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Alamo Colleges Announce New Health Professions Academy Pilot Program
High school students to earn tuition-free college credit and paid internships in health care jobs
At a news conference at St. Philip’s College, the Alamo Colleges announced a pilot program for the Alamo Colleges Health Professions Academy for high school students. The Academy pilot program is run by the St. Philip’s College Licensed Vocational Nursing program staff led by Licensed Vocational Nursing Program Director Rose Spruill, along with many community partners.
“An amazing confluence of academia, industry and government has been anticipating this for a long time,” said Alamo Academies Chairman Dr. Rich Butler.
The pilot Health Professions Academy began providing high school students a tuition-free early college experience this summer. Students can potentially earn 35 hours of college credit as high school juniors and seniors at no cost to them or their families. The participating school districts identified and recruited 16 students from the Edison and Floresville High Schools to enter the Academy’s pilot class this summer.
Instruction for the Edison students is underway at the Martin Luther King Campus of St. Philip’s College, and paid internships for the Edison students will follow in the summer of 2010 in the Methodist Healthcare System, the CHRISTUS Santa Rosa system and at Morningside Ministries. Instruction for the Floresville High School students is underway both online and at the Martin Luther King Campus of St. Philip’s College, and paid internships for the Floresville students will follow in the summer of 2010 at the Connolly Memorial Medical Center in Floresville.
The new Center for Health Professions at St. Philip’s College is the gateway for people seeking degrees in nursing, histology, health information systems, medical laboratory technician, radiography, sonography, occupational therapy, physical therapy, surgical technology, respiratory care and invasive cardiovascular technology. This building houses the Frank Bryant, Jr., Human Patient Simulation Center (the nation’s most advanced human patient simulation installation), and it includes complete radiology systems, complete surgical suites with supporting scrub and sterilization areas, a skills lab, four specialty-care simulation rooms, and an eight-bed general hospital suite with a fully functional nursing station.
At the Alamo Colleges, high quality education and low costs provide exceptional value to students and alumni who are major contributors to the economy and culture of our community. For more information, visit our website at alamo.edu.