Partnership offers degree programs in the workplace
Special to the American
Thanks to a partnership between SSM Health Care’s SSM University and Fontbonne University, SSM employees can take courses leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees without leaving their place of work.
The courses will be available at four locations: SSM St. Joseph Health Center in St. Charles, SSM DePaul Health Center, SSM St. Mary’s Health Center, and SSM St. Louis network offices beginning in the spring/summer of 2008.
Undergraduate programs that will be offered include:
* Gateway Program (designed for people with little or no college credits or experience);
* Bachelor of Business Administration (centered on business issues, fundamentals and statistics); and
* Bachelor of Organizational Studies (centered on organizational issues, leadership and management).
Graduate programs that will be offered include:
* Master of Management (allows for and in-depth study of leadership and management); and
* Master of Business Administration (provides a strategic approach and analysis of the business discipline).
In addition to these courses, Fontbonne will offer three credit hours to every SSM employee (no matter where she or he is located) who completes all five of the leadership modules developed by SSM University. These modules are offered in all regions and are designed to help managers enhance their leadership skills and identify areas for future growth.
For SSM employees who want to pursue additional areas of study on an undergraduate level, Fontbonne will offer courses on the following topics: Human Resources, Management, Financial Management, Communications, Law and Ethics and General Education. College credit from these courses, as well as from SSM University’s five leadership modules, may be applied to an undergraduate degree at Fontbonne.
“At SSM, we want to create a culture of lifelong learning,” said Dawn Runge, SSM corporate vice president-organizational effectiveness.
“Having programs that will benefit just about everyone is important. We were looking for programs that would offer employees a natural progression to a degree. Fontbonne’s flexibility and shared commitment to excellence has made this possible.”
Linda Maurer, Dean of Business at Fontbonne University, said, “Together, Fontbonne University and SSM University are able to reach a whole group of people academically, from the hourly employee with little formal education to the physician in need of additional training in core areas of leadership, management, finance and human resources.”
Fontbonne University’s OPTIONS program is designed specifically to accommodate the needs of busy, working adults with convenient and accelerated undergraduate and graduate degree programs. For more information about OPTIONS, call 314-863-2220 or visit www.fontbonne.edu/options.
SSM University offers programs for employees to enhance their job and interpersonal skills while on the job and enables SSM Health Care to develop leaders throughout its organization. For more information about SSM University, contact Runge at 314-994-7844 or visit www.ssmhc.com.
AmerenUE supports SLCC
AmerenUE is again supporting St. Louis Community College with $130,000 in scholarship funding to help cover the tuition, books and fees of 10 students in the engineering technologies program at the college’s Florissant Valley campus in Ferguson.
“Businesses rely on St. Louis Community College for training the future work force, and many of those businesses – like Ameren, are finding ways to partner with the college to further guarantee the strength and growth of successful programs for STLCC students,” says Zelema Harris, SLTCC chancellor.
The scholarship program provides $1,000 per semester for tuition, books and other fees. Once awarded, the scholarship is renewable each semester, up to four semesters, provided that students continue to meet the established criteria. Up to 10 scholarships are available each year. Anyone interested in applying for the scholarship can find the eligibility requirements at www.stlcc.edu.
