A new class offered by the Walla Walla University School of Business in partnership with Adventist Health is helping to prepare WWU students for careers in healthcare administration by providing opportunities to learn from senior level healthcare executives.
“The healthcare industry is a booming sector worldwide with a projected 23% growth in jobs,” says Patience Taruwinga, former dean of the School of Business at WWU. “This industry provides many opportunities for students, good earning potential, and the opportunity to accelerate in their careers.”
Twenty-six students took the elective class during the first quarter it was offered, and Taruwinga says many additional students are ready to register for the class next year because of what they are hearing from current students in the class.
Senior business administration major Lauren Fry says, “What stands out to me about this class is that we’re seeing a well-rounded view of different management positions within Adventist Health. This class is a really good introduction to my upcoming summer internship with Adventist Health in Portland.”
During the last three years more than 25 students from the WWU School of Business were hired as either healthcare administration interns or as part of the administration residency programs offered by various healthcare networks. “Through this intensive 12-week internship program, our students interact with healthcare executives and work with multiple teams within the healthcare environment. By the time they are finished they have a clear sense of the careers they want to pursue in healthcare administration,” says Taruwinga.
Lauren Fry says that while she has always been interested in helping people, she has never had a passion to work on the clinical side of healthcare as a doctor or nurse. “I’ve always had more of a business mindset,” she says. “When I learned that healthcare has this other side to it—this business component—it really appealed to me because I want to have a job where I feel like I am really making a difference.”
Through their classes in the School of Business, mission-minded students, such as Fry, are also learning excellent problem-solving and communication skills, strong analytical and quantitative skills, and a strong work ethic—qualities that Adventist Health is looking for in employment candidates.
“Adventist Health is looking for bright, young, mission-driven students to come work for us. The Introduction to Healthcare Administration class is an opportunity for WWU students to put their name forward—to step up and say, ‘I want to make a difference in the world,’” says Alex Bryan, chief mission officer for Adventist Health, who teaches the class at WWU. “There is no better way to make a profound difference in the world than through healthcare—to love people who are hurting, to heal people who are sick, to bring hope to people who find that they have no hope.”
To learn more about how the WWU School of Business can help you prepare for a career in healthcare administration, visit our website at wallawalla.edu/business and watch our new video, including interviews with students in the class.
Posted July 14, 2021
