$26.3m investment to support healthcare education in Charlotte

Atrium Well being and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Faculties introduced a partnership to launch an early faculty program at an area highschool on Thursday. 

A $26.3 million funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies will help Hawthorne Academy, CMS’s devoted well being sciences magnet program.

The initiative will join well being care and training techniques to early faculty excessive faculties in 10 metropolitan and rural communities throughout the nation, together with Charlotte and Durham, N.C. 

Why it issues: The Mecklenburg County area is projected to have greater than 60,000 open scientific healthcare positions by 2027, in line with a press launch from Atrium Well being. 

And the healthcare discipline wants extra range. As of 2019, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous Individuals are significantly underrepresented in nursing and doctor professions, in line with the City Institute. 

“Not quite a lot of Black girls have the chance to permit their concepts to flourish,” Karami Albritton, a senior who plans on going into well being coverage after learning at Hawthorne Academy, mentioned. “I really feel like Hawthorne [Academy] permits us to know that we might be on this area.” 

Together with a core highschool training, Hawthorne Academy college students may have specialised healthcare courses co-taught by Carolinas Faculty of Well being Sciences staff and work-based studying – along with the chance to earn trade credentials and certifications. 

This initiative goals to create alternatives for college students to realize direct work expertise and entry to jobs inside the well being system instantly following commencement. 

“By offering clear pathways for college students’ careers, we attempt to retain graduates near dwelling and develop our next-generation workforce,” Ken Haynes, president of the  Southeast Area of Advocate Well being, of which Atrium Well being is part, mentioned.  

Some healthcare jobs college students can practice for embrace licensed nursing assistants, registered nurses, and radiologic or neurodiagnostic technologists, amongst others. 

Hawthorne Academy may have an official cohort within the 2025-2026 college 12 months, chosen by a lottery course of, in line with a press launch from Atrium Well being.

“It is a one-in-a-lifetime alternative,” Calvin Jackson, an tutorial lead instructor for the well being sciences at Hawthrone Academy, mentioned. “We’d like extra minorities to enter the well being discipline.” 

 College students in this system will begin receiving advantages as early as 2024 by paid internships and hands-on experiences. 

On account of the passage of the 2023 CMS bond referendum, Hawthorne Academy is anticipated to maneuver to a brand new Second Ward Excessive College in uptown Charlotte, the place it will likely be inside strolling distance of Atrium Well being’s new training heart. 

The Bloomberg Philanthropies funding will help Hawthorne Academy’s start-up prices, together with personnel wants in addition to classroom and lab renovations. 

College students in ninth and tenth grades will take part in job shadowing and apply their expertise in simulation labs. Starting their junior 12 months, college students can entry paid healthcare internships, skilled mentoring and different work-based studying experiences.