Prairie Lakes Healthcare System in Watertown donated $3.1 million to Lake Area Technical Institute (LATI) in October 2017 to kickstart a 26,000 square-foot expansion and 49,000 square-foot renovation project of LATI’s health programs building. The building will be named the Prairie Lakes Healthcare Center of Learning and will centralize all of LATI’s health programs on the north end of the campus. The building project will make room for 300 more health care students, some of which will hopefully find their way to Prairie Lakes’ payroll.
Jill Fuller, recently retired CEO of Prairie Lakes, said she realized long ago the value of supporting LATI, not only because the school is a great pipeline for supplying nurses and other medical personnel, but because investing in the school is good for the community – and the state.
Fuller said LATI produces very high quality students which, in turn, develop into excellent health care professionals for the hospital. Prairie Lakes has also partnered with LATI in the past through the Build Dakota scholarship fund, where the hospital provides a full-ride scholarship for two students each year. In return, the students commit to working for Prairie Lakes for three years following graduation.
