Danielle Bowler is the newly appointed ELO Central Coach with JMG. Danielle reached out to Jolene Luce, Western Maine AHEC and Sarah Dyment Northern Maine AHEC for assistance and collaboration on how to provide High School students healthcare career opportunities and exposure.
JMG is an educational non-profit organization that partners with public education and private businesses to offer results driven solutions to ensure all Maine students graduate, attain post-secondary credentials, and pursue meaningful careers. Recently the State of Maine Departments of Economic and Community Development (DECD) and of Education (DOE) have partnered with us to provide Extended Learning Opportunity (ELO) coaching to Maine schools. JMG found the primary interest for ELO opportunities is in the Healthcare sectors.
Danielle had heard of the previous work done by Western Maine AHEC with Scrub Club career exploration events in Franklin County, recently expanding into Somerset and Androscoggin to offer healthcare specific hands on learning opportunities to high school students. Western AHEC had earlier this fall partnered with Somerset County STEM program to showcase the value of math, science, technology and engineering needs in healthcare with JMG. Western AHEC also worked with Sacopee Valley and Oxford Schools to offer ELO virtual job shadow placements and creative options to allow students to obtain required ELO career exploration credits. Western AHEC will be hosting ELO in Oxford County for a field trip to Franklin Memorial Hospital to provide credit hours. Education will include, Operating Room Simulation Lab, proper PPE and Infection Prevention, First Aid and Stop the Bleed Program certifications.
The resources didn’t stop there! Danielle had also heard of the great opportunities for students provided in the Northern part of the state with Northern Light, Eastern Maine Medical Center. With various career exploration and job shadow placements. Sarah Dyment was able to support many of the northern JMG sites in their efforts to being able to find healthcare ELO credits in this area. Sarah extended her support and knowledge to be a potential partner in finding opportunities providing an ease to the JMG coordinators struggling to obtain resources. She urged them to share any and all ideas with her, and she would set to work on turning those ideas into reality for these students.
Since JMG spans across the state of Maine, as does AHEC with our newly appointed Maria Donahue at Healthy Acadia, it seems to be a great fit for a long term partnership. AHEC offered out of the box thinking, keeping in mind the staffing shortages within healthcare settings, all the while still being able to provide healthcare educational opportunity in alignment with JMG, and the ELO initiatives. JMG has the students and AHEC has the community healthcare partnerships. WIN, WIN for all! Excited to see future projects unfold.