School of Health sets goals for 2023
Some of the School of Health’s aims include developing new programs, connecting with alumni and the community and attracting new students.
Calvin’s School of Health has begun to expand the initiatives it began in 2022. The School will continue to grow in 2023.
The School of Health, whose establishment was announced in Oct. 2021, began operations last fall and is now looking at ways to further expand.
The school was established to bring together the nursing, speech pathology and audiology, kinesiology, exercise science and public health departments to collaborate towards better care for patients.
According to Dr. Adejoke Ayoola, the dean of the School of Health, “the goal of a School of Health is to bring together different programs [that] can work collaboratively.”
Abigayle Dayton, a senior in the nursing program, told Chimes that the medical field is “a very collaborative field. … Everyone is depending on other people because we all bring different strengths to the table in order to help patients and provide the best patient care.”
According to Ayoola, one of the School of Health’s main missions is to provide a form of holistic care to its patients, where their needs are thoroughly addressed.
New programs and alumni networks
The School of Health looks to strengthen not only its philosophy of interprofessional perspectives of student care but also its existing programs and planning for new programs in the future.
For instance, according to Ayoola, the School of Health is currently making plans for the introduction of a cadaver lab, which would give undergraduate students the opportunity to develop advanced medical techniques.
The School of Health is also looking to strengthen its community health program. An example of this expansion can be seen in the newly formed partnership with Calvin and Pine Rest. “In the nursing program right now, we have [a] very strong community-focused and community-based program and the goal is to expand that to all the other programs,” said Ayoola.
One of the main missions of the School of Health is the development of new programs, such as the newly formed master’s degrees in exercise science and public health.
“Right now we’re working on [programs for] RN [Registered Nurse] to BSN [Bachelor of Science in Nursing] … [and] RN to MSN [Master of Science in Nursing]. We hope that we develop more graduate-level programs,” said Ayoola.
The School of Health also hopes to strengthen its bonds with its alumni. “[Alumni] engagement is for me also something that is very important,” said Ayoola.
“We’ve had so many people that have gone through our programs, … [and now] they are working all over [the] United States and … the world. So the goal is also, through the School of Health, to bring … our alumni to Calvin … [to] interact with students,” said Ayoola.
One of the ways the School of Health hopes to achieve this is by extending the speaker series that was launched last semester, which has thus far included Calvin alumni like Dr. Yaw Bediako and Dr. Christopher Holstege.
Increasing connections
The School of Health also plans to grow its ability to connect students with opportunities outside of Calvin, such as internships and research opportunities, through programs like career fairs.
“[For the career fair] we invited local hospitals and schools … to interact with students and tell them about the different opportunities that are available by the time they graduate or even right now as students,” said Ayoola.
The School of Health also hopes that its efforts would attract potential students. “I hope that prospective students will see it … [and] know that Calvin is a great place to come [to],” said Ayoola. Ayoola, who is excited about faculty, staff and student engagement, hopes to continue building that relationship in 2023.
