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Wow! What a year!

Manchester College achieved incredible milestones in 2011 in academics, enrollment, stewardship and visibility.
Many of those moments took our breath away. Here’s our Top 10, and these are just the tip-top of the iceberg!

Our graduates

“My time at MC has helped me to grow morally, academically, and spiritually,” said Corey Martinez, a Fort Wayne biology-chemistry major who offered graduate reflections at baccalaureate. He was among 199 Manchester students to receive degrees on the warm May day. “I believe the faculty here is world-class, and they are always willing to talk about anything and they make time to do so.”

Martinez joins 96 percent of 189 members of the Class of 2011 who secured jobs, entered graduate school or full-time service within six months of graduation. He’s studying now at the Indiana University School of Dentistry. He's also among 71 percent of his class remaining in Indiana to work and study.

$100 million for Students First!

Leadership donors came forth early to put their alma mater on solid footing to embark publicly on a fundraising path that puts Students First! with $100 million for new learning facilities, scholarships, new student and faculty support systems. Increases to the endowment and annual fund will nurture the journey.

Already by year’s end, the College was more than 75 percent toward its goal and striding strongly. Mapping opportunities to hurry the pace is a $35 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. for the College’s new College of Pharmacy.

Our service

Already a member of the President’s Community Service Honor Roll and logging more than 35,000 hours of volunteering, the College eagerly accepted the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Challenge. MC service leaders savored the honor and received advice at a White House conference.

In a partnership with local churches, Manchester College will use education and coordinated service to improve the literacy rates in our community and combat the poverty level. Food drives (2,000 pounds and $600 collected in one event alone), tutoring elementary students, Habitat for Humanity, fund drives for local and national causes and service trips fill the Manchester calendar for students and employees.

A College of Pharmacy

A $35 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. swiftly opened wide doors of opportunity for the School of Pharmacy. The breathtaking grant meant Manchester could do it right, right now and not piecemeal, building years ahead of schedule a fully equipped facility with state-of-the-art research labs.

The School has attracted widespread enthusiasm for its health care, education and economic benefits for Indiana. In 2011, the School achieved its hiring goals, putting curriculum planning and securing experiential opportunities on-track to begin enrolling its first class of 70 students in February 2012. Classes start in mid-August.

Groundbreaking

In June 2011, Manchester dug into a $9.1 million transformation of Holl-Kintner into an Academic Center that will merge contemporary learning with timeless liberal arts study. Construction sped along, with the structure quickly enclosed and elevator installed to provide access to three floors of classrooms, laboratories, faculty offices and collaboration spaces.  By year-end, the College had raised about $3.8 million for the Academic Center.

Dedication at Homecoming of a $1.5 million PERC addition opened athletic training facilities and adjustable classrooms “smart” for any subject was a hint of the learning spaces to come. (They also brought spacious new locker rooms.) Fund-raising is about 36 percent complete for this project.

40-year enrollment record

The College surpassed its 1,300-student strategic goal, starting classes with 1,320 students. Once again, Manchester set records, with its largest enrollment in 40 years. The College is riding a three-year momentum of large incoming class sizes, as well as an increase in transfer students and retention of students into their sophomore year.

Fortifying an enrollment effort that teamed admissions staff, coaches, faculty, alumni and current students was almost $11.3 million in academic scholarships offered to high school seniors. Generous gifts from alumni and friends also are significant to making a Manchester education affordable.  The Students First! goal for endowed scholarships is $15 million.  More than $7 million is needed yet.

Scholars abound

Proof of the quality of a Manchester College education shone brightly with two more Fulbrights and a U.S. State Department scholar off to the Far East to teach English. Since 1996, 28 Manchester graduates have received the U.S. State Department's prestigious Fulbright grant for teaching or doing research abroad after graduation – more Fulbrights per student than at any other Indiana college or university.

A record 43 scholars presented for the 2011 Student Research Symposium. Their topics were fascinating: How does obesity affect children? Why can’t I say what I want to say? Should there be conformity in the classroom? Is there a correlation between gender and illegal drug use among college students? The three winners presented on perfectionism, Japanese language and cancer inhibitors.

A nation watches with respect

Washington Monthly magazine put Manchester College 14th in the nation for our service learning and “contribution to the public good” and The Chronicle of Higher Education placed Manchester on its “Honor Roll of 2011 Great Colleges to Work For.” 

The 2012 America’s Best Colleges guide of U.S. News & World Report ranked Manchester 4th in the Midwest among "Great Schools, Great Prices." The Princeton Review, one of the nation’s leading website guides for college-bound students, said Manchester is a “2012 Best College in the Midwest.”

On June 15, 2011, The Washington Post featured Manchester College’s three-year degree Fast Forward program on the top of Page One, with a lengthy story complete with color photographs of campus. With 1.4 million readers, that’s exposure!

A swift Eel River Initiative current

Fundraising and awareness heightened for the $1 million Middle Eel River Watershed Initiative that entered its third year of serving a 30-mile stretch that borders campus. Grant writing by MC scientists secured an additional $2.9 million for landowner and agribusiness “best practices” and $120,000 to remove two decrepit dams. More funding is under way.

It is estimated that Eel River water quality has improved by annually reducing suspended solids by 2,233 tons, nitrogen by 8,863 pounds and phosphorous by 3,027 pounds.

National honors for student-athletes

Manchester sent wrestler Cam Brady ’15, women’s 800-meter star Jessi Bremer  ’11, cross-county runner Megan Miller ’11, and its men’s cross-country and basketball teams to the NCAA Division III Nationals in 2011.

Basketball Spartan Jordan Moss ’12 was named to the Division III All-American Third Team by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and his team ranked 18th in the final D3Hoops.com Top 25 Poll.  Brady was the D3wrestle.com Freshman of the Year and No. 4-nationally ranked Spartan catcher Trey Forbes ’12 was a Third Team All-American of the American Baseball Coaches Association.

Defining student-athlete, five softball players were 2011 All-America Scholar-Athletes of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, men’s soccer scored the 2011 Team Academic Award of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, the volleyball team received the Team Academic Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association, and women’s cross-country was a 2011 All-Scholar Team of the United States Track and Field and Cross County Coaches Association. Runners Calvin Cook ’13 and Curtis Nordmann ’14 were 2011 All-Academic picks of the USTFCCCA.