1 million dollar grant to enhance work with Educate Texas
Dallas, TX — Medical City Healthcare, part of HCA Healthcare, is announcing that the HCA Healthcare Foundation, through its Healthier Tomorrow Fund, will enhance its work with Educate Texas, an initiative of Communities Foundation of Texas, through a new $1 million grant.
This donation builds upon the collaboration resulting from the Foundation’s $1.35 million grant to the organization in 2022 and will continue to focus on increasing student access to programs that enable healthcare careers, including high schools in Texas that offer Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) healthcare career tracks. Through the first grant, Educate Texas supported the expansion of healthcare career pathways across P-TECH campuses — from 20 to 104 schools — enrolling nearly 10,000 high school students in programs designed to prepare them for in-demand healthcare careers.
“Investing in the next generation of healthcare professionals is one of the meaningful ways we extend our mission to care for and improve human life,” says Allen Harrison, president of Medical City Healthcare. “By supporting the development of future clinicians, caregivers and leaders, we strengthen our hospitals and community by ensuring compassionate, high-quality care for generations to come.”
The P-TECH school model, led by the Texas Education Agency with technical assistance provided by Educate Texas, creates relationships with high schools, institutions of higher learning and industry partners to provide a pathway for students in grades 9-12 to earn both a high school diploma and a no-cost, two-year post-secondary degree or industry-based credentials by the time they graduate high school. P-TECH is an open-enrollment high school program that creates workforce pathways for students aligned with high-demand, high-wage fields, including healthcare careers.
Building on the success of the past three years, this new grant will support Educate Texas in providing schools with the resources needed to expand program implementation quality, deepen industry partnerships and create stronger career pathways support for students pursuing healthcare professions. This initiative will focus on growing the number of students earning healthcare degrees and credentials and increasing the number of hospital employers, including HCA Healthcare-affiliated hospitals, engaged in meaningful partnerships with school districts across North Texas, Austin, San Antonio and the Houston Gulf Coast region.
“This continued investment from the HCA Healthcare Foundation is helping us connect more Texas students to careers with purpose,” says Kerri Briggs, PhD, executive director of Educate Texas. “Expanding healthcare pathways in P-TECH schools gives young people the opportunity to graduate with more than a diploma, equipped with the skills, credentials and confidence to enter high-demand fields and strengthen their communities.”
The HCA Healthcare Foundation's Healthier Tomorrow Fund is a community impact fund that addresses high-priority community needs where HCA Healthcare has a presence. Since its inception, the fund has given more than $21 million in grants to nonprofits across the country.