Lake Area Technical College offers a wide range of degree programs and endless opportunities to thrive both in and beyond the classroom, land high-demand careers and experience hands-on, cutting-edge classes.
The I’m IN Capital Campaign is helping Lake Area Tech expand its campus to meet the growing demand for skilled workers across South Dakota. Through the support of donors, businesses and community partners, the campaign is creating modern learning spaces that prepare students for successful careers while strengthening the state’s workforce.
South Dakota doesn’t have a student shortage. It has a workforce shortage.
Right now, there are more jobs than graduates to fill them. Employers are slowing down, turning away work, and feeling the impact of not having enough skilled talent. That gap is real, and it’s growing.
Lake Area Tech is part of the solution. But we’ve hit capacity.
Today, we’re serving the number of students we projected for 2043 in facilities that weren’t built to support it. Even at full stretch, we can’t meet demand.
To keep up, we need to grow. And we need to do it in a way that doesn’t pass the cost on to students.
That’s why we launched the “I’m In” Capital Campaign.
This is about expanding opportunity, strengthening the workforce, and building what comes next. We’re in.
Transcript: The capital campaign for Lake Area Technical College is a $40 million campaign and it builds seven buildings. But these are facilities that are not only sorely needed, but these are state-of-the-art facilities. Also, it provides an environment for students to learn. It provides an environment that students want to come to by investing in Lake Area Tech. And in those facilities, not only do you invest in the college, but you also invest in South Dakota’s youth but also South Dakota’s economic future. If you’re an employer, you’re gonna get great graduates and you’re gonna be able to grow your, your business and grow the economy. So our students are given to the community and this community gives right back and, and it’s a, it’s a relationship. That just is so important to Lake Area Tech, but it’s one that we’re now asking the community now to step forward and help us to do this capital campaign, to raise these dollars. We’re well on our way. We’ve had exceptional industry support. In fact, this is totally industry support and state support. This $40 million campaign is one of the commitment that we made early on is that we would add no additional burden to the students. But we need buy-in from the community. We want to grow. We want Watertown to grow. We want South Dakota to thrive. And we want our young people to stay here.
