Press release from Mission Health:
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper stopped by for a visit to Mission Health during the annual Students@Work event on March 27. Mission Health President and CEO Dr. Ron Paulus greeted Gov. Cooper and students from Asheville City, Buncombe County and Madison County schools who visited the Mission campus to experience a variety of healthcare careers.
Gov. Cooper told the students about his own background as the son of a public school teacher, and spoke about his commitment to education and to healthcare. “My vision is for North Carolinians to be better educated, healthier, have more money in their pockets and more opportunities to live a more abundant and purposeful life,” Gov. Cooper said.
He asked the students about their career interests and heard responses ranging from journalist to psychiatrist to radiologist. He told them they could find many of those roles right here at Mission Health.
The governor then joined a group of students who were learning about the effects of smoking and second-hand smoke with the Mission respiratory therapy team; he even donned a pair of gloves to check out some pig lungs as part of a demonstration of healthy and unhealthy lungs.
Mission Health’s Career Exploration Center is pleased to join the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE) and other organizations across the state for Students@WorkTM Week. Through this event, middle school students take part in job shadowing or job mentoring programs to help them connect what they are learning in class with future career opportunities.
Besides the pig lungs demonstration, student visitors spent time with the MAMA team, learned about the benefits of pet therapy, experienced the CarePartners Orthotics and Prosthetics lab, learned how the Mission Infection Prevention team searches out germs, and participated in hands-on learning with Regional Transport Services, CarePartners Rehab and Adult Day, Mission Children’s Hospital, Genetics, physicians and staff from Ortho Trauma clinic, and the Wellness team.
The event included information about the 16 national “career clusters” and encouraged students to think more broadly about a career in healthcare. While clinicians make up the majority of the Mission Health workforce, there are roles ranging from finance, to arts and communication, to transportation and logistics, all right here at Mission Health.
“It’s always exciting to welcome these students,” said Tommasanne Davis, Director of Talent Acquisition and Career Exploration for Mission Health. “We know that events like this one can be the first spark that encourages these young people to pursue a career in healthcare, and the governor’s visit today helped us shine a light on the wide variety of careers to explore right here at Mission.”
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