WOEF celebrates 50 years of history

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Western Ohio Educational Foundation (WOEF) has been providing financial assistant to area students for a half century and that fact was cause for celebration Monday during a gathering in Vantage Career Center’s Cup and Saucer dining facility.

Since 1962, the foundation has provided scholarships and other financial assistance to students of what is now Wright State University-Lake Campus. The group, administered by a 25-member board comprised of representatives from Auglaize, Darke, Mercer and Van Wert counties, provided $267,000 in scholarships for Lake Campus students for the 2012-2013 school year and has distributed $2.98 million in scholarships during its 50-year history. The foundation also provided money for special projects, including the residential housing now available at the Lake Campus.

Local resident Pam Baker, vice president of nursing services at Van Wert County Hospital, is the incoming president of the WOEF board, which also includes Van Wert County members Kent Bradford, Dee Whitcraft, Carey Welker, Vantage Superintendent Staci Kaufman, and Pat Ryan.

Dr. Tom Knapke, retired Lake Campus assistant dean and faculty member, provided a brief history of the Lake Campus, now classified as a regional campus, which allows it to offer a variety of academic programs, including associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and, just this year, an engineering degree program.

Knapke talked about the foundation’s beginnings back in 1962, when it formed to help raise money for the Western Ohio College, then affiliated with Ohio Northern University in Ada. The campus became affiliated with the five-year-old Wright State University in 1969.

The first building was the former Celina Insurance Company facility in downtown Celina and the first class was comprised of 285 students, mostly area residents. Today, after the recent completion of a multi-million-dollar capital facilities project, Knapke said the Lake Campus is poised to accomplish even more in the future.

“Nothing happens unless you first dream,” Knapke said. “The campus is always dreaming and we’ll continue to dream so you are guaranteed positive things will continue to happen at the Lake Campus.”

During his talk, the retired professor also talked about the affiliation the Lake Campus has had with Vantage Career Center, noting that Wright State classes were first offered at what was then Vantage Vocational School shortly after its opening in 1976. Today, Vantage offers a number of Wright State classes, and Lake Campus Dean Bonnie Mathias indicated that that is likely to increase in the future.

“We think there are great things the two of us (Vantage and the Lake Campus) can do together,” she said. “So I think that is a partnership that we really are continuing and working to develop.”