By PRCC Marketing & Communications
Pearl River Community College and William Carey University have joined forces, once again, to give students in the Pine Belt and South Mississippi a helping hand. The newest agreement, signed March 24, focuses on health science programs.
During a ceremony at WCU’s Tatum Court, PRCC President Dr. Adam Breerwood and William Carey Executive Vice President Dr. Ben Burnett signed a Memorandum of Understanding to benefit health science students and programs. Dr. Janet Williams, WCU’s Associate Vice President for Health Programs, and PRCC’s Dr. Jana Causey, Vice President of PRCC’s Forrest County Campus, Allied Health and Nursing Programs, were also present to represent their schools.
The agreement will help create another pathway for PRCC graduates who want to continue their education at WCU.
“We are ecstatic to engage in this partnership. Dr. Burnett has been a true visionary leader here at William Carey and is a dear friend. He has reached out on numerous occasions to us to try and create pathways where we can remove obstacles that would normally impede education,” Breerwood said.
“For our students, for the opportunity now locally to continue their education and have a clear pathway is something we’ve sought after for a long time. We are thrilled to engage in this agreement.”
At the core of this latest agreement are the Pine Belt and South Mississippi communities.
“Dr. Causey and I have talked about this multiple times,” Breerwood said. “Most of our students begin their high school career, their college career and ultimately reside within a 45-mile radius of our campuses. I think it’s brilliant to want to build this local economy. Through education we know we can do it.”
Another major goal of the agreement is to keep costs down for students. WCU agrees to provide specific healthcare courses for dual enrollment of PRCC students who are enrolled in pre-professional and healthcare programs – at PRCC’s tuition rate.
“One of the biggest roadblocks in higher education is the cost, and if you can take away one year of the cost, that’s huge,” Burnett said.
“This will help students know they need to start planning while they’re at Pearl River so they can take the right courses and graduate — that’s important, to graduate — in two years, spend one year with us and then be eligible to pursue a variety of healthcare programs here at William Carey.
“The quicker we can get students out, the less debt they have. A huge part of the equation in Mississippi economics is the debt students graduate with.”
Both WCU and PRCC hope the new agreement will help ease the ongoing shortage of healthcare workers across the country, and especially in Mississippi.
“We do not have enough healthcare professionals in our hospitals, and it boils down to not having that skilled workforce that’s ready to go to work,” Causey said. “A partnership such as this one will help us meet the needs of our healthcare community.”
Wednesday’s ceremony is just the beginning, Williams said.
“We have looked for new and innovative ways to get that done over the years. We have some exciting things we’re doing as a university, but this is game-changing,” she said.
“We’re not coming together, taking a pretty picture, and moving on. This agreement means we’re going to send a representative to Pearl River Community College once a week to advise these students, to be there for them and encourage them to come through those programs.”
Other key elements of the agreement include:
- WCU will assist PRCC to initiate pre-professional programs for physical therapy, pharmacy, health information management, health administration and education, and RN-BSN programs;
- Students who are dually enrolled at PRCC and WCU will receive academic support from William Carey; and
- WCU and PRCC will work together to promote open communications, evaluation of current programs and future planning.
Wednesday’s announcement marks the fourth time in four years WCU and PRCC have announced partnerships to assist students in the Pine Belt and South Mississippi.
In 2018, the two schools signed an Elementary Education Partnership to address the teacher shortage facing Mississippi. In 2020 the Wildcats and Crusaders came together to sign two more memorandums. The first provided classes for third- and fourth-year students at PRCC’s Hancock County Campus. The second agreement in 2020 made it easier for PRCC’s academic and technical students to transfer to WCU to pursue a bachelor’s degree.
In the photo:Front row, from left: Dr. Jana Causey; Vice President of PRCC’s Forrest County Campus, Allied Health and Nursing Programs; Dr. Adam Breerwood; PRCC President; Dr. Ben Burnett; WCU Executive Vice President; and Dr. Janet Williams; Associate Vice President for College of Health Sciences. In the second row are representatives from WCU’s College of Health Sciences.
