WASHINGTON (June 13, 2019) — The George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) was selected by the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Education as a recipient of the 2019 Creating Excellence Business & Industry Partnership Award for Region 4. The awards are presented annually to recognize exemplary programs and partnerships that promote excellence in career and technical education. GW SMHS was nominated for this award by the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS). Last year, the GW Biomedical Informatics Center was selected as the Region 4 winner of the 2018 Creating Excellence Business & Industry Partnership Award.
“We are honored and humbled to be this year’s recipient of this prestigious award. The partnership that we have forged with ACPS has been a wonderful beginning to, what we know will be, a longstanding relationship and a fruitful collaboration to shape a diverse, capable health care workforce in Virginia,” said Reamer L. Bushardt, PharmD, PA-C, DFAAPA, senior associate dean for health sciences at GW SMHS.
GW SMHS, in partnership with ACPS, established the Health Sciences Academy at T.C. Williams High School, which was endorsed by the Commonwealth of Virginia as a full-fledged Governor’s Academy for the 2018-19 school year. The program, established in August 2018, met the goals of maximizing opportunities in preparing students for targeted careers, raising student aspirations, attracting more students to postsecondary education in preparation for technical careers, and meeting the workforce needs of existing business and industry. GW SMHS also partners with the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program at T.C. Williams on training and scientific projects that expose students to biomedical informatics and the application of novel technologies to improve health.
The criteria that nominees of the Creating Excellence Business & Industry Partnership Award are evaluated upon includes the following:
- The business partner ensures that programs and curricula are relevant to today’s workplace.
- The business partner participates in classroom, extracurricular, and student leadership activities.
- The business partner provides work-based learning experiences such as job shadowing, mentoring, and/or internships. And,
- The business partner promotes the Career and Technical Education program.
“GW SMHS has been an incredible partner and our students are extremely pleased with the opportunities afforded to them through the partnership. GW SMHS is deserving of this award, and we are very proud of the successes that we’ve had within our first year as a VA Health Sciences Governor’s Academy. We look forward to many years of collaboration ahead,” said Sherri Chapman, MS, Ed, CTE, coordinator for ACPS.
The award will be presented to GW SMHS on June 13, 2019 at a luncheon hosted by the Department of Education in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Members of the ACPS team will also be present at the awards ceremony.
