PCC celebrates opening of Teaching and Learning Center at St. Mary-Corwin

Pueblo Community College held a grand-opening ceremony for its new Nursing and Allied Health Teaching and Learning Center at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital on Thursday, Jan. 26.

The Teaching and Learning Center is home to nine nursing and allied degree programs in the Mary Jane Voelker Tower of the St. Mary-Corwin campus. The Mary Jane Voelker Tower, formerly known as the East Tower, includes 450,000 square-feet of space, 60,000 of which were remodeled for use by PCC.

Universal Preschool:Universal Preschool program coming to Pueblo schools this fall; registration now open

Joe Garcia, chancellor of the Colorado Community College System, spoke at the grand opening and said of the system's 15 colleges and 35 locations around the state, nowhere else has a facility "equal to this."

The facility includes three floors of classrooms, learning labs, offices, student spaces and simulation centers that allow students to “learn on their feet, not in their seat,” PCC Simulation Center director Eva Tapia said.

“Simulation means that we get a very high-tech mannequin and we program it through software to have a heart attack, to birth a baby or to have congestive heart failure,” Tapia said. “Our students come in and they are the nurses, which is a bit scary for them, but it’s a very safe, great, learning environment.”

Programs for medical assistant, nursing, nurse aide, occupational therapy assistant, pharmacy technician, phlebotomy technician, radiologic technician, respiratory technician and surgical technology are housed at the Teaching and Learning Center.

During the grand opening ceremony, PCC President Patty Erjavec outlined the need for health care workers in Colorado.

“We know that there is a community where there is an aging population,” Erjavec said. “We know that there’s a huge health care shortage, not only in nursing but in all of the allied health professions. What are we going to do about it? We are going to build a state of the art Teaching and Learning Center so that our community can continue to grow.”

The Teaching and Learning Center began welcoming students this fall and already has seen 338 students take classes on-site. It was paid for with more than $8.3 million in private and public donations. Former PCC Foundation Vice President Mary Jane Voelker made the project’s first donation — a contribution of $1 million.

Scholarships for migrant students:CSU Pueblo joins TheDream.US network in effort to assist migrant students

Voelker also contributed $3.1 million for scholarships and $3.1 million toward maintenance of the Teaching and Learning Center before her death in June 2021.

“Mary Jane Voelker has ensured that this environment, this Teaching and Learning Center, will go on for decades, centuries to come," Erjavec said.

Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached by email at JBartolo@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: PCC celebrates opening of new nursing facility at St. Mary-Corwin