Hutchings College and Career Academy receives grant for nursing pathway

Ten schools in Georgia will receive funding to help with their nursing programs.

MACON, Georgia(41NBC/WMGT) — Ten schools in Georgia will receive funding to help with their nursing programs.

One of those schools is Hutchings College and Career Academy in Macon. The funding, about $800,000 came from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund.

Chava Jackson , a junior at Central High School, moved from First Presbyterian Day School to take the course.

Her goal is to become a nurse practitioner. With the help of the Nurse Aide Pathway at Hutchings College and Career Academy, she’s getting hands-on training.

“We have to repeat our skills twice, and we have to repeat it with a partner each time,” Jackson said.

Jackson is one of 28 dual enrollment students in the nursing course. She now gets an extra 10 credit hours toward her degree from the original 30 credits.

“The 30-cap hours kind of limits them with the ability of selecting a career and academics,” Hutchins CEO Dr. Cassandra Miller Washington said. “This allows our students to actually walk away with a certification and a career.

Washington says the school has a waiting list of students wanting to get into the course each year.

With the funding, the hope is to strengthen the pipeline of students going into the nursing field.

“They can continue their education on the collegiate level and really leave high school with the stackable credentials of almost having an associate degree,” she said.

The funding is only being applied to the students currently taking the nursing aid pathway.

Jackson says she’s grateful for the funding.

“It’s just not helping people,” she said. “It’s more about having the heart to do it, and there’s just a lot that you learn.”