Coe News & Features

The Iowa Ready initiative is driven by additional scholarships and grants for first-time college students from Iowa to ensure a direct cost equal to or less than the 2023-24 average direct cost of Iowa’s three regent institutions — $21,060 — which includes tuition, fees, housing and meal plan. Many students will see an out-of-pocket cost less than the regent average of $21,060 as additional scholarships, grants, work-study and loans are applied.

Learning beyond the classroom and gaining real-world experience is a pillar of the liberal arts approach at Coe College. One of the college’s most unique and memorable opportunities for hundreds of alumni is the Wilderness Field Station (WFS).

For decades, the people, businesses and organizations of Cedar Rapids have welcomed Kohawks to their new hometown. And, for decades, Kohawks have strived to give back to the Cedar Rapids community. While the importance of community building and involvement remains, the manner in which the Coe community reaches beyond the physical space of the campus is always evolving…

A longstanding partnership between Coe and Tanager has served student and community needs, improving the lives of others.

For the past 33 years, Sally Fels Meyers ’64 has thrived as the children’s librarian for the Tom Green County Library System in San Angelo, Texas. She has been recognized multiple times for her immense contributions to making the library a diverse, welcoming and fun environment for children and their families. Her work building the library, however, is just one piece of a long and storied life dedicated to creating equality for others — and for Sally, an idealistic girl from Amana, Iowa, this lifelong commitment to equality started during her time at Coe College.

Coe College and Heritage Area Agency on Aging (Heritage AAA) have partnered to provide nursing students an immersive and valuable hands-on experience this spring. Students in the Coe Nursing Department’s Wellness in Aging course are volunteering at Encore Café this term to learn about diners’ experiences with aging firsthand. Encore Café is a senior nutrition program in Marion and Cedar Rapids operated by Heritage AAA.

Beginning this fall, students at Coe pursuing an art degree can also choose to add concentrations in multimedia graphic design, media production and non-profit arts and creative leadership. Minors in art history and museum studies are also offered in addition to the traditional art major.

The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation named Coe College’s Katie Ameku ’25 as a 2024 Truman Scholarship finalist — she is Coe’s sixth Truman finalist in the last six years.

The Prison Learning Initiative will host a roundtable discussion regarding college in prison on Tuesday, February 27 from 7:00-8:00 PM in the Coe College Center for Health & Society (CHS) lobby. It is free and open to the public.

Coe College will add a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics degree to its 60+ areas of study beginning in the 2024-25 academic year.

With heavy hearts, Coe College mourns the passing of George Henry ’49, an alumnus and beloved campus figure known amongst Kohawks and the greater community as “Mr. Coe College.” For decades, Henry was the official campus photographer, and through this work created an incredible legacy that will be felt for decades to come through the images he captured during his 67-year career — images that continue to hang across campus as a tribute to his uncanny ability to capture both the routine and extraordinary events that shaped Coe.

Coe College is pleased to announce DJ Patil as the 2024 K. Raymond Clark Contemporary Issues Forum speaker. Patil will be on Coe’s campus Thursday, February 8 at 7:30 p.m., and his speaking engagement in Sinclair Auditorium is open to the public.

Professional writing students working with Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Director of the Writing Center Dr. Jane Nesmith engaged in a community-based project with CSPS, a Cedar Rapids nonprofit arts venue and community organization located in the NewBo neighborhood. The project goal was to assist CSPS reach and attract more college students to its music, theater and art events.

For the fifth time in seven years, Coe College has been named to The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges, a list of the nation’s most environmentally responsible colleges. Coe’s dedication to reducing its carbon footprint and increasing options for students to engage in sustainability earned the college a spot on the list.

For Coe College students undertaking the process of applying to a rigorous national fellowship program, Associate Professor of English & National Fellowship Advisor Amber Shaw is always there. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she works one-on-one with students to create the strongest possible application for the prestigious fellowships they’re pursuing. Coe has a history of national fellowship winners, and in the past five years, Shaw has helped Coe students become Fulbright Scholars, Truman Scholars and Gilman recipients.

Coe's greenhouse complements the conservation efforts already in place by reducing carbon, plastic packaging and pesticide usage as produce like lettuce, microgreens, tomatoes and peppers can be organically grown year-round. The greenhouse will also provide opportunities for student engagement as part of Coe’s urban field station, acting as a living lab for students.

Coe College will host an ArtLinks event on Wednesday, November 29 in the Athletic & Recreation Complex (ARC) classrooms 218-219. It is free and open to the public. Registration is available here, but not required. Walks-in are welcome. At an ArtLinks gathering, participants view a selection of works by incarcerated artists and discuss them with other attendees. They then may choose to write short notes to one or more of the artists describing their responses to their artwork.

Two Kohawk alumni have started a podcast, "Be Significant," to share their professional triumphs, leadership experiences and connections.

Coe College Athletics has unveiled new supplemental athletic branding featuring the tagline “Fly Fast. Fly Fierce. Talons Out!” as well as a secondary athletic graphic.

Students at Coe College will receive advanced insights into the day-to-day demands of their chosen industry with the implementation of an industry-leading experiential learning platform as part of the course curriculum. The learning platform, Riipen, will integrate real-world, employer-designed projects into existing courses to equip students with skills, applicable experiences and professional connections to support their future careers.