Ivy Tech honors 2 employees with diversity award

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Ivy Tech Community College honored two employees Tuesday with the William R. Goins Spirit of Diversity Award.

The award recognizes Ivy Tech faculty and staff whose dedication to the advancement of diversity on campus goes “above and beyond” regular duties. It is named after former Ivy Tech state trustee William “Bill” Goins, who served in the role from 1995 to 2008 and guided the college through its transition from Indiana Vocational Technical College to Ivy Tech.

This year’s winners were Claudia Saenz, the assistant director of financial aid at the Valparaiso campus, and Ren’a Wagner, the executive director of diversity at the Muncie campus.

Saenz was credited with bringing more student to that campus after organizing help for first-generation high schoolers to complete paperwork for financial aid.

Wagner was noted for her work with sixth-grade girls in a camp to learn science, technology, engineering and mathematics; co-developing a course for Muncie’s faith-based community; and creating a course for Black girls to learn computer sciences.

Ivy Tech also awarded creative writing scholarships to four high school students. Each student was picked based on their work toward encouraging diversity their school. The scholarship winners were Zahavah Carter from Bloomington, Skye Donaldson from Indianapolis, Westley Penland from Bloomington, Chelsea Randolph from Fort Wayne.

The Spirit of Diversity Employer-Partner Award went to Lilly. In spring 2021, Lilly selected Ivy Tech as a partner for the college’s diversity-focused, professional apprenticeship program, which is part of the national OneTen.com network to hire 1 million Black individuals in America over the next 10 years.