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Get Ready to get Regional

By May 6, 2013January 9th, 2019No Comments

Linn Country Regional Center

Kirkwood’s New Linn County Regional Center Opens May 20

The doors are set to open on Kirkwood’s newest way to deliver education. The Linn County Regional Center, 1770 Boyson Road, will open May 20 with a limited offering of interactive video classes while the finishing touches are put on the building’s interior. Kirkwood’s full spectrum of classes begin at the site Aug. 19, the first day of the fall 2013 semester.

Born of a partnership between Kirkwood, 11 school districts and local industry, the new Linn County Regional Center will bring hands-on learning to northern Linn County and surrounding areas. “Kirkwood’s unique cooperation with area school districts puts high school students in hands-on technical programs using industry aligned curriculum,” said Mindy Thornton, director of the Linn Regional Center. “Students earn both high school and college credit at no cost to their families and explore specific career fields to help them make important decisions about the future.”

About 500 high school students will be part of the Linn County Regional Center’s initial class. These students will spend part of the school day at the Linn Regional Center and choose from a variety of programming interests, as well as any high school classes they may need to complete their schedules. An additional 97 college-level classes will be offered within the walls of Linn County high schools, meaning the way high school students earned college credit in the past will remain unchanged. “The Linn County Regional Center opportunity is an addition to our traditional way of working with our high schools,” Thornton said. “There is no expectation that students have to leave their high schools in order to earn college credit.”

All the traditional programming Kirkwood has always brought to the community will still be alive and well at the new Linn County Regional Center, as well. Full two-year college degree programs, certificate programs and Continuing Education are all available. Kirkwood’s Adult Accelerated program is relocating to the Linn County Regional Center, along with the Occupational Therapy Assistant and Physical Therapist Assistant programs.

“We were very excited to know the Linn County Regional Center would be the primary location for both the Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapist Assistant programs,” Thornton said. “Students in these programs will reap the benefits of brand new lab spaces and state of the art classrooms.”

Also co-locating at the Linn County Regional Center are the Workplace Learning Connection and Iowa College Access Network (ICAN). Workplace Learning Connection brings students together with local business and industry to provide job shadows and internships. These experiential learning opportunities expose students to real life on the job situations while at the same time allowing industry to mold future employees. ICAN provides free college planning and financial aid document filing services to students and their parents.

“We are thrilled to be able to bring this type of facility and a new perspective on learning to the northern Linn County region,” Thornton said. “It is a tremendous opportunity to create a viable, educated workforce to sustain the competitive advantage and quality of life in our area.”