FREDERICKSBURG, VA— In 2021, Krishna Maddipatla, a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist from New York, made a business move that would change the landscape of healthcare education in the Fredericksburg region. His company purchased EVCC in the middle of the pandemic to take the college to the next level.
The country needs healthcare professionals, especially with a massive shortage of Nurses, and help the communities around the college. At that time, it had just eight students and no nursing classes.
Krishna recalls, "Brand new students were already interviewing for jobs—and getting them—contingent upon graduating a few months later. We were earning a reputation for achieving top results in producing job-ready graduates.
Employers loved that our accelerated learning process got them self-driven employees and thrived in real-world training scenarios. We haven't changed that methodology and enjoy the same type of success and enthusiasm today."
EVCC now celebrates its 21st year in operation. However, the 2021 education marketplace is very different from when it started. First, the pandemic changed the landscape of learning. The education quickly moved to online, and it was challenging for healthcare education as they need the hands-on skills experience. Several of Virginia's private colleges have closed suddenly.
Still, EVCC has balanced the right formula for success among all this, as evidenced by the many thousands of gainfully employed graduates and continued enrollment growth. EVCC maintains the distinction of being among the "fastest colleges" in the mid-Atlantic region from enrollment to graduation. With prerequisites, AAS degrees can be completed in just 12 months.
"Some advantages we have over state-subsidized colleges is start-date flexibility and speed to completion," says Admissions Director Abdullah Johnson. "We mold our programs to fit the needs of working parents, veterans, and second-career adults. As a result, our graduates are getting jobs while their peers (at other schools) are only halfway done with their training.
This year, every American has been affected by the pandemic. Classes have been hybrid and in-class by maintaining social distancing to include online/remote-learning modules and safer hands-on learning environments. Job demands for nurses and frontline healthcare staff remain at an all-time high. EVCC has Nursing, Allied Health, Wellness and Beauty, and General Education departments offering certificate programs in Practical Nurse Education, clinical Medical Assistant, Massage Therapy, Esthetics, and Wax Technicians. In addition, students seeking AAS degrees can complete their prerequisite college courses at EVCC.
EVCC is in the process of establishing more associate degrees in healthcare and information technology areas.
FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA— EVCC celebrates its 20th year in operation this month, and the education marketplace is very different compared to when it started. Competition is strong with publicly-subsidized community colleges and out-of-state online colleges. Several competing private colleges in Virginia have closed suddenly, but EVCC has balanced the right formula for success, as evidenced by the many thousands of gainfully employed graduates and continued enrollment growth.
From application day to graduation, EVCC maintains the distinction of being among the “fastest colleges” in the mid-Atlantic region. With prerequisites, AAS degrees can be completed in just 12 months.
Gina Redford is one of the many successful graduates. Originally from Maine, Gina married a rising U.S. Navy Lt. Commander, and they haven’t stopped packing and moving since—as many as five times in seven years. They have three children; the youngest is age 5.
Before becoming a busy mom and spouse, Gina was a full-time paramedic and always considered herself the alpha person in the group–ready to jump first into a situation and solve problems. This mindset always drove her to do more, and late one fall she decided to enroll in nursing school. She learned that colleges in Virginia can take as much as 24-36 months to complete an associate degree in Nursing and receive one’s R.N. license. With her children’s schedules to contend with, Gina needed a fast-track solution. She found exactly that with EVCC and enrolled.
Gina says, “I chose EVCC because I was able to use my husband’s G.I. Bill to pay for most of the tuition, and they had a more intimate class setting where everything is in one building. I don’t have to run around a campus for classes scattered throughout the day, and I’m in a concentrated training environment that gets me home before the school bus arrives. My cohort of 22 has created close friends that I’m sure I will have for many years to come.”
Her primary instructor was “quite challenging” to Gina at first as she adapted to not being the alpha in the room, but she cherishes her experience at EVCC from the first contact on the website (www.EVCC.EDU) to her graduation ceremony just 14.5 months later; insisting that her instructor be the one who would pin her at graduation. This is an honor, requested of a nurse’s most influential instructor, which recognizes a graduate into the sisterhood of nursing.
“Some advantages we have over state-subsidized colleges is start-date flexibility and speed to completion,” says Admissions Director Abdullah Johnson. “We mold our programs to fit the needs of working parents, veterans, and second-career adults. Our graduates are getting paid at new jobs while their peers [at other schools] are only half-way done with their training.”
EVCC courses are presented to make its graduates job-ready. As often as possible, training occurs in real-world scenarios. For example, nursing students train in state-of-the-art simulators that combine lifelike robotic patients with an instructor’s hidden control panel to create hundreds of emergency situations in hospital beds and a baby birthing room. Nursing students are graded on their technical and procedural knowledge of the situation, and their ability to maintain a professional disposition in dramatic situations.
“Programs such as nursing and occupational therapy assistant are where an alpha-mom thrives, and the employers are looking for more of them right now,” says Johnson.
FREDERICKSBURG, VA— The Career Services Department at Eastern Virginia Career College (EVCC) partners with many local businesses and facilities to assist in filling their job openings. They continuously inform students and graduates of the opportunities to start or upgrade to a new job.
Cynthia Rothell, Director of Career Services, says, “We communicate directly with hiring managers, circulate flyers, send emails, and announce job fairs (in person and virtual) to place our graduates where they are called to dedicate their talents to serve others. We are especially excited about establishing a cooperative relationship with the new Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic being built across the street from our campus, to help fulfill their mission in providing care for our military veterans. Many of our nursing cohorts include veterans at EVCC and they would be an excellent fit there.”
EVCC is better known for its accelerated degree programs in nursing and occupational therapy assistant, and popular certificate programs such as clinical medical assistant, esthetics, wax technician, and massage therapy. The college’s roots stem from originally being a small beauty school when it was purchased 20 years ago by the current owners. They have continued to offer courses whose graduates can enjoy a lifetime of job opportunities in the wellness, beauty, and spa industries.
Natasha Henderson first became acquainted with Eastern Virginia Career College in 2015 (then named Career Training Solutions) and enrolled into the Esthetics Program. She had initially wanted to take the Massage Therapy Program, but a cohort was not scheduled to form again for a few more months; she was eager to change her life’s direction immediately.
Henderson remembers thinking, “I knew myself well enough that if I had waited to start the class, I would talk myself out of it. I was 34 years old and had a son about to start grade school. I wanted to take that small daily free time opportunity to do something with my life in terms of a career.”
She graduated the Esthetics Program in 2016 at the top of her class and recalls, “It was challenging to learn how to effectively juggle a child, a husband, and college—but I did it! It may have been the best time management training I’ll ever get. Next, I spent two years working in my field and loved it so much that I opened my own Spa in the second year.”
EVCC kept in contact with Henderson, as they endeavor to do with all alumni, and invited her to teach Esthetics at the college. “I loved my experience as a student there so much that I jumped at that opportunity,” she says.
Life gave Henderson a bit of chaos in 2018 when she found herself in the midst of a divorce, which thrust her into becoming a single parent with a thin support network. She recalls. “I made the craziest decision in the middle of all that to enroll in the Massage Therapy Program. I knew that I needed to add skills to my tool belt that would help me make enough money to support myself and my son. Also, I think I thought that the ‘distraction of having school work to do’ would take my mind off of my seemingly crumbling life. Days were exhaustive between working at the school, taking my own clients at my spa, and juggling the home responsibilities alone.”
Henderson believes she would not have managed to graduate without the support of her new family of instructors, coworkers, and classmates who encouraged her to keep pushing forward when life got overwhelming.
She says, “I look forward to where my dual licenses will take me in life, and who knows, maybe I will have the ‘insane’ notion to go for another diploma. The Master Esthetics Program is calling my name next. After all, I know that if I could complete a challenging course not once—but twice—during a very challenging time in my life; surely I can do it again, and that would triple the opportunities in my professional career.”
EVCC’s Career Services Department is available to assist all graduates who have successfully completed their program of study.
