by Jennifer Kowalewski
OU-COM recently has partnered with Columbus Public Schools and
Columbus State Community College to help disadvantaged students
attend to Ohio University.
And, if things go as planned, most of these students will become
health-care professionals.
The Pathways Institute Partnership was made possible by the $1.8
million Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP) grant to
OU-COM, in which is included support for the partnership. The
$1.8 million grant funds OU-COM’s HCOP from 2005 to 2008. HCOP
is part of the college’s Center of Excellence for Multicultural
Medicine.
“We’ve had an HCOP grant here at OU-COM since 1987,” says
Elizabeth Minor, HCOP director.
It has grown
into a comprehensive grant making possible a pipeline of
programs that prepare students, as early as the sixth grade, for
careers in the health-care fields.
The grant targets disadvantaged students, such as those from
lower income families or those whose parents never attended
college. Unlike grants that specifically support minority
students, HCOP covers a larger population of students.
The health-care industry has a general shortage of people
entering it, says Minor, and the federal Health Resource and
Services Administration’s HCOP is designed to address that
shortage.
“Our program educates and encourages young people that likely
don’t know that there are very good career opportunities in the
health-care industry. We want them to know that they have
options and help them reach their goals,” she says.
The Pathways Institute Partnership includes seven middle
schools, three health academies and Columbus State as well as
community resources. Pathways came
about, in part, because of Minor’s chance meeting with John
Francis, M.B.A., Ph.D., a Columbus State biochemistry professor.
Minor says she and Francis began a conversation abroad a plane
in 2001 about what they did at their institutions that
culminated in Pathways Institute Partnership four years later.
The Pathways Institute mentors
students in middle school through high school and prepares them
for admission to Columbus State. For students who want to
continue their education beyond two-year degrees and earn
four-year degrees, it becomes a doorway into Ohio University.
From there, students seeking professional degrees in health-care
areas can apply for entrance into OU-COM or the School of
Physical Therapy.
Through Pathways in Columbus,
says Minor, HCOP works with students at the middle schools and
health academies. A health academy is a high school that
specializes in health career fields. Pathway’s health academies
are East High, West High and Linden-McKinley High.
“They fit very nicely with
HCOP’s aims,” she says.
“We will double the number of students in our programs,” Minor
said. “And for the first time, we will have the opportunity to
start with the same students in middle school that we end with
in college.
“We don’t have ‘contiguous pipelines’ in the other communities
that we serve,” she says. There may be a middle school program
in one community and a high school program in another — and HCOP
does partner with Upward Bound in communities — but the Columbus
“middle school-through-college” pipeline established by Pathways
was our first in any community, says Minor. In Southeastern
Ohio, HCOP works with students in the Alexander, Meigs and
Trimble middle schools as well as with high school students in
Dayton.
The Pathways Institute also
reinforces the framework for Columbus State to mesh with Ohio
University in academic areas outside of the arts and sciences as
well.
An articulation agreement was
made so that Columbus State students could transfer their
credits to Ohio University without losing any — and circumvents
Columbus State students unnecessarily retaking similar courses
at the university.
“That had been a major concern
for transfer students. But before President Glidden retired, he
signed off on the articulation agreement,” says Minor.
Because of the agreement and
the Course Applicability System, Columbus State students are
able to go online and see what courses are offered at Columbus
State that will match up with Ohio University courses. This also
is a big plus for students who want to transfer to the
university.
With this agreement, Ohio University opens the way to serving a
larger population of disadvantaged students and will help
diversify its student body, two main objectives of Ohio
President Roderick McDavis, Ph.D.
“Now we are linked to Columbus
State, not only in the health career fields but to any of OU’s
academic areas,” says Minor. “Because of this, the Pathways
Institute Partnership can serve OU in a larger way than
recruiting students just for health careers.”
- 30 -
News for
the week of Nov
26 –
Dec 31
