Making QC Hotter by Degrees: Higher Ed's Positive Impact

Seven colleges and universities located in the Quad Cities launched an awareness campaign August 29 to share the impact these institutions of higher learning have on the economy, culture, and fabric of the community.

St. Ambrose has joined with Augustana College, Black Hawk College, Eastern Iowa Community Colleges, Palmer College of Chiropractic, Trinity College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and Western Illinois University Quad Cities in an ongoing initiative that will include information shared via billboards, social media, and qccolleges.com, a website that is part of the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce's Q2030 Make It Here campaign.

The launch event celebrated more than $400 million in annual economic benefit, an estimated 21,000-plus students currently taking college credit courses, an estimated 40,000 alumni living in the Quad Cities area, and a total of $5.6 million in employee state income taxes paid in 2017 to Iowa and Illinois.

Billboards located by the Quad Cities' two largest shopping malls will celebrate an alumnus from each school who currently live in the Quad Cities and have a positive impact on the community. Each featured alumnus also is profiled on the website qccolleges.com.

Featured from St. Ambrose is Kyle Carter, a 2004 marketing and public relations graduate who is the executive director of the Downtown Davenport Partnership as well as an entrepreneur and influential player in the recently completed QC-wide Alternating Currents Festival.

"Everyone should realize how much change you can create individually in this region," he said. "Our colleges contribute to the community in so many ways, but sometimes students don't realize the opportunities available in the Quad Cities.

More alumni will be profiled in the future.

The initiative to promote the QC colleges impact will be celebrated on Sunday, September 2, when alumni, students and members of campus community at all seven schools gather for QC Colleges Day at the Ballpark at Modern Woodmen Stadium in Davenport, where the Quad City River Bandits will host the Peoria Chief in a Midwest League baseball playoff preview.

The day will culminate with the annual Mega Candy Drop for children 14-and-under.