Iowa Wesleyan commits to the community’s progress

MT. PLEASANT — Iowa Wesley University (IWU) continues to help the Mt. Pleasant community grow through new partnerships and opportunities.

Through the new Southeast Iowa Higher Education Alliance with IWU and Southeastern Community College (SCC), IWU hosted an additional KidTek location on campus in Mt. Pleasant over the summer.

KidTek is a summer youth camp meant to engage children in fun learning over the summer.

The program is designed for kids fourth grade through ninth, and had previously only been hosted in Burlington on the SCC campus.

Children are given the opportunity to pick courses to attend in a course catalog much like ones students use to select courses in their college careers.

Many of the courses offered over the summer were offered at both SCC Keokuk, West Burlington, Fort Madison, and IWU in Mt. Pleasant.

The courses covered a large range of interests including history, cooking, science, movie making, and even trades courses.

The investment in making KidTek more readily available in the Mt. Pleasant community is an investment IWU is excited to make into the next generation.

IWU grows their impact on Henry County with other partnerships.

November 2021, IWU announced a partnership with TEL Education with the intent of minimizing barriers to higher education.

According to the TEL Education website, “TEL Education is a nonprofit, missional organization that partners with accredited institutions and training organizations to deliver affordable college education to everyone in the U.S.”

Through this partnership IWU gains access to TEL Ed.’s programming which includes curriculum, instruction, technology, and support.

This access allows them to give affordable yet high quality online general education courses which IWU will be able to customize to best align with IWU’s specific academic and program goals.

IWU anticipates utilizing this program for dual-credit enrollment from local high schools and create even stronger partnerships within the Mt. Pleasant community.

“Access to education is one of the key factors in serving underrepresented groups, and one of the best ways to do this is through keeping costs affordable,” said University Provost Dr. DeWayne Frazier. “TEL Education and IWU have the same goals of providing access and empowering students. The partnership is built on multiple synergies of the two organizations.”

Through the partnership with SCC, IWU will participate in the Teacher and Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship Pilot Grant Program.

19 schools were chosen including Burlington which partners with Iowa Wesleyan.

$485,792 was granted to the program IWU will take part in this past June.

According to Gov. Kim Reynolds the overall program will ultimately create over 500 new paraeducators and 500 new teachers.

This program is designed to allow current high school students to earn a paraeducator certificate and associate degree.

Those already working as paraeducators will have the opportunity to earn their bachelor’s degree while still working in the classroom.

In a time where the workforce is finding itself short capable workers, Director of Iowa Workforce Development, Beth Townsend said, “Registered Apprenticeships have long been a crucial tool in developing our workforce. It is incredibly exciting to see this model embraced by educators to create a pipeline for teachers and paraeducators and demonstrates that apprenticeships can be created for almost any occupation in any industry.”

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com