Hoping to better prepare manufacturing workers in Elkhart, Ind., for the fast-approaching future and beautify space for students receiving career coaching in South Bend, businessman Larry Garatoni has given $2.5 million to Ivy Tech Community College.
Ivy Tech will name its Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Automation, under construction at the Elkhart County Road 17 campus and set to open this fall, for Garatoni and his wife Judy.
Ivy Tech will also rename the portion of the main South Bend campus building that houses the new Career Coaching and Employer Connections program after the couple.
It’s the largest cash gift from an individual ever to an Ivy Tech campus, said Ivy Tech South Bend-Elkhart spokeswoman Briana Stiner. It comes as enrollment is down 10 percent from a year ago, a trend that other Ivy Tech campuses have reported.
Click here to read the full story from Jeff Parrot in the South Bend Tribune.
Garatoni, who owned and managed about a dozen companies in health care, information technology and digital commerce over a 40-year business career, is an outspoken charter schools proponent and founder of the Career Academy and the Success Academy charter schools in South Bend.
He said Ivy Tech plays a key role in the state’s economy and workforce development.
