops free of cost to students in ASAP during their time in the program. The grant dollars will continue to be used for technology needs of students in the program.

“We thank Putnam County Community Foundation for their generosity, which has provided our students with an incredible opportunity to reduce college costs and use beautiful new laptops during their time in ASAP,” Amanda Ostoich, program coordinator for the Associate Accelerated Program at the Greencastle campus, said.

The Associate Accelerated Program (ASAP) allows students right out of high school to earn an associate degree in just 11 months. Ivy Tech started the first cohort of ASAP students at the Greencastle campus in June 2016 and will graduate the first class of ASAP students this May.

Students in the next ASAP cohort will begin classes in June 2017. Interested high school students and recent high school graduates can visit www.ivytech.edu/asap for more information.

ASAP creates a unique teaching environment with wraparound support from mentors and peers that has proven to be successful. Sixty-nine percent of students in the program earn a degree in one year, and 100 percent of ASAP graduates have been accepted to their first-choice college upon graduation. Upon completion of the program, students can transfer their credits to a four-year school and potentially finish a bachelor’s degree in just two more years.

The Putnam County Community Foundation is a nonprofit public charity established in 1985 to administer funds, award grants and provide leadership, enriching the quality of life and strengthening community in Putnam County. The Foundation administers more than 272 funds for donors supporting a variety of charitable activities and has awarded more than $11 million in grants and scholarships.