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Engagement
- Purdue's partnership with Indiana
By Don Gentry,
Vice Provost of Engagement
Wanted: Indiana businesses, communities and
statewide organizations that wish to improve the economic climate
and better their quality of life. Major research university seeks
long-term relationship that will leverage the intellectual capital
that helps companies compete and provides opportunities for faculty
service and student growth. Call 1-888-EXT-INFO for more information.
Purdue
University is hanging out its shingle as a partner for advancing
Indiana's economy. We're using the same model that has been
successful for Purdue Extension for years, but this is new--we're
going beyond the traditional programs of agriculture, consumer
and family sciences, youth, and community development to bring
all of the University's experts to bear on the ambitious goal
of improving Indiana.
As vice provost of engagement, it's my task to prepare
Purdue for this next level of outreach and help companies and organizations
find ways to work with us to accomplish shared goals in economic
development, adopt new technologies and develop future leaders.
We are breaking new ground and seeking to build partnerships that
tap the strengths of all the parties involved. For us, engagement
is more than outreach.
Engagement also will seek to improve the quality of
life in Indiana in ways that take better advantage of our academic
disciplines. I can foresee professors from the liberal arts helping
communities learn more about and work better with our growing Hispanic
population. Students from visual and performing arts may help invigorate
a community theatre, and landscape architecture students may plan
a new park or recreational area. Elementary education students could
be coming to your city to help teach children how to read.
Best of all, these service-learning programs will instruct
our students at the same time that they benefit you. They teach
young men and women to be better citizens and to give back to their
communities by sharing their knowledge and their energy. Hopefully,
these projects will create a service ethic in our students that
will last their entire lives.
President Martin
Jischke says that one of the reasons he came to Purdue was because
he sensed the faculty and staff were ready to take the University
to the next level. I can tell you from the few months that I've
overseen engagement, Indiana businesses are ready, too. They're
hungry to strike out in new directions, to look for new opportunities
and to grow the industries already in place. They know it will take
help and expertise in advanced technology, entrepreneurial skills
and workforce development, and they are looking to Purdue for answers.
These are ambitious communities that want to exercise some direction
over their economic destinies.
There will be no one way to achieve these relationships.
Purdue's schools and academic disciplines offer a variety of strengths,
each of which communities and companies may tap in myriad ways.
We're also building on our tradition of success. Purdue
Extension works daily in the homes, offices, schools and fields
of clientele across Indiana. Our 4-H
program alone reaches more than 270,000 young Hoosiers every year.
The Technical
Assistance Program has helped Indiana industries save or create
3,800 jobs. We also have science outreach programs for elementary
schools, policy analysis groups, environmental engineering centers
and high-tech manufacturing labs.
And that's just the beginning. Purdue recently was named
one of the top 12 universities in the nation for innovations in
nurturing economic development. Soon, we will break ground on Discovery
Park, which will spur investment and research in nanotechnology,
e-commerce, biomedicine and entrepreneurism at the edge of science
and business.
So call us. Let's get connected and make something happen.
Let's get engaged.
Related links:
Purdue economic
development
Central Indiana Corporate Partnership
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