Helton receives award

Ivy Tech Community College-Wabash Valley elementary education graduate Caitlyn Helton was recently awarded an Indiana Career & Technical Award for Excellence in the postsecondary student category.

The award was sponsored by the Indiana Commission on Career and Technical Education, and is awarded to outstanding students who demonstrate scholarship, character, leadership, and technical proficiency in their area of study.

Catie started in the Elementary Education Program at Ivy Tech Community College before she graduated from Terre Haute South High School.

To help pay for school, Catie worked at a local McDonald's while attending Ivy Tech. and received additional financial assistance with the help of scholarships like the First Financial Bank academic scholarship

Catie still found time to volunteer at the Humane Society, belong to Ivy Tech's Student Education Association, and tutor students between the ages of 8 and 15 in math and language arts while maintaining Dean's List status.

Upon graduating, Catie was awarded the C. Huston Isaacs Award, which is given to an Ivy Tech student who has high scholastic achievement and demonstrates a high degree for potential success in the field of study.

Catie is a member of Phi Theta Kappa, and received a Phi Theta Kappa scholarship from St. Mary of the Woods to assist her with her coursework as she transferred there this past fall.

"I have chosen teaching as a career because I wish to share my passion of learning with young and curious minds," Catie said. "I wish to instill within young children the same qualities of appreciation and dedication for learning that I possess. My goal is to promote the value of lifelong learning."

"Catie has a manner that makes others want to be a better person, a better teacher, and a better student," said Cathy Cole, program chair of Elementary Education at Ivy Tech. "She is truly a gift in the field of elementary education."

Catie's achievement will be recognized at a public ceremony on Feb. 9 at the Indiana Government Center in Indianapolis.