Nursing program planned for EGCC

Borrowing courses from existing programs will speed up the development of the new college.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Courses for the first educational program offered by the new Eastern Gateway Community College will be provided by Lorain County and Jefferson County community colleges.

Eastern Gateway’s first educational offering will be an accelerated LPN-RN nursing program that will be delivered by Lorain, said Eric D. Fingerhut, Ohio’s chancellor of higher education. Jefferson will offer the general educational courses while Lorain provides the core courses, using the facilities and laboratories of the existing career centers now serving this region, he said.

Where prospective students can go to apply for admission and the date of start up have not been announced.

The first courses will be offered at Mahoning County Career & Technical Center and Trumbull Career & Technical Center. Nursing courses will be added later at Columbiana County Career & Technical Center and Choffin Career and Technical Center in Youngstown.

Youngstown State University, which launched the effort to develop a community college here three years ago, will then offer its four-year nursing degree as a direct educational pathway from the LPN-RN program, according to Fingerhut.

Similarly, programs will be borrowed from existing community colleges throughout Ohio and delivered through distance learning, online course offerings and in traditional classrooms at the partner schools, he said, adding that some of the programs being considered include welding, information technology, green technologies, nuclear science, wind turbine and fuel cells.

Fingerhut said Monday that the plan to meet community college needs in the Eastern Ohio/Mahoning Valley region calls for the use of innovative partnership models to reduce time, cost and geographic distance in the delivery of programs to serve residents, workers and employers in the region.

The delivery system also strives to increase the number of students attending and completing community college programs throughout the state, Fingerhut said.

Key elements of the strategy include borrowing programs from existing community college offerings throughout the state, utilizing existing facilities and maximizing the use of existing teaching, learning and support resources among educational partners.

“The people in Eastern Ohio and the Mahoning Valley want easily accessible, affordable and high-quality higher education options,” Fingerhut said. “Program sharing and using existing facilities reduces the time it would take to build a new community college from the ground up and ensures efficiencies in the development of this new college, all without sacrificing educational quality.”