Community Education Center

Community Education Center prepares for student, community use

Since Heartland’s founding in 1990, the College has provided a variety of program and training opportunities for community businesses and employers. Today, the programs and training the College provides has increased significantly.  In 2007, the Community and Corporate Education programs at Heartland served over 6,000 members of the community and more than 50 area employers. The Beyond Buildings College Development Plan will allow even more residents and businesses to benefit from the College's programs and services.

The 29,100 square feet Community Education Center, located just east of the Workforce Development Center on the College’s main campus, is expected to open by late 2009. Visitors can expect to see an inviting lobby area that will encourage them toward the 425-seat auditorium or the multiple conference and meeting rooms, which provide adequate training breakout session space for maximum community flexibility.

In addition to the auditorium and meeting areas, the Community Education Center will become the new home for another valuable community resource—the Challenger Learning Center.

An April 2008 agreement between the Prairie Aviation Museum and Heartland Community College was part of a broader community effort to retain the Challenger Learning Center (CLC) as a valuable educational resource in the area.  The agreement allowed Heartland to purchase the CLC equipment and support the center’s daily operations until the CLC can be relocated to the new Community Education Center on Heartland’s main campus.

The CLC belongs to a network of fifty-two similar centers throughout the U.S., Canada and the U.K.  The late Joe Warner and the Prairie Aviation Museum brought the CLC to central Illinois in 2003 with the primary goal of providing area children a hands-on, focused educational experience via an aerospace theme.  Since its opening, the CLC has reached over 20,000 third through eighth grade students and their teachers through its curriculum and missions.

Construction photographs of Heartland Community College's Community Education Center can be found below.

Summer 2008 Construction Photographs

Click here to go to Campus Project Map.