Hospital group Ascension St. Vincent has made a donation of $100,000 to the Southern Indiana Career and Technical Center’s (SICTC) Health Sciences Program.
The ceremonial check was passed on Wednesday with leadership from the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation (EVC) the technical center and Ascension St. Vincent, before a class of health sciences students.
Gwen Barnett is a long time Health Sciences Educator, who watched the program grow from 17 students in 1984, to 155 today.
“That's the largest we've ever had,” she said. "They’re split between health science, pre professional and health science, exercise science. "The program was introduced to EVSC in 1970.
She said they’ve never received such a donation, and usually have to do a lot of fundraising for things like necessary program travel, which could be a good use for funds. “We haven't really decided exactly where that's going to go, but it will definitely be used wisely,” she said.
Alex Chen is President of Ascension St. Vincent. He said they chose this donation — this specific amount and this entity — to support the Evansville community, and the future of the healthcare field locally.
“We need more doctors, we need more radiology techs,” he said. “… and every day, there's more and more folks retiring or getting out of the industry. And so that's where this is very important for us to start local grassroots and try to invest in our own people.”
The Health Sciences program lets students explore different health professions prior to college.
"These programs are vital to health care in general, in that the students get the opportunity to give it a try to see if this is really what they want to do," Barnett said. "So our healthcare pipeline starts here."
Senior Nicole Fortune, 17, plans to do occupational and respiratory therapy. She said the investment in her program means a lot to her.
“I just can't wait to see all the stuff that not only do we get to do, but we also get to put back into our community because at tech school, especially in this program, it's one of our main things to help our community.”
Tech center director David St. Clair says this program will be closer to 200 students in the coming school year.
“Which is a fantastic opportunity for you all, and also for all of our health science providers that are in Evansville in our surrounding areas.”
EVSC Superintendent David Smith said there are currently a few thousand open healthcare jobs in the area.
About the SICTC
Part of the EVSC, this facility serves five counties — Posey, Gibson, Vanderburgh, Warrick and Spencer. The 22 programs include culinary arts, advanced manufacturing, horticulture and broadcasting. About 900 students attend at any given time, with 300 receiving certificates annually. Source: SICTC
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