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Manchester College
receives $750,000
for local economic
development efforts
NORTH MANCHESTER, Inc. (Dec. 8, 2003) - Manchester
College has just received a $750,000 incentive for its growing collaboration
with Wabash County and North Manchester economic development efforts.
With a four-year grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., the
college will develop a wide-reaching local program of student internships
and entrepreneurial support that will address two critical economic
development concerns:
- Stemming the significant loss of talented college
graduates from Indiana, and particularly Wabash County;
- Improving job opportunities for other Indiana
workers, whether they have college educations or not
The Manchester College project is focused on an
alliance formed a year ago that grew out of needs expressed by the North
Manchester Town Forum. The Wabash County Economic Development Corp. (WEDCOR)
now has joined the collaboration.
This is a natural congress because college students are
predisposed to be "movers" - taking their skills, energy and intellectual
capital to fresh environments, and away from a community and state that
struggles economically. It is hoped this internship program will give
students "a wonderful sense of possibility in how their talents and
intellectual capital can be used locally," said Manchester College President
Parker G. Marden.
The college will make heavy use of its highly effective
Office of Career Services, and its recently announced Mark E. Johnston '68
Professorship in Entrepreneurship, which will offer lectures, seminars,
workshops, consultations and other events
The college will seek to make internships and related
field experiences available to all its students, and add a full-time
Director of Internships to aggressively develop more internships. In Wabash
County, at least 15 Manchester College students annually will receive $4,000
stipends for 10- to 12-week internships in Wabash County businesses and
factories. In these high-powered internships, students will be expected to
bring their individual intellectual capital to their jobs, which could
include foreign language abilities, international experience, computer
expertise and communication skills.
The college will work further with the vision of
community leaders, and become more involved and forge new relationships in
area economic development issues, Marden said.
.The Wabash County project will include its growing
Hispanic population. Manchester College will encourage connections and
internships with its Hispanic students (2.3 percent of enrollment) and those
who speak Spanish and understand Hispanic culture, Marden said.
The Endowment is giving a total of $38.9 million to 37
Indiana colleges, universities and foundations - public and private - for
this Initiative to Promote Opportunity Through Educational Collaborations.
"We are most pleased with the imagination and
creativity demonstrated by Indiana colleges and universities in their
proposals for this initiative," said Sara B. Cobb, Endowment vice president
for education. "Dozens of new relationships with alumni and others have been
developed that will offer numerous internships and other experimental
education opportunities for Indiana students."
The independent, liberal arts Manchester College offers
more than 45 areas of study to 1,170 students from 29 states and 33
countries. It is a Church of the Brethren college, located in North
Manchester in northeast Indiana. For more information about Manchester
College, visit
www.manchester.edu
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