LUXEMBURG—Three Green Bay-area school districts are collaborating with Bellin College to offer their high school students new curriculum that leads to a career pathway in healthcare.
Starting in August, students from the Luxemburg-Casco, Kewaunee and Denmark districts will come together to participate in a pathway into the Bellin College Healthcare Academy.
The Board of Education of the three school districts have approved the curriculum and funding, and students are in the process of registering for courses that will begin in the first semester of the 2022-23 school year.
Participating students can earn up to 42 college credits while in high school.
“By the three neighboring districts coming together, we are able to offer our students more coursework choices as they select career pathways,” says Mike Snowberry, director of learning services for the Luxemburg-Casco School District. “We already are seeing strong interest among our students in these classes.”
“The Bellin College Healthcare Academy is a partnership that allows us to create ‘real-life’ career and academic experiences for Kewaunee High School students interested in the healthcare field,” says Kewaunee School District Superintendent Scott Fritz. “College is an expensive career exploration program, so our hope is to create as many opportunities for our students to experience career pathway opportunities while still in high school.”
Students who complete the Bellin College Healthcare Academy coursework while in high school have the potential to receive a bachelor’s degree in nursing at Bellin after only two additional years of post-secondary study. Students essentially will have completed the entire first year of study at Bellin while in high school. The normal degree progression at Bellin is eight semesters over three years, including two summer sessions.
“With the current, exceptional job market and the ever-increasing cost of post-secondary education, taking advantage of post-secondary opportunities and business partnerships, combined with work-based curriculum, the Bellin College Healthcare Academy will give our students an extra advantage after graduating from high school,” says School District of Denmark Administrator Luke Goral.
Bellin has prior and current engagement with area high school students around upper-level science courses, but this will be its first complete, fully immersive experience, said Phil Schaible, director of sports medicine and orthopedics for Bellin Health.
“At Bellin, we had real staffing concerns before COVID-19,” Schaible said. “Coming out of the pandemic, that has heightened dramatically. Students have familiarity with doctors and nurses. What about all of the other careers within healthcare that people just don’t know about?”
Bellin hopes to create a healthy pipeline of young people who have been exposed to healthcare careers, he said.
Initial exploratory coursework will rotate between the three participating high schools, offering students the opportunity to affirm their interest in the healthcare field through study and job shadow opportunities. T
Students then apply and interview for admittance to the Bellin College Healthcare Academy. Once accepted they begin upper-level coursework, online and in-person at the Bellin campus. Paid internship opportunities also are available to students from this point forward.
More than 40 students between the three school districts already have expressed initial interest in taking part in the new program.
