This past school year, the Health and Sciences, Education and Wellness Institute, or HSEWI, was subjected to multiple changes. Two quarters ago, Bellevue College installed a rock-climbing wall in the gym to complement their spring quarter rock-climbing classes. In the coming months and the 2015 – 2016 school year, HSEWI will be experiencing more developments.
One of these changes will bring a new program manager for HSEWI. On March 23, HSEWI Director Krischanna Roberson will be welcoming a new member to her team, Edward Lamont Thomas. He will be the new program manager for the Alcohol and Drug Counseling Program and Early Learning. He will be bringing 10 years of business management and leadership experience to the position.
Thomas, along with other program managers under Roberson’s team, will focus on expanding the degrees in HSEWI while preparing to move into the new T-building, which will be completed by fall quarter 2015. The T-building will largely be dedicated to the different divisions in HSEWI.
“The biggest thing that we have coming for the fall is that we will be in the new T-building, which is a medically certified building. Right now, we’re all over campus, but soon, we’ll finally be able to be under one roof,” said Roberson.
The staff in HSEWI’s current office, R130, will begin their move during the summer and complete by fall. According to Roberson, the program managers will have various duties to ease their transition. “The program managers have a lot of responsibility in facilitating the move to the T-building. The program managers will be managing the courses that they’ll have to move to the new building.
“They’ll be responsible for the process of transferring the necessary equipment for each class,” said Roberson.
With the completion of the new health and science building, the ultrasound, radiation imaging and nursing courses will get more space to install new machines and have larger classes. Furthermore, the T-building will house another computer lab and ultrasound machines.
Although students cannot help with HSEWI’s transition to the new building, they can volunteer with different health and sciences classes to help in other ways. For example, the ultrasound classes look for volunteers to practice techniques on.
Aside from the transition to the T-building, HSEWI, according to Roberson, also underwent a massive team redesign.
“The focus of all of the program managers under this model was to be able to provide good sound focus and have accountability for dealing with one program,” said Roberson. Through this redesign, students are able to have one contact that can give specific information about a program and the following courses.
“The primary goal for this reconstruction was to make the academic divisions more effective and efficient,” said Roberson, “this model is helping to bring a lot of programs together and streamline the processes.”
This reconstruction, which lasted for a year and a half, was finalized six months ago, though HSEWI has been operating under this new model for a year.
Students in the HSEWI programs can expect to attend their classes in the T-building by fall quarter 2015.