Butler County Community College will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building, a 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility at its main campus, from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
Jason Adamson and Luke Veon measured each other’s leg lengths and arm heights near parallel bars, treatment tables and a hospital bed rigged with a patient lift.
Outside that laboratory, Victoria Clawson, Allison Coleman and Molly Grossman learned to navigate wheelchairs through a long hallway.
Across the hallway, Jaydn Best, Megan Brink and Lilli Schoettker sat aside a series of massage therapy tables and heard about the differences between neoplasia and hyperplasia, congenital disorders and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Down the hallway, Amber Barger, Logan Barnhart and Abigail Frankman inserted an incentive spirometer into a simulated patient’s mouth.
And up the hallway, Paige Hampe, Mya Slomers and Shirley Barlow were among those noting information projected on twin 137-inch screens in an 80-seat lecture hall.
‘Nothing like this is around here’
The Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building, the college’s new 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility, “is state-of-the-art,” Barlow said. “Nothing like this is around here.”
Guests who attend a free community grand opening for the building from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, are “going to be impressed by the equipment, the space that we have here, all of the tools that the professors have to teach us,” Veon said.
“They are going to be in awe, in amazement,” Barger said.
The community grand opening will include a program from 3:30 to 4:10 p.m.
Speakers during the program will include Olivia Vissari, a BC3 registered nursing student; Dr. Patty Annear, dean of the college’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health, the academic division with the highest enrollment at BC3; and Dr. Nick Neupauer, president of BC3.
A ribbon-cutting will follow, as will tours of the building and catered refreshments, such as beef empanadas, arancini, chicken satay and mini Reuben sandwiches.
Enrollment jumps 173% in 15 years
Enrollment in BC3’s health care programs has increased 173% since fall 2008, when a building dedicated to nursing and allied health first appeared on the college’s master plan.
In fall 2008, the college’s health care programs enrolled 186 students. Classes were held in 8,000 square feet of BC3’s business and health professions building.
Nine years later, the college announced a $1 million gift from the Janice Phillips Larrick Family Charitable Trust toward construction of a new nursing and allied health facility. Over the next four years, gifts of $1 million followed from former state Sen. Tim Shaffer, Concordia Lutheran Ministries and an anonymous donor; and of $500,000 from Grove City College.
The BC3 Education Foundation as of Aug. 31 had received $6.75 million in private contributions and pledges from 111 donors toward the construction of the Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building.
Survey work, removal of trees and preparation for utilities began in February 2022. Construction costs for the building, and the adjacent Concordia Educational Center, were $14.8 million — half of which was matched by the state Department of Education.
The college also received $500,000 in federal funding for expenses that include technology. Among purchases to assist students are a pair of simulated patients for $110,000, and a system that records simulation scenarios for review with faculty members for $150,000.
‘This is a top-notch facility’
Adamson, Veon, Clawson, Coleman and Grossman are physical therapist assistant students and were among the first to attend classes in the Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building when it opened Aug. 21.
So, too, were Best, Brink and Schoettker, medical coding and billing specialist students; and Barger, Barlow, Barnhart, Frankman, Hampe and Slomers, registered nursing students.
“It resembles a hospital a lot,” Hampe said.
“This is close to what you would see in an actual facility,” Veon said. “So practicing here, you will be able to see the same things as you would when you are actually working. This is a top-notch facility for a community college.”
BC3’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health as of Aug. 2 enrolled 508 students from at least 20 Western Pennsylvania counties.
Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.
A class of students in Butler County Community College’s registered nursing associate degree program, learn about assessment tools in an 80-seat lecture hall within the new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. The college will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
Allison Coleman, of Valencia, a student in Butler County Community College’s physical therapist assistant associate degree program, practices with a wheelchair inside the new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. The college will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
Logan Barnhart, foreground, of Chicora, a student in Butler County Community College’s registered nursing associate degree program, takes the blood pressure of a simulated patient inside the new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. The college will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
Jason Adamson, left, of Evans City, and Luke Veon, of Beaver Falls, students in Butler County Community College’s physical therapist assistant associate degree program, practice with a wheelchair inside the new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. The college will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
Logan McKissick, of Butler, a student in Butler County Community College’s massage therapy workplace certificate program, practices with a classmate inside the new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. The college will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
Leah Barclay, of Saxonburg a student in Butler County Community College’s registered nursing associate degree program, studies outside a simulation room within the new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. The college will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
Madison Malley, of Karns City, a student in Butler County Community College’s practical nursing certificate program, sits outside the new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023. The college will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
Mya Slomers, Sara Soltis, Paige Hampe and Shirley Barlow, students in Butler County Community College’s registered nursing associate degree program and residents of Butler, walk inside the new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. The college will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
A simulated intensive care unit room is shown inside the new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building on Butler County Community College’s main campus in Butler Township on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023. The college will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
Students enrolled in Butler County Community College’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health socialize Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2023, inside the new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township. The college will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
The new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building on Butler County Community College’s main campus in Butler Township is shown Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. The college will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
Kristine Kenny, foreground, a faculty member at Butler County Community College, guides students in BC3’s registered nursing associate degree program through an exercise with a simulated patient inside the new Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. The college will hold a grand-opening ceremony for the 25,000-square-foot immersive learning facility from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Submitted Photo
