Educators get a taste of Army Medicine through Educators Tour

Photo By Derrick Crawford | Larane Guthrie-Clarkson, U.S. Army Recruiting Command Education Services specialist, discusses an upcoming Educator Tour Program event with a group of educators and education-related professionals participating in a tour of the Army Medicine Department Center and School Jan. 31 on Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston. The group visited to learn more about the Army’s medical training programs.  

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, TX, UNITED STATES

01.31.2018

Story by Derrick Crawford 

5th Medical Recruiting Battalion

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -- After Randi Hunewill participated in her first Army-sponsored tour several years ago, the Nevada Department of Education (NDE) official, who admits to knowing little about the military beforehand, now unabashedly declares she "drank the Kool-Aid."
Not only did she drink, but Hunewill helps other educators get a taste of the Army as an advocate with the U.S. Army Recruiting Command's (USAREC) Educators Tour Program, helping them discover educational and career opportunities offered by the military. She coordinated with USAREC education services specialists to lead more than 50 health science educators and education-related professionals on a tour of the Army Medicine Department Center and School (AMEDD C&S) here Jan. 31 to learn more about the Army's medical training programs.
The educators were part of the National Consortium for Health Science Education, which held its annual board meeting in downtown San Antonio Jan. 31- Feb. 1. They included secondary school officials, school sponsors and state education agency leaders who supervise their respective public education systems' health science and public safety programs, according to Hunewell, assistant director of Career and Technical Education at NDE.
"The reason we were very interested in visiting this facility is because we're responsible for the public education of our students, creating a good, strong academic foundation for them to be successful to go into the workforce, and of course our specialty is health care," she explained.
Latoya Newton, 5th Medical Recruiting Battalion Education Services specialist, said there continues to be a need for programs such as educator tours, because of the general public's growing unfamiliarity with the military. She teamed up with Larane Guthrie-Clarkson, USAREC Education Services specialist, to support the tour.
"When I go out to schools and mention Army Medicine, there's a look of cluelessness on people's face," said Newton. "They don't know about Army Medicine. That's why educator tours are important to do. "A lot of times, they need to see it first hand. They want to be able to go back and talk with students in secondary schools and say 'The military is a viable option for you.'"
The Army Medicine tour included stops at the Medical Education and Training Center and at AMEDD C&S where they discussed the Graduate School programs with Col. Skip Gill, dean of AMEDD C&S Graduate School, who emphasized the quality of education and training students receive while detailing the multiple external accreditations earned by AMEDD C&S.
Gill explained the symbiotic relationships AMEDD has with medical programs at the University of Kentucky, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and particularly Baylor University, which is a partnership that dates back to 1973. AMEDD also partners with Wesley Theological Seminary in their Doctor of Ministry program, he said.
"That's one of the things when I think about our graduate school here and what we do, the diversity of our programs run everything from kind of the cellular level from the stuff our nutrition folks do and our nursing and anesthesia folks do to the clinical level, primarily our OT (occupational therapy), and PT (physical therapy) and physician's assistant program, all the way to the societal level with our Masters of Business Administration, our Masters of Social Work, and then a Doctorate of Ministry," Gill explained to the group. "We really seem to cover that whole spectrum from the molecular level to the societal level. We cover a wide swath of educational areas."
Armed with new knowledge of AMEDD careers and educational opportunities, Hunewell said she and the other educators now have another option to present to students searching for highly skilled occupations. "Our system is changing," explained Hunewell. "You used to be able to go to a certification program for a couple of weeks and be able to go out and get a (healthcare) job. (Healthcare professions now require) a much higher level of education, and the military has the opportunity to fill all of those voids -- the character part of (the military), the skillset, the academic part of it, the community service, the citizenship part; it's the whole big package; the big picture."

• Date Taken: 01.31.2018
• Date Posted: 02.02.2018 14:58
• Story ID: 264501
• Location: JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, TX, US