Transforming our Lakeshore Campus

With a nearly $48 million campus renovation and expansion project underway, the college is realizing its vision of a vibrant urban campus serving as an educational and cultural hub for the Lake County community, promoting economic prosperity through workforce partnerships, revitalizing Waukegan’s central business district and providing innovative programming to enhance community health and well-being.

Lakeshore Dean Jesus Ruiz

When Tiffany Peppers first set foot on College of Lake County’s Lakeshore Campus, she was 19-years-old with a high school degree and an uncertain future.

“I had spent 10 years in foster care—and when I arrived in Waukegan to start my senior year of high school, it was my fourth school in four years,” she confides. “After I graduated, I got a job because I didn’t know a thing about applying to college. But one day I caught a bus to CLC’s Lakeshore Campus and found my way to the admissions office. The staff there guided me through the admissions process, made sure I got a scholarship and helped me change my life.”

Peppers is now a doctoral student and executive director of the JIC Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit dedicated to educating, empowering and enriching the lives of people in the Waukegan community. A member of the CLC Foundation Board, she also serves on the Lakeshore Campus Advisory Committee—a coalition of civic leaders who partner with the college to ensure the campus meets community and workforce needs.

Today, Peppers can see the Lakeshore Campus from her office on Genesee Street—and she’s thrilled to see her alma mater undergoing a transformation as radical and life-enhancing as her own.

“With this expansion,” she says, “we’ll be able to serve more students and add more courses and programs—so more lives can be changed.” “This ambitious capital enhancement project fulfills many of the objectives outlined in the Lakeshore Commitment to provide a more accessible, equitable and successful college experience for Lakeshore Campus students,” says CLC President Dr. Lori Suddick.

“For many years, CLC students living in the Waukegan area had to travel to our Grayslake Campus to take classes not available here,” adds Lakeshore Campus Dean Jesus Ruiz. “With this campus expansion, we’ll be able to offer increased access to high-quality educational opportunities, an expanded curriculum, guaranteed access to core courses and more flexible start times on a state-of-the-art campus with 21st-century learning spaces and technologies.”

A Full-Service Campus Experience

At the heart of the campus expansion is a $48-million, six-story, 62,692-square-foot Student Center.

Designed to meet LEED Platinum certification standards for sustainable architecture and a healthier planet, the center will house a Welcome and One-Stop Center with centralized student services, library and resource center with meeting spaces and study areas, adult education and career placement centers, general education classrooms, laboratories for the college’s certified nursing assistant and phlebotomy programs, tutoring center, testing rooms and support services.

The Eleanor Murkey Community Center on the building’s top floor— named in honor of the campus’s founding dean—will provide a

welcoming space for student and community gatherings with panoramic views of Lake Michigan and an open-air balcony.

In recent years, the college expanded its curriculum with new programs in automation, robotics and mechatronics, healthcare and HVAC to equip students with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in a marketplace transformed by 21st-century technologies. The new Student Center will provide the infrastructure for more programmatic expansion in areas such as digital media, entrepreneurship, horticulture, hospitality and manufacturing.

Other campus enhancements include the renovation of our Children’s Learning Center and an existing science lab, the creation of a new classroom and the transformation of our Lakeshore Campus Plaza into an inviting outdoor oasis with benches, gardens and greenery.

Building a Healthier Community

A soon-to-be-developed urban farm will enhance the well-being of the Waukegan community by bringing food, health and jobs together in one location.

In partnership with the Chicago Botanic Garden through its Windy City Harvest urban agriculture program, a Center for Urban Agriculture and Community Development will provide access to fresh produce and nutrition education for community members; job training and certification programs in agricultural vocations, food safety, cooking and nutrition; wraparound services and supports to reduce food insecurity; and access to safe, green outdoor spaces made possible through thoughtful landscape design. The farm will serve as a learning lab with 32,000 square feet of growing space for hydroponics, aquaponics and raised-bed growing technologies.

A “Veggie Rx” distribution center will partner with local health care providers to offer nutrition education, fresh produce and cooking classes for residents with diet-related diseases. An indoor market will sell fresh, affordable produce and nutritious prepared foods throughout the year and a student-run cafe will serve healthy menu and to-go items made from ingredients grown on the farm.

“The college and Chicago Botanic Garden are committed to ‘equity in access and success’ so every citizen in Lake County can pursue a quality education and live a healthy, productive life,” says College of Lake County Foundation Executive Director Kurt Peterson. “Both organizations are deeply committed to working with and within communities to lift people up by giving them the opportunities and resources they need to not only survive but thrive. This partnership, which will be supported primarily through private philanthropy, is an investment not only in education and equity, but in a healthier future for the Lake County community.” Things are heating up as CLC expands its hospitality and culinary management program to the vacant Brae Loch Golf Club facility, thanks to a partnership with the Lake County Forest Preserves. The banquet facility near the Grayslake Campus on Route 45 will soon be occupied with the next generation of culinary students sharpening their cooking skills at CLC.

The space will be fitted with top-of-the-line kitchen equipment to better train our culinary students, while increasing community awareness of the college’s program and how it prepares the workforce with the latest skills. The college offers associate degrees in hospitality and culinary management and baking and pastry arts with plans to expand hospitality into its own program and add a catering and event management credential.