LEWISTON, Idaho – Lewis-Clark State College received a $25,000 donation from Lewis Clark Credit Union (LCCU) on Friday for the naming rights to an upper level Information Technology Lab in the college’s new Schweitzer Career & Technical Education Center.
The Schweitzer Career & Technical Education Center, which is currently under construction in the Lewiston Orchards, will be a regional CTE center, serving the needs of students from LC State, neighboring Lewiston High School, and others throughout the region. The facility will house most of LC State’s Technical & Industrial Division programs including auto mechanics technology, CNC machining technology, information technology, engineering technology, industrial electronics technology, and heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC-R) technology.
Construction on the CTE center began last spring and is expected to be wrapped up in time for the start of the 2020 fall semester.
LCCU was started when in late 1938 professors and staff at then Lewiston State Normal School and a few dozen teachers from the Lewiston and Clarkston school districts met. The group selected two Lewiston teachers to manage what was to be called the Lewis-Clark Federal Credit Union, which was chartered in 1939. The collaboration between Lewis-Clark State College and the Lewiston School District, which is building a new high school near the CTE center, aligns with LCCU’s not-for-profit philosophy of “People Helping People.”
LCCU’s mission is to support the community and ensure young people have the necessary opportunities to build a successful future. LCCU believes education has been, and continues to be, the key to the credit union’s success, and LCCU officials say they are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the education of the young community members to assure they have every opportunity to achieve their own successes.
In 2017, the Idaho Legislature approved the CTE building project and appropriated $10 million with the requirement that LC State match the funds. Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories donated $2 million to the project, while SEL founder Edmund O. Schweitzer, III, and his wife Beatriz donated another $1 million. In all, donations like LCCU’s have helped generate more than $6 million towards the CTE center.
To make a donation to the Schweitzer CTE Center or to learn more about naming opportunities visit: www.lcsc.edu/giving.