Brave Service Award: Dorothy Koch Family Foundation

Dorothy Koch iLab sign

A message from the Indian Hill Foundation about the 2020 Alumni Awards Honorees

“The Dorothy Koch Family Foundation honors our mother Dorothy Kautz Koch and her lifelong commitment to education,” state her children Lisa Greene (’74), Bill Koch (’68), Jim Koch (’67) and Susan Koch (’65). Mrs. Koch emphasized education both in raising her four children and in her career as an elementary school teacher, including many years at Indian Hill Elementary. All of her children and four of her grandchildren are Indian Hill graduates.
 
Starting in 2008, gifts from the Dorothy Koch Family Foundation, given through the Indian Hill Foundation, have totaled over $150,000 and have continued her legacy of impact by transforming the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) curriculum across the Indian Hill School District.

In the fall of 2018, the District opened Indian Hill Elementary School’s Dorothy Koch iLab. “The iLab is an innovative, hands-on space that builds important skills of critical thinking, creativity and collaboration,” explains Dr. Melissa Stewart, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning. “The iLab has become a model of space and instruction, resulting in over 30 visitors from other districts and agencies to gather inspiration for their own initiatives in STEAM.”