The marketing campaign and launch of the Governor’s Health Sciences Academy at T.C. Williams High School has been awarded two honors in the 2020 District II Accolades Awards competition sponsored by CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education).
This acknowledges the impact of the collaboration between the two teams at The George Washington University and ACPS for “Individual Special Public Relations Projects” for the ribbon-cutting event with Governor Ralph Northam at T.C. It also recognizes the Academy logo design and its use in campaign and marketing materials.
The award-winning ACPS team consisted of the director of communications Helen Lloyd, the ACPS Office of Communications and former ACPS Career and Technical Education Coordinator Sherri Chapman, as well as Linda Zanin, Terry Capshaw, Dominic Abbate and Josh Schimmerling from The George Washington team.
This is the second batch of awards that the partnership between ACPS and The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences has picked up since the Academy’s launch in August 2018.
The partnership was recognized by the Virginia Department of Education as an example of exemplary business partnerships in education in 2019.
ACPS and The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences partnered to launch the Governor’s Health Sciences Academy at T.C. to create pathways that would lead to increased opportunities for students in the health care profession after graduation. The Academy met the benchmarks to become a Governor’s Academy through the Virginia Department of Education much sooner than anticipated and is the first public-private partnership of its kind in Virginia.
The Academy, which will eventually serve up to 400 students, enables students to earn up to 18 college credits from The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences before they graduate. The program is aligned with workforce needs in the health care industry in Virginia and can significantly reduce the time and money needed to graduate from college.
The first cohort of 100 students is already almost through its second year of the four-year program. Students can choose from seven in-demand career pathways: biomedical informatics, emergency medical services, medical laboratory sciences, nursing, pharmacy, sports medicine and surgical technology.
Following graduation, students can move into entry-level health careers; matriculate into a community college and attain an associate’s degree; transfer to the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences through a guaranteed admissions agreement with college credits toward earning a bachelor’s degree; enter a bachelor-completion program at GW in partnership with select community colleges in Virginia and Maryland; or transfer credits to other four-year universities.
The Academy puts ACPS students who may not be able to afford the full four years of college a few steps ahead, enabling them to graduate high school at the same credit level as college freshmen and sophomores.
The goal of the partnership is to create a robust pipeline of students on a pathway to address the health care workforce shortage in Virginia. According to the Virginia Labor Market Information projections, health care practitioners and technical occupations will increase by more than 18% by 2024. Regional workforce data shows an expected 30% growth by 2020.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates an 18% growth in health care careers through 2026, resulting in 2.3 million new jobs in the United States. Through this program, our students will be equipped with the necessary background education and training to address these workforce needs.
“It is clear that this region is a hub for innovation, problem solving, and addressing society’s most complex issues. Today, with the start of this important and first-of-its-kind public-private partnership, we are beginning the process of tackling a health care workforce challenge,” GW President Thomas LeBlanc told students at the official launch of the Academy.
Learn more about the Governor’s Health Sciences Academy at T.C. Williams High School and the partnership between ACPS and the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences.