Centralia College’s main campus is located at 600 Centralia College Blvd. in Centralia.
By Emily Fitzgerald
Healthcare encompasses a wide variety of jobs that each require different skills and certifications, but whatever healthcare job a student is interested in, Centralia College likely has a program to accommodate them.
“We have so many programs,” said Elizabeth Lazo, Centralia College’s career and technical education dean of instruction.
Many programs, such as the college’s nursing assistant certification, emergency medical technician, phlebotomy and medical assistant programs, end with students receiving their respective certificates as part of the class.
“All of these you’d be certified afterward, as long as you pass your clinicals and classes and whatnot,” Lazo said.
Centralia College’s Nursing Assistant Certified (NAC) program in particular is “stellar,” Lazo said.
“NAC courses ran throughout COVID and continued to graduate students that are currently employed and have pursued their next step in their healthcare career,” Lazo said.
Other Centralia College healthcare programs, such as the associates of applied sciences transfer, allow students to complete part of associate’s or bachelor’s degrees.
Centralia College recently began offering an associate’s degree in substance use disorder professionals, which will graduate its first cohort of 15 this June.
Many of Centralia College’s healthcare graduates stay in the area to fill much-needed positions.
“Our students are highly employable,” Lazo said.
That high-employability has fostered community partnerships, giving students more opportunities to practice their skills within the community.
“Those partnerships have different clinical opportunities that happened and different internship opportunities, which is really cool,” Lazo said.
For more information, visitcentralia.edu.
