Over the past several months Northern Kentucky University President Geoffrey Mearns has taken his university on the road. The Road to NKU tour made its first stop in Somerset on Sept. 29 and will make a special stop in Frankfort on Feb. 26.
Mearns set out to visit high schools and community colleges and hosted receptions for community leaders, students, alumni, government officials and NKU friends around the state to share that “something special is happening at NKU.”
“Northern Kentucky University will celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2018 when our strategic plan, Fuel The Flame, is fully implemented,” said Mearns as he started the road trips. “The #RoadtoNKU tour is providing us the opportunity to visit prospective students, parents, community leaders and alumni from across the state to share with them that something special is happening at NKU. It also provides us the opportunity to listen to the communities across the state to ensure that NKU is serving them.”
Among NKU’s many distinctive strengths are academic programs such as cyber security, theater, entrepreneurship and teacher education and a new initiative called the Health Innovations Center.
“Regional economists tell us that the fastest job growth for the foreseeable future will be in the areas of information and health care,” said Mearns. “This is true throughout the state. We intend to provide the best education and applied research opportunities possible at the intersection of informatics and population health disciplines. And we will use our region to model best practices to keep citizens healthy. This will help businesses cut costs of health care insurance and avoid employee lost time. We can then share these ideas across Kentucky. If we want future job growth, we are going to have to get a handle on the relative health of Kentucky citizens. We can do this together through partnerships statewide.”
The road trips also included visits to Pikeville, Bowling Green, Owensboro, Paducah, Ashland, Louisville and Lexington.
The program includes:
· An NKU overview
· Meeting the admissions staff
· Learning about campus housing options
· Hearing about NKU scholarship and financial aid opportunities
· Asking questions and interacting with current NKU students
· Refreshments.
Space is limited, reservations are required.
Call NKU’s Welcome Center at 859-572-1400 to make your reservation for the Frankfort stop.
Follow @PresidentMearns and @nkuedu on Twitter or NKU on Facebook.