High Paying Career Opportunities through Goodman South Campus: Meaningful Well-Paying Jobs
From left tol right: Alejandra Bridges, bilingual (Spanish/English) Financial Aid & Student Support; Leah Narans MBA, MLS (ASCP), program director/faculty for Health Programs; Loise Kirore, RN, BSN, WCC, nursing assistant instructor, School of Nursing; Lisa Cappelli, RN MS, faculty lead for Equity and Inclusion, School of Nursing and Valentina Ahedo, VP, Goodman South Campus & School of Academic Advancement
By Jonathan Gramling
While Madison College is committed to providing a quality education for all, their mission doesn’t end there. They are committed to making sure that students succeed at the college and later in their careers that earn family-sustaining wages and perhaps provide meaning to their lives. While it is important to the staff that students come to the college, it is more important to them that students leave for those quality careers.
Madison College’s Goodman South Campus is located at one of Madison’s gateway’s on S. Park Street. It also serves as a gateway to one of the nation’s fastest-growing career fields, the health care profession, being it is situated at the foot of Madison’s health care corridor, S. Park Street.
“When we built this campus, which seems so long ago now before the pandemic, one of the things that we were very intentional about was to ensure that we built a program portfolio that would prepare students for this top industry in our region,” said Valentina Ahedo, VP, Goodman South Campus & School of Academic Advancement. “One of them for sure is the health care industry. And we are in the health care corridor. And so it was very important for us as we built that we included programs that would feed into those industries. And because they are some of the better paying jobs, ensure that we have those opportunities for the people we said that we wanted to serve here. In that respect, I think we’ve been very successful. We started out with the nursing program. We had also started out with medical assisting. But because of the pandemic and hiring, we were never able to launch that. So they did some work and they ended up back at Truax. But we then brought in some of those pieces such as phlebotomy training and lab technicians in addition to nursing assistant. We kicked off the licensed practical nurse, which is the second step in that nursing pathway — with the third step being the associate degree.”
Once potential or actual students step through Madison College’s doors, the staff is committed to helping them succeed. And that begins with the initial application process.
It is that philosophy that drives the Start Smart program, which makes sure that potential students are aware of — and get assistance if they need it — what they need to do to become a student and get started on their chosen career. It is typically held once per month on a Saturday.
“We’re very intentional about providing the big building blocks for students to walk them through, to accompany them through a system to get them attached to the college,” Ahedo said. “For us, that’s the admissions and application process for a program. It is a financial aid process. We know that students will attempt to fill out the financial aid application, but it is really, really complex brought to you by those lovely people called the IRS. It’s really complex. And people, when they run into a question they don’t know how to answer, they’ll stop. They’ll drop it. They won’t get help. They don’t know where to get help. They don’t want to get help. It’s a lot of personal information. And so having the resources there to help them move, to push through those questions is just really important to completion because even though Madison College is a really great economic value, it still costs money. You’re talking $1,000-$2,500 in tuition plus fees and other expenses. For someone who really doesn’t have any money, it might as well be $1 million because they can’t think of a way through that. And so financial aid is a really important piece of that. We dedicate a lot of time to that. Scholarships are another piece that play into that. And then we also help them through placement testing. We know for people, especially those who have been out of school, they come in and it is very important that they place into classes that are aligned with their skill level. If they have been out of school for a while, they have to do a little bit of a refresher to make sure they are being placed in the appropriate class to help people place into the program classes that are appropriate is really important. Otherwise they will be moved into developmental education. While it exists because some people need it, there are many who don’t. And with a little bit of help and a little bit of preparation, we can help them move into those program classes and actually make progress and movement in their program.”
One of the key players with the Start Smart sessions is Alejandra Bridges, a bilingual (Spanish/English) Financial Aid & Student Support person, is tenacious in making sure that potential students get all of the help that they need because she has been there, done that.
“We work with students who are first generation and they have a lot of questions,” Bridges said about the Start Smart sessions. “Sometimes, they don’t know how to ask all of the questions that they have. Those questions give them a little confidence. These sessions because they are open to everyone, they can ask questions as much as they want. That way, they can have all of the information that they need to take the next step. I’m a first generation student. I started at Madison College and I have a lot of questions. I wish I could have these sessions because that way, I can have everything that I need and then I just need to just go through the process and have a team who actually supports me and gives me all of the information, resources and the tools that I need.”
Sometimes people know they want to advance in their lives, but they are uncertain which career will take them there.
“First you need to know which area you want to study so that we can help you and guide you better,” Bridges said. “But the placement test is important to be able to enroll in classes and see what the next step is. Given this information, they can choose the program they want to study in and then do the placement test. After that, the financial aid application is very important as well because we have to make sure that everything is completed in the application so that by the time they start school, they can focus on school and not worry about the financial part. They also pick up a folder with a lot of information in it. In there, they have resources and information about their programs and support resources. They can take the folder home with all of the contact information in it. If they forget my name or contact information, they have it in there. Everyone is different. Everyone has a different situation so that we can actually support them and accommodate and be flexible with them. That’s the main thing.”
Bridges isn’t going to just let you fade away feeling overwhelmed or intimidated. She will keep in touch with people who attend to make sure they are getting what they need and help in any barrier, interior or exterior, that they may be experiencing.
Ahedo emphasized that the Madison College staff is there for its students every step of the way.
“I think it is really critical for people to be educated beyond high school,” Ahedo said. “And it’s because what education does is it helps you to think about life and work and problems in a way so that you might learn skills in a particular area, but the way that you learn to think applies beyond whatever it is that you are working on at the time. That is what education gives you. Now I’m not saying that it is easy. Alejandra talked about that folder of support services that she sends along with all of these students. That is really critical. And I think that is our job, the people around this table doing this interview, not only are we going to teach you the nitty-gritty skills you need to be employed in a particular area, but understand that it is often a village effort. You’re not just going at this alone. I think understanding yourself, understanding that it’s not only okay, but please ask for help. That is really important because here we respect the fact that you are an adult. It’s not like the k-12 system where the level of care is just a little different there. A lot of it is compulsory and by law. Here we really want you to be able to reach out and know that you’re going to get the assistance that you need. And it might not be from that person. They might have to refer you on to an expert, someone else who can more expertly help you with that area. That is something that all of us pride ourselves in doing in supporting students, especially those who don’t feel confident that they have the skill set or whatever to be successful. In fact, they can and they do. It takes all of us.”
Next Issue: Nursing as a gateway to the middle class