In 2013, when Amy Goings accepted the position of president of Lake Washington Institute of Technology (LWTech), she said the biggest challenge for the institution was funding.
Now, as the Board of Trustees has renewed her contract for another five years, she said the funding challenge remains. She was unanimously chosen as school’s ninth president in 2013 after a seven-month public process to replace the college’s late president, David Woodall, 67, who died in September 2012 from a heart attack.
“We have a board of trustees who take their role very seriously and they are great partners with me leading the college forward,” she said. “I see that (contract renewal) really, it was intended as an affirmation of the work the college has engaged in during the last several years.”
Goings cited her two visits to the White House and increased local recognition for both student and teacher accomplishments.
“We have great faculty and inspirational students who have been recognized,” Goings said. “The community has just been so supportive of the college. I hope to continue that for a number of years to come.”
Despite some positive outcomes from the latest legislative session that included tuition cuts for students and cost of living adjustment for employees, Goings said they still have a ways to go.
“We’re still not funded to the levels where we can be growing programs without support,” she said. “The state funding continues to be a challenge, which is where our innovation comes in.”
To remedy this, the institute has been turning to organizations to help grow and expand those programs. Recently, LWTech received their first ever grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The two grants provide a total of $800,000 in funding. The NSF awarded a $199,380 grant for the development of the Pacific Northwest Photonics Technology Project (PNW Photonics). LWTech plans to offer a 70-credit photonics technology certificate within the advanced manufacturing AAS degree programs, making it the only employer-validated, NSF-affiliated photonics program in Washington.
“That really speaks to the innovation,” Goings said. “We’re one of the few colleges in the country involved in that. That will be a great addition to our electronics technology program, which is innovative in itself already.”
The other NSF grant will provide $580,000 grant for the Future Tech Stars NSF S-STEM Scholarship Program (Future Tech Stars) to develop a scholarship program for low-income students studying Science, Technology, Engineering or Math (STEM). Through it, LWTech will award $500,000 in student scholarships, $125,000 a year in scholarships to around 25 full-time students, with each scholarship approximately $5,000.
Goings said the scholarship program will ideally help student completion rates and prevent students from ending their academic studies prematurely due to financial constraints, as well as help their plans for more diversity on the campus.
“Certainly, funding full scholarships will help with that,” she said. “One way the STEM grant supports that (diversity plan) is by the fact that it’s focused on low income first generation students. It’s very much in alignment with where we’re going as an institution.”
Overall, the two grants, Goings said, fit with the institute’s mission of preparing students for tomorrows opportunities.
“That fundamental work mission, whether at the technical high school level, is very much still front and center,” she said. “It’s an integral part of our mission as a work college that we’re keeping pace with the industry.”
Another thing they have focused on, she said, is making the institute attractive, not just for students, but to educators as well.
“We want to be the workplace education of choice, the employer of choice,” she said. “My goal is to make sure we’re focused on our strategic plan and we implement that plan.”
One thing that has changed, Goings said, since she first stepped in as president, is the level of awareness about LWIT in the greater community.
“When I first came to the college two years ago I heard a lot of feedback from the internal community feeling like they were the best kept secret,” she said. “Now, it is no secret. The community knows…We’re doing great work and being as responsive as we can be to meet the needs of the community.”
The PNW Photonics program will begin during the 2015-2016 academic year. Students who are interested in applying for the Future Tech Stars scholarships will be able to do so in the 2015-2016 academic year.
