Walton man earns Ivy Tech Distinguished Alumni Award
Sep. 26—Mallory Claypool, a 2012 graduate of Ivy Tech Kokomo's education program who now serves as director of the Lewis Cass Polytechnic Academy in Galveston, is being honored with the Ivy Tech Community College Distinguished Alumni Award for the College's Kokomo Service Area.
Each year, Ivy Tech Kokomo Service honors a graduate who exemplifies an appreciation of lifelong learning, a dedication to work, and a commitment to community. Claypool will be honored Sept. 29 at a ceremony in Indianapolis that will recognize award winners from Ivy Tech's 19 campuses around the state.
"Ivy Tech Kokomo is proud to call Mallory Claypool — teacher, husband, father, community volunteer, life-long learner — our 2022 Distinguished Alumnus," said Ethan Heicher, interim chancellor of Ivy Tech's Kokomo Service Area, which includes Cass, Fulton, Howard, Miami, Pulaski and Tipton counties. "Through his efforts bringing together students, higher education and employers throughout north central Indiana, he is making tremendous contributions to our community."
Claypool is in his fourth year as the director of Lewis Cass Polytechnic, a part of the Lewis Cass School Corporation devoted to preparing high school students for jobs of the future focused on science, engineering and math. It's a job he loves with a passion and one where he changes students' lives for the better every day. But go back 10 years or so and it's hardly a job that he ever anticipated filling.
Claypool's wife, Lori, also came back to Ivy Tech as an adult student, earning an associate degree in Early Childhood Education in 2011, the year before Mallory completed his first degree. She went on to earn a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Trine University and completed her master's degree in Social Work while Mallory completed his. She now is a family therapist working for Counseling Partners in Lafayette. Together, the Claypools have raised five children, all of whom have completed or are pursuing college degrees.
