MERCED, CA — A regional collaborative in the northern San Joaquin Valley has been awarded $18.1 million to boost career options for prospective students in the fields of healthcare and education. 

The WE Will! Collaborative, a project spearheaded by UC Merced, was awarded the money by the California General Services Department’s K-16 Educational Collaborative Grant Program during its second phase of funding, university officials announced this month. 

The collaborative, which includes partners and organizations in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced counties, was awarded $250,000 in July to begin the process.

“The money is intended to support system development and program development that will lead to more students pursuing majors in healthcare and education that seamlessly transition into the workforce,” Orquidea Largo, UC Merced’s interim associate vice chancellor of the Center for Educational Partnerships, told CVJC in a phone interview.

After conducting a needs assessment for the entire tri-county region during the creation of the collaborative, Largo said healthcare and education needs scored the highest. 

Healthcare is a top priority because San Joaquin Valley counties rank among the bottom half of all California counties for health outcomes.

Over a dozen community partners spanning the region have stated intentions to join the WE Will! Collaborative.

Collaborative partners will receive information on how to send proposals for the award funds on Dec. 1. The notice should give partners enough time to begin brainstorming about ways to use the money, Largo said. 

The application review period opens on Dec. 15 through UC Merced’s Center for Educational Partnerships’ automated system.

“We’ve designed a data system that will allow all collaborators and applicants to submit an electronic application that will allow the reviewers to access through one portal and be able to score them,” Largo said. “All of the proposals that we deem high impact should be awarded.”

Stephen Howe, of Manteca, finishes lab work in San Joaquin Delta College’s Electron Microscopy lab on Nov. 28, 2023. Professors (left) Nicole Nague and (right) Rachaellien Trinh oversee his work. Photo by Vivienne Aguilar.

Latest activity in the Valley’s healthcare realm

News of the $18.1 million award comes amid other significant developments in the local healthcare sector.

Earlier this month, the University of California’s Board of Regents approved plans to begin building a medical education building at UC Merced next year. 

That program has been on the wish list for Valley leaders since the university opened in 2005. Gov. Gavin Newsom even visited UC Merced in 2021 to put his support behind the project. 

Regional employers like Golden Valley Health Centers, which serves Stanislaus and Merced counties, are still in the process of formalizing agreements with the UC Merced-led collaborative. 

“We will need to contract with our local school districts in a formal partnership agreement to move forward,” spokeswoman Amy Collier Carroll said in an email statement. 

GVHC has a history of collaborating with universities across the state to offer healthcare training and career development programs. 

Most members of the collaborative are educational institutions like community colleges, universities and offices of education. All three counties’ workforce investment boards have also signed onto the project, Largo said.

The Stanislaus County Office of Education has multiple departments working with WE Will! Collaborative, spokeswoman Judy Boring said. The office doesn’t know what it will apply for yet, and is waiting for the applications to open before deciding.

San Joaquin Delta College is another partner waiting for more information about the program. 

“The broad concept from our perspective is that we know employers don’t stop at the county line when they are growing, nor of course do workers stop looking at a job simply because it’s in the next county over… so we’re trying to put together a plan for the region that will look beyond the border,” Delta spokesman Alex Breitler wrote in an email statement.

Nicole Nague, an associate professor of biological Electron Microscopy at Delta, said she hopes some of the funding can be put to good use for their program. Some of her students are training to work in medical laboratories.

Her students are currently struggling to find work after finishing the program. That’s because their equipment is so out of date, it hinders their ability to reach a satisfactory amount of lab hours for employers to consider them. 

“Our newest microscope is 15 years old,” Nague said. “When it breaks down, students have to do bookwork instead.”

Ideally, Delta’s electron microscopy students like Stephen Howe, from Manteca, spend 30 to 50 hours in the lab, but since the equipment breaks down so frequently, he’s lucky if he gets five to 10 hours all semester. 

Delta College, CSU Stanislaus, University of the Pacific, Modesto Junior College, and over half a dozen local school districts are some institutions partnering with WE Will! Collaborative.

Largo said the collaborative is working its way out of the planning stages, and come January, it will be ready to begin full implementation.

Vivienne Aguilar is the health equity reporter for the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative, a nonprofit newsroom based in Merced, in collaboration with the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF).