The Boys & Girls Club of White County, a recipient of several grants from your
Community Foundation of White County, recently issued a HUGE announcement for its Club
members and the entire White County community.
The Club received funding from Purdue University’s Indiana Next Generation
Manufacturing Competitiveness Center (IN-MaC) for placement of an IN-MaC Design and
Innovation Studio at its Monticello site. The Studio will provide exciting and expanded STEM
(science, technology, engineering and math) opportunities for our area children, focused on
changing perceptions, offering hands-on learning, and building Indiana’s future manufacturing workforce.
What makes this especially exciting is that this is the only IN-MaC Design and
Innovation Studio located in a public, non-school location. The Boys & Girls Club is the first
public youth services organization in the state able to offer this marvelous opportunity to our
students.
A number of investing partners are involved in this statewide project, including WHIN
(the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network), a 10-county network in north central Indiana
committed to developing our region as a global epicenter of digital agriculture and advanced manufacturing, supported by a high quality of life for its residents. Your Community Foundation of White County is a proud partner in the WHIN initiative and thrilled to see this investment in our community.
Manufacturer-designed activities and curriculum will provide students with hands-on
opportunities to experience robotics, engineering, manufacturing, and science learning modules in studios that match those found in actual manufacturing facilities. In addition to providing technical opportunities, IN-MaC seeks to cultivate creative thinking, problem-solving, and design challenges that will inspire students to enter the ever-expanding world of advanced manufacturing – and provide an educated, enthusiastic pool of future job applicants eager to apply their knowledge and commitment to the field.
IN-MaC sites offer a unique opportunity for educators, students, manufacturers, and
community members to partner together to help design the future of manufacturing in our area. Too often, it seems, we fail to realize that White County has been at the center of some very exciting and forward-thinking initiatives – energy production from the wind farms and landfill, just to name two! And even better, these opportunities create high-paying jobs. Truly, White County has a lot of good things happening, providing great opportunities for our children both today and in the future.
Congratulations and well wishes are certainly in order! We are grateful to Dan Fry, the
Boys & Girls Club directors, and staff for sharing their passion, energy, and vision to serve the community in so many ways – and for bringing this outstanding opportunity to White County.