KOKOMO, Ind. — Kokomo-area health care professionals, teachers, law enforcement personnel, and community members will have a local option to learn CPR as a result of grant funding from Indiana University Kokomo’s Women of the Well House.

Andrea Freeman, lecturer of nursing in the School of Nursing and Allied Health Professions (SNAHP), applied for one of the giving circle’s annual grants for the campus to be an American Heart Association (AHA) Basic Life Support training site.

“Currently there are no AHA training sites in Kokomo, creating a CPR desert,” she said, adding that many professions, including health care and teaching, require the certification. “IU Kokomo students in SNAHP, education, and other majors, students in pipeline programs, and many other people in the Kokomo and adjacent communities will be served.”

The project was one of nine led by faculty, staff, and students that received more than $48,000 in grants from Women of the Well House. Additional programs funded by 2023 grant awards include projects to provide environmental books and materials for students to create environmental artwork; layperson Naloxone training; research in songbirds and hummingbirds; and student travel to Poland, Amsterdam, Italy, and England.

Cathy Clearwaters, director of development, said Women of the Well House has given approximately $185,000 to programs since its inception in 2017, benefitting not only IU Kokomo, but the surrounding community.

Andy Tuholski, director of the Office of Sustainability, and student workers will use grant funding to buy saplings and native flowers and plants to maintain the Tree Campus USA accreditation, and to pursue Sustainable Campus certification from the Indiana Wildlife Federation. He noted that only four other campuses hold this certification statewide.

“We believe that our efforts related to native plants have been unique to IUK in that we are pursuing strategies that aim to beautify and increase ecological biodiversity,” he said. “Students, staff, faculty, and visitors most notably see this in high-traffic areas around campus where there are new saplings, and in the courtyard, where bare dirt has been transformed into large plants and flowers blooming throughout the year. We feel that these are good for everyone.”

Additional programs receiving funding included:

• Environmental Arts & Literature: Senior Gabe Franks applied for funds on behalf of the Student Sustainability Council to continue buying and giving away books on topics related to sustainability, including gardening, state parks, waterways, and native plants and birds. The council also will use funding to give students materials to create environmental artwork for permanent display in the Main Building.
• Layperson Naloxone trainer program: Leigh Swartzendruber, clinical assistant professor of nursing, applied for funding to continue free training programs that help people recognize the signs of an opioid overdose and administer the opioid reversal drug Naloxone, or Narcan. She offers the program free for IU Kokomo nursing students, faculty, staff, and community members.
• Return to De Hogeweyk/Dementia Village: Rosalyn Davis, clinical associate professor of psychology and director of the mental health counseling program, requested funding for a KEY global mental health class that includes travel to Amsterdam in spring 2024. The class will visit De Hogeweyk/Dementia Village, a facility that is a model for treatment of end stage dementia, caring for individuals in the least restrictive environment and manner possible. The visit will allow students to see these practices in person, to potentially bring back the methodology to local care facilities, and will allow them to consider how to use these treatment practices in future careers.
• Overseas Italy courses/trip 2024: Minda Douglas, associate professor of fine arts, and Donna McLean, associate professor of communication arts, requested funding to offset the cost of a spring 2024 art history and communications class trip to Italy. Douglas said grant funding would reduce the cost of the trip for the 20 students participating, noting that travel costs have increased by 20 percent since the last trip in 2018.
• Study Abroad in Business – Poland: Gloria Preece, assistant dean and assistant professor of personal financial planning and marketing, and Adam Smith, associate professor of management, requested funding to offset the cost of travel to Poland in spring 2024. Preece and Smith noted that despite troubling financial times, Poland’s economy has continued to grow and is one of the strongest in Europe. About 20 students will visit Warsaw and Krakow.
• Monitoring songbird and hummingbird populations on campus: Lina Rifai, associate professor of vertebrate biology, requested funding for equipment to band birds on campus, allowing for collection of data on songbirds and hummingbirds on campus. The project provides hands-on opportunities for science students to engage in field work and facilitates public bird banding demonstrations.
• Innovation Symposium 2024: Karla Stouse, teaching professor in English and humanities, requested funding to cover half the cost of 10 Innovation Symposium students to stay eight days at Harlaxton College in England for the Innovation Symposium. While there, students gain awareness of global and local issues while meeting innovators and practicing their own innovative thinking, then return to campus empowered to develop individual projects to address global issues.

Membership in Women of the Well House is open to women who make a $1,000 per year commitment. Each member has a voice in selecting projects to fund. For more information, contact Crystal Jones, vice chancellor of advancement and media and marketing, at crmjones@iu.edu.

Education is KEY at Indiana University Kokomo.