Annette Kohberger is the Campus Administrative Coordinator at the Carrington College Las Vegas campus. Annette was kind enough to spend some time with me discussing life at one of our two Nevada campuses. So let me ask you something very serious to start with… There is a perception, of course only from those who don’t live in the city, that everyone who lives in Las Vegas must, at some point, have worked in one of your famous casinos… Is that true?
“That’s funny, but a true statement. If I had to guess I would say only 20% of our students have part-time casino jobs of some kind! Another guess is that maybe 75% of our faculty and staff spend some of their time in the casinos… I’m just kidding on that! You know we all live on Las Vegas Blvd or Freemont Street right?”
I’m glad we got that covered, so what do you do as the Campus Administrative Coordinator?
“I do a little bit of a lot to be honest – I’m kind of like the Campus Grounds Manager when it comes to the students. I support the staff and faculty in other ways, but when it comes to the students, my goal is to ensure that our campus is at its best at all times, in addition to making sure the students have working vending machines. You know, the fuel that gets everyone through day. Coffee please! I’m also the Social Media Agent for the campus – I handle our local Facebook page and Instagram.”
‘A little bit of a lot’ – I like that answer. Tell me about the programs offered at the Las Vegas campus.
“We have Medical Assisting (MA) and Medical Billing & Coding (MBC), they are both certificate programs. Then we have the Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) and Respiratory Care (RC) which are two-year associate degree programs. We typically have three starts a year for RC, and one start a year for PTA. The MA and MBC programs have starts every 6 weeks throughout the year. In fact we had classes start just yesterday – so welcome to all our new students!”
How many students do you have enrolled currently?
“Right now we have approximately 228 students on campus, supported by 33 faculty and staff. The PTA and RC programs are the most popular and have a waiting list going”
What’s the biggest event of the year on campus?
“There is something usually going on. We always have a lot of different events, activities, games, and a couple open houses a year. The last open house was in the summer; we had a dunk tank which allowed the students to dunk their Program Director and even our Executive Director. You can only imagine how busy the tank was, and how many times we had to fill it! The next open house is January 7th; as much fun as it was, I don’t think we’ll be having a dunk tank in the winter! We’re also known for popcorn and ice cream socials, pizza parties, spelling bees, canvas painting, scavenger hunts, and ‘Minute to Win it’ games.”
As Carrington College programs are pretty intensive, I guess students need opportunities to relax and blow off some steam on breaks?
“Absolutely! We try to keep our students engaged year round; we want to make it a fun environment, somewhere they look forward to coming to every day. Of course we take their education very seriously, so when they’re in class, in labs, or on their externship or clinical, we expect nothing but the utmost professionalism from them. They represent Carrington College and we take great pride in that.”
Tell us a little about your location.
“It’s in a pretty centralized location. The famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign is about three miles due west of us on Las Vegas Boulevard. We’re in southeast Las Vegas, on the east side of McCarran International Airport. So if any of you are flying into Las Vegas for a trip, come in and see us! We’re close to the freeway which is great for access; we do have students that come in from as far away as Pahrump, which is about an hour away. We also have a bus stop right outside the building, which is very convenient since a lot of our students rely on buses to get back and forth from school.”
It sounds like there should be plenty of places nearby for students and staff to grab some groceries or some lunch, or run errands before or after school?
“We’re in a great location for that. We have a shopping center across the street that has a lot of places to eat, shop, and to even get your nails done. If you want to go about 5-10 minutes away you have your pick of most anything.”
What facilities are you most proud of on campus?
“It’s really hard to say. We’ve been in this location since 2007. It’s a good looking building on a popular street that provides a professional atmosphere for our students. We have about 28,000 square feet of space, and there are quite a few things here that we’re proud of. Our Respiratory Care program, for example, has simulation labs where students can recreate a number of real-world experiences, including situations they might come across in a therapeutic care setting or in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. We also have great facilities for our Physical Therapist Assistant program that offers PTA students real-world inpatient and outpatient settings where they can practice their skills. They’re learning on industry standard equipment that they’ll actually be using out in their field once they join the workforce. Our medical labs include manikins that allow our students to work through real-world scenarios without working on real-world patients!”
To finish, give me an example of something the campus is doing for the community this Holiday Season?
“Right now we’re partnering up with Three Square Food Bank to collect food and necessities for Thanksgiving and Christmas for those in need. We have a joint venture going on with the Reno campus in order to make an even bigger impact in all of Nevada.”
If you would like to find out more about the Carrington College Las Vegas campus, or if you have friends or family in Nevada who may be interested in our programs, please have them visit carrington.edu/schools/las-vegas-nevada for more information. Classes will be enrolling early in 2014! For comprehensive consumer information on our programs, please visit carrington.edu Program availability varies by location.
