Lakeland awarded over $40k to offer full rides

Thanks to a $40,320 grant from the Ohio Department of Higher Education, some hard-working Lakeland Community College biotechnology students will be eligible for scholarships to cover their tuition and fees.

The program is called Choose Ohio First and is aimed at helping students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine — or STEMM, its associated web page shows.

In Lakeland’s case, the grant applies to biotechnology science students who meet certain criteria, a media release from the school confirms.

“Students who receive this scholarship will have their tuition fully covered at Lakeland,” said Joe Deak, chairman of the school’s biotechnology science program.

The scholarship covers up to $4,000 in tuition and fees for biotechnology students who don’t receive PELL grants, according to Lakeland’s release.

It goes on to explain that high school graduates who passed chemistry with a C or better are encouraged to apply if they fit the following criteria:

• Have an interest in a career in the laboratory biological sciences or data/ analysis management as it pertains to biological data • Have a 3.0 overall GPA • Place into college algebra • Reside in Ohio Lakeland’s recent investments in its science and health technology programs and facilities have been making headlines in recent years, especially with the 2015 passage of its capital improvement bond issue, which is being used to fund a $40 million renovation and expansion of the college’s 20-year-old Health Technologies Building, bring the science hallway renovation to completion and help with other infrastructure improvements.

This is the stuff of the future, confirmed Arts & Sciences Division Dean Steven Oluic, who was on hand at a Sept. 1 open house for the renovated, third-floor science wing, when students, teachers, staff and anyone interested could see it, tour the classrooms and labs and learn about all the new, cutting-edge technology there.

“I will submit to you that our biology, chemistry and physical science labs are among the best in the area,” Oluic said. “Really, you’d be hard-pressed to find better labs.”

College President Morris W. Beverage agreed.

“When I went to Lakeland in 1972 and 1973, in the original labs up there, they were new,” he said. “This is the sort of thing you do every 40 or 50 years and you do it right. And, to do it right, you make sure the equipment and technology the students will be using are the standard of what they’ll be using when they leave here. We want our students to experience what they’re going to experience in the world when they move on from here.”

For Deak, there’s no question that’s exactly what Lakeland’s students are getting.

Deak said that, in his 20 years with the school’s program, he’s always been able to find grant money to keep it at the cutting edge and, thanks to this latest round of funding, the department is able to offer an unprecedented level of training to students who will likely go on to “hit the ground running” in roles which may not even exist yet.

“Our folks wind up in research and development, quality control and medical lab technology,” he said, just naming a few, and he added that the lab in which he answered these questions “would pretty much be the envy of anyone at Case Western Reserve or Cleveland State University.”

According to Lakeland’s statement about the Choose Ohio First grant, Lakeland’s biotechnology science program has more than a 95 percent placement rate into jobs or transfer to a fouryear school.

“Institutions where graduates matriculate include Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, Indiana Wesleyan University, John Carroll University, Lake Erie College and Youngstown State University,” the statement reads. “Lakeland also has a 2+2 articulation with Ursuline College, which allows students to transfer all of their credits and graduate with a bachelor’s degree in two additional years or less.”

“After graduating from Lakeland, many students are then able to receive tuition waivers or reimbursements from their employers to reduce, or eliminate, the cost of the bachelor’s degree,” Deak said.