Reading Area Community College health care project gets $300,000 grant from Wyomissing Foundation

David Mekeel, Reading Eagle, Pa.
·1 min read

Oct. 4—Reading Area Community College's effort to create its new and improved home for its health care programs has received a boost.

The Wyomissing Foundation is providing the school with a $300,000 grant to aid in the renovation and redesign of Weitz Hall into the Weitz Healthcare Pavilion. The $19.6 million project will transform the four-story building into a modern, high-tech medical training facility.

The grant will be paid over three years.

The Weitz Healthcare Pavilion will increases classroom and lab spaces for RACC's 14 health care programs, and allow the school to add nine new health care programs.

"With increased space, we will increase the number of applicants seeking admission to our health care programs by as much as 80%," Dr. Susan Looney, RACC president, said in a statement announcing the grant. "These students will then work here in Berks County since over 90% of our graduates stay in our region after graduation. As a Hispanic-serving institution, we graduate students of diverse backgrounds, resulting in equitable representation in the local health care industry, which is critical as our local population reflects our student body."

The grant is the first major contribution to a capital campaign raising funds for the pavilion project.

"The Wyomissing Foundation is proud to make the first major gift to this essential campaign which will directly address the health care workforce crisis here in our region," Wyomissing Foundation President Pat Giles said. "We are also proud to honor RACC President Emerita Dr. Anna Weitz, who has long been a champion of the training our local workforce."