Would not recommend this school.. We were not well prepared at all by faculty for state exams! They have a high recidivism rate and they are selective about who they will encourage to succeed. If they see you make waves, they will simply ignore you.
The mission of the director/CEO, Dr. Annabelle Rodriguez, as stated in the April issue of Contempo Magazine, is "to provide a culture of learning in high demand fields within a supportive and motivating atmosphere". How they provide that culture and supportive atmosphere is questionable. I found one instructor, in particular, extremely unsupportive and unsympathetic. I can not imagine an instructor or director would actually tell a struggling student, "you are not cut out for this" and "there is only so much we can do for the student". Is that how they provide this "supportive" and "motivating" atmosphere? Ugh.
It's ironic that this former elementary school principal and Weslaco school district administrator can mismanage things so badly and unable to maintain equilibrium and tranquility in the vocational healthcare school she now runs. Whenever I wanted to speak with her, she made herself highly inaccessible and did not return phone calls. She was for, or didn't show up for any appointments I had made with her. I had out of pocket expenses, not all of them I was reimbursed for such as the HEP B vaccinations (because I went to my own doctor and they did not tell me I had to go to theirs). Legitimate gripes are ignored or brushed aside.
Schedules were changed around at a moment's notice. The school's catalog was hopelessly outdated, and it even says that the information in it is subject to change. And they DO NOT offer any tutoring whatsoever, it's solely at the discretion of the teacher which means there isn't any. Only my EKG instructor was willing to stay for tutoring.
There were long and unnecessary interims between courses, partly because they had to wait for more students to enroll to justify the course. Weak ties in the community- (extremely surprising for someone who supposedly has strong ties in the community and was profiled in a local magazine!)-meant a long waiting period while they scrambled to place students for clinical assignments. Our classroom was either an oven or a freezer. Several students were treated badly by staff through no fault of their own, like being told to show up somewhere at a certain time and then suffering because the school did not confirm with the hospital the time or day the student was to report.
The phlebtomy instructor arbitrarily changed our schedule and class hours at her convenience. The CNA and phlebtomy courses, which she taught, were drastically altered and shortened. The review was inadequate, and there was a long interim period for students between the conclusion of the classroom portion of the course and actual exam (something like two months). The director occasionally listens,but simply shrugs off legitimate gripes.
This instructor cut corners, for the school's benefit, not ours, one day she insisted we each practice using the same 18 gauge needle on a fake arm (she said we used too many needles). She was sloppy correcting tests, I found mistakes in every single test I took, marking me wrong when I had the answer right. When I asked her about it, she said "how do I know you didn't change it? and "did I say I didn't make mistakes?" After tests, she simply handed them back w/o comment and then you had to return them. She didn't bother to go over the test so we could know what the correct answer was for answers we got wrong. For one excused make up test I as told I could only get a passing grade o a 75. I would like to know how is that a "motivating atmosphere" if I study my rear end off and the best I can expect is a 75 (C)?
Bottom line is there are better managed schools out there which are more attentive to students' needs and that will prepare you better than this one for the job market and "high demand" fields. The general impression I received was one of strong mismanagement, nepotism and just incompetence on the part of management. Also questionable behavior on the part of some instructors. Don't be suckered into this one. read more
