Campus News
October 17th, 2023
GC paramedic program serving as region pilot
PSC, ACM, Eastern West Virginia partnering with Garrett College
Garrett College's Paramedic Studies program is the pilot project for a four-college partnership aiming to provide allied health training in an economically sustainable, regional format.
GC – as the sole partner offering paramedic training – is guaranteeing seats in its credit and non-credit programs to Allegany College of Maryland, Eastern West Virginia Community & Technical College, and Potomac State College of West Virginia University. The other partners will soon offer similar arrangements in allied health programs currently offered by just one of the partners.
"All of the presidents strongly believe this will be an outstanding model," said Dr. Richard Midcap, Garrett College's president. "We want students in all of our service regions to have access to this training – but we don't all need to be offering high-cost programs that already exist within the region."
Julie Yoder, Garrett College's dean of continuing education and workforce development, said employing GC's paramedic program as the pilot makes a lot of sense.
"We have two paramedic studies credit options – a two-year in-person program and a one-year hybrid program – as well as a noncredit certification alternative," said Yoder. "I think the new hybrid option may be particularly attractive to students in our partners' service regions since it limits the number of times those students have to physically be on our campus."
The four partner presidents – Midcap, ACM's Dr. Cynthia Bambara, Eastern West Virginia's Dr. Thomas Striplin, and Potomac State College of West Virginia University's Dr. Chris Gilmer – signed an overarching allied health partnership agreement in August. They signed on to the paramedic studies agreement as the pioneering pilot earlier this month.
"We all realize that working collaboratively benefits our students and our taxpayers," said Midcap.
Yoder said Garrett College's Paramedic Studies staff – led by Doug Beitzel and Josh Hook – are developing an application schedule to guarantee partner students have seats for the 2024-25 academic year.
"We will ensure we have the capacity to serve Garrett County students as well as our partner institutions' students," said Yoder.
