SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) – Springfield Technical Community College made a big announcement Tuesday that could really change healthcare education in our area after receiving a generous $1 million grant from the MassMutual Foundation to enhance their programs and resources.
“Springfield Technical Community College has received a $1 million award from the MassMutual Foundation, the largest philanthropic gift for the college in the last 15 years,” said STCC President John Cook.
STCC will use the gift to help in the relocation and advancement of its School of Health and Patient Simulation program, which enrolls more than 1,500 students.
“I think it allows them to have some wonderful hands-on experience and further education, so they will be better equipped to come out into the community and hopefully take some wonderful jobs in our healthcare system,” said Amy Dias, head of human resources consulting and talent management for the MassMutual Foundation
“I will be graduating in 2025, so it won’t benefit me, but for incoming students, I think it’ll be a great opportunity for them to experience more resources, more equipment like the clinic. It’ll be great because it’s gonna expand, like the programs will expand a little bit more,” said STCC senior Zoya Brown.
The college plans to move its health programs out of Building 20 into Scibelli Hall, which will cost an estimated $50 million. Cook told Western Mass News that this remarkable gift will help enhance the educational and technical experience for students.
“We know healthcare is high demand, high need and it is really a calling card for the college so, with this investment for MassMutual, not only we’re grateful, but it really is sustaining for us. We have a major capital relocation. We’re moving our School of Health into another building on-campus and this really keeps the momentum for that project,” Cook explained.
The event also included tours of the college’s dental clinic and the SIMS medical center, which includes over 70 patient simulators and makes it the largest seen in New England. With this generous grant, we spoke to students who shared with us their excitement about the new opportunities this grant will bring and what this means for their future.
“Already, we were able to listen to lungs, feel the pulses on those patients, like you look at them and say ‘Oh, those are mannequins,’ but like actually being able to get our hands-on experience, it’s a great hands-on experience,” said STCC freshman Bushra Salhab.
“It’s definitely benefiting me because it’s showing us scenarios in the real world that we will see as clinicians and we have safe space to make mistakes, right? We have that ability to have that control over what we’re seeing to then be even more prepared for what we will see in the real world,” said STCC physical therapy student.
Moving and renovation projects are expected to be finished in 2027.
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