TMMK Helps Launch KCTCS Major Gifts Campaign with Donation of $500,000

Approval given for tech campus training

Japanese school at ECC to celebrate 15 years

TMMK Website
October 20, 2003

TMMK Helps Launch KCTCS Major Gifts Campaign with Donation of $500,000

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY, (October 20, 2003) — Seeking to better serve employers and communities and to change the lives of students, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) officially kicked a multimillion-dollar fund-raising campaign.

The campaign, called "Fulfilling the Promise," will expand access to postsecondary education and workforce training across the Commonwealth by funding strategically targeted initiatives.

KCTCS President Michael B. McCall and KCTCS Foundation Chairman Tom Zawacki announced the campaign during an event hosted at the System Office in Lexington and telecast via interactive television to each of the 16 districts of the statewide system of community and technical colleges.

The major-gifts campaign, which is expected to last approximately five years, will be conducted along 17 tracks - one at the System level, and one in each KCTCS district.

When it is finished, "Fulfilling the Promise" is expected to rank as the largest fund-raising campaign ever undertaken by a system of two-year colleges. The largest such campaign to date - totaling $43 million -- was conducted by the University of Kentucky Community College System in the mid-1990s. The General Assembly merged UKCCS with Kentucky's technical institutions in 1997 to form KCTCS.

" KCTCS plays a pivotal role in addressing many of the challenges facing Kentucky, but only if we stay ahead of the curve and capitalize on the exciting opportunities that lie ahead," McCall said.

" For the motto 'Education Pays' to be true for every citizen, business and industry must thrive in the globally competitive, information-based economy of the 21st century. As a state-assisted institution, KCTCS must supplement its public funds with support from the private sector to fully meet the demands of students and our business and industry partner," McCall said.

During the Fulfilling the Promise Campaign, KCTCS and its colleges will solicit major gifts from individuals, companies, foundations and other sources to raise money for specific projects. The fund-raising goal will be announced at a later date.

During the campaign kickoff, McCall announced the first two major gifts received by the System-level campaign:

• $500,000 from Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, to launch the KCTCS Center of Excellence in Automotive Manufacturing.
• $320,000 from the Kentucky Colonels to develop a scholarship program that will benefit single, working parents who need assistance to afford a college education.

" Thanks to the generosity of TMMK and the Kentucky Colonels, KCTCS will enhance the earnings potential and quality of life of many more students in the years to come," McCall said.

At the announcement in Lexington, McCall described four initiatives that will serve as the focus of the System-level campaign (college-based initiatives were outlined at teleconference sites in the 16 districts):

• Donations to the Student Success Fund will assist KCTCS in offering loans and scholarships to students who plan to transfer to four-year institutions in high-priority workforce areas and to students in KCTCS diploma and degree programs with high workforce need and limited enrollment. KCTCS also will offer scholarships for students with unique needs that cannot be met with traditional sources of financial aid.

• The New Economy Fund will expand job profiling, assessment, and targeted instruction throughout the Commonwealth to align individuals' skills with workplace requirements. KCTCS will coordinate a network of physical, virtual and mobile centers on campuses to offer training, provide distance-learning courses, and to expand curricular offerings. Centers of excellence will align KCTCS courses and programs with training needs of business and industry; enhance co-op and internship opportunities between KCTCS institutions and employers; develop applications of technology for improved instructional delivery; and disseminate materials and teaching strategies to educational institutions.

• To remain flexible and responsive to the needs of Kentucky, KCTCS will create the New Opportunities Fund, an unrestricted endowment to pursue opportunities with innovation and creativity. Permanently invested funds will generate annual income that will be directed to special projects and initiatives for which budgeted funds are not available.

• The former manufacturing site of Texas Instruments in Versailles is being renovated into the permanent home of the KCTCS System Office. Through donations to the KCTCS Building Fund, the System Office will be equipped to serve as a statewide resource for businesses and industries that need centrally located, executive meeting space and interactive communication systems to interface with employees, vendors and customers in Kentucky and around the world.
  

Private support is key to the ability of KCTCS to fulfill its mission, particularly in light of state budgets cuts exceeding $7 million that the System has sustained in the last two fiscal years.

" Through the 'Fulfilling the Promise' campaign, KCTCS has identified statewide initiatives that will ensure the success of students, prepare workers to compete in the global economy, and enhance our ability to pursue new opportunities," McCall said. "We invite all Kentuckians to participate in the 'Fulfilling the Promise Campaign.'"

The spokesman for the campaign is Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News anchor for nearly two decades. A video featuring Cronkite was played at the announcement today.

" The creation of KCTCS opened new doors of opportunity for all Kentuckians," Cronkite says. "Whether coming directly out of high school, from the workforce, or the ranks of the unemployed, students of all ages and backgrounds can achieve their dreams of a more fulfilling life."

For more information on the Fulfilling the Promise Campaign, contact Vice President Timothy R. Burcham, CFRE, at 859-246-3227, or Tim.Burcham@kctcs.edu

KCTCS colleges change lives by providing academic and technical associate degrees; diploma and certificate programs in occupational fields; pre-baccalaureate education; adult, continuing and developmental education; customized training for business and industry; and distance learning. For more information, visit www.kctcs.edu.

Troublesome Creek Times
November 12, 2003

Approval given for tech campus training

Hazard Community and Technical College has been approved as a Master Electrician, Electrician and Electrical Contractor continuing education provider in the Commonwealth of Kentucky in accordance with the electrical continuing education procedures. This means that those persons working in the field as electricians or holding master electrician license or as an electrical contractor can now attend continuing education classes necessary to renew their license on the Technical Campus of Hazard Community and Technical College.

Representatives from the Technical Campus have been in regular attendance at several of the recently held Electrical Advisory Board meetings in pursuit of this approval. "Since our slogan is "A Brighter Future Close to Home" it really gives credence to that slogan when we can offer quality training close to home especially for those already employed in a field that not only prepares our people for electrical work," noted Harlan Davidson Jr., college Community Development coordinator. "Now to add the ability to provide quality, mandatory training to people who may have been regular students of our preparing for this field of work a short time ago brings the area of training and education full circle," Davidson said.

Recent Legislative changes bring about new requirement in the field of electrical work and electrical contracting. The Department of Housing, Building, and Construction, Electrical Licensing Department has recently enacted legislation that requires electricians and electrical contractors to complete six hours of continuing education for each license held. According to the Electrical Advisory Board, these continuing education courses may only be provided by one of the organizations listed in KRS 227A.100 and or certified by the Electrical Advisory Board.

HCTC Technical Campus will be offering continuing education classes on an annual as-needed basis beginning on Jan. 1, 2004. Regular announcements will be made when and where classes are being offered but if you have questions or concerns prior to that please contact Christina Neace at (606) 487-3319 or call toll free 800-246-7521 ext. 73319.

The News-Enterprise
November 14, 2003

Japanese school at ECC to celebrate 15 years

Yoshie Tozaki's two children came to Kentucky 15 months ago and enrolled in nearby schools. But the two felt out of place among American children.

They did, however, look forward to going to a Saturday Japanese school at Elizabethtown Community College.

"This place is very relaxed and a comfortable place for Japanese students and parents," Tozaki said. "This is very helpful."

The Elizabethtown Japanese School, one of two such schools in Kentucky, marks its 15-year anniversary in Hardin County with a Saturday open house. The school's celebration is also an outreach to the ECC community and the area companies that support it.

"We would like to share the Japanese culture," school Director Manami Robinson said. "We also have so much appreciation for the community, and we want them to enjoy what they have given us."

The school's instruction in Japanese and math is geared toward children of employees at a number of Japanese companies operating in the area, including Ambrake and AP Technoglass, Robinson said. The companies contribute to the cost of operating the school, along with the Japanese Ministry of Education.

Some 189 students have gone through the program since its opening in October 1987. The original class had nine students from families who had come to Hardin County as part of Ambrake's opening. Other local Japanese companies operating in Glasgow and Bardstown later sent students to the Elizabethtown school.

The Japanese companies send workers from their homeland to spend several years in the United States, Robinson said. Many of them then return after a three- to five-year stint working at local companies.

Tozaki's husband works at Akebono America in Munfordville.

During that time, the workers want their children to maintain their studies about the Japanese language and culture, Robinson said.

"They want them to maintain their education established in Japan, but also take back a lot from American culture as well," she said.

Saturday's anniversary events include a rice pounding, a martial arts demonstration, face painting, origami, calligraphy and Japanese traditional games. In ECC's Morrison Gallery, student work, arts and crafts and other cultural works are displayed.

The school's students will present a concert at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the gallery. English and Japanese versions of the school's song, "It's a Small World," and "My Old Kentucky Home" will be performed.

Tozaki said the time with other Japanese students has been beneficial for her children, even though the extra day of school can be tiring.

"This is a very helpful school," she said. "It's only once a week, but the time is very important to us."