U.S. first lady Jill Biden speaks during a visit to the Ivy Tech Community College Valparaiso campus on Monday, March 6, 2023.
Now she’s a working foreman heavy equipment operator for NIPSCO’s gas construction department. “Twelve years ago I knew I needed to find a job that paid well, that had benefits,” Strilich Daly told Biden.U.S. first lady Jill Biden, center, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor and nominee for U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su, on left, speak with students during a visit to the Ivy Tech Valparaiso campus on Monday, March 6, 2023.
NIPSCO retiree Mike Jones helped start the Energy Technology Program at Ivy Tech and now serves as an emeritus professor at the school. He said the average graduate earns $25 per hour fresh out of school. “Community colleges are the on-ramp to that entire system,” Su said. Turk said the United States will need over one million more electricians before the early 2030s.
Ivy Tech in Porter, LaPorte, Starke and Jasper counties serves over 10,000 students, including over 4,500 high schoolers. At its 90 locations throughout the state nearly 170,000 students are enrolled; 75,000 of them are high schoolers earning dual credit. Ivy Tech Valparaiso Chancellor Aco Sikoski said over 80% of the school’s graduates have no debt upon graduation.