By Rachel Sell
A new building housing the Ruth Whitaker Holmes School of Behavioral and Health Sciences will open in spring 2023.
The new building, called the Tollhouse Building, is located almost directly across from Frederick Health Hospital and will be used by students and faculty for hands-on learning. It will have classroom and lab spaces that offer more equipment and technology than Hodson Science and Technology Center. The new location will provide spaces for members of the nursing, psychology, social work and sociology, counseling, nutrition, and public health programs at Hood.
“A big part of our program, besides our classes, is our students practicing those skills in the lab,” nursing department Chair Jennifer Cooper said. “We need the technology and the space in order to do that.”
The new building is the result of a multi-million-dollar gift from alumna Ruth Whitaker Holmes, who studied chemistry during her time at Hood.
According to Cooper, the technology in the classrooms is advanced, but the student population in the nursing major has grown. Because of this, and the constant changes to technology, the new building presents opportunities for updated resources, such as virtual reality and more complex simulations.
“All this technology has come forward,” Cooper said. “It’s a good time with the move to be able to consider what else we can use.”
The faculty said they hope to transition over to the Tollhouse Building in January.
“We thought we’d be there by now, but we want them to be able to make it right, the way that we need it,” Cooper said.
Many of the faculty for these programs are in Rosenstock Hall, with lab staff over on Hodson’s third floor. With the new building, Cooper said that all the spaces will be together and therefore more accessible. This way, students can move directly from class into the lab.
Another benefit extended by the School of Behavioral and Health Sciences is the proximity to Frederick Health. Cooper said that, as a senior partner of Frederick Health, the nursing students at Hood have always been given preference for clinical sites.
“Entering into this agreement, to be able to rent this space, has given us a new… piece of the partnership,” Cooper said.
She said that for many of the upper-level nursing students who complete clinical hours at Frederick Health, the Tollhouse Building will be very accessible and a short distance from their clinical site.
“In the department, we are excited about the opportunities that the School of Behavioral and Health Sciences affords to our department, Hood and the Frederick community,” psychology department Chair Shannon Kundey said. “We are particularly excited about the training resources that will be available to students, as well as the increased opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.”
According to Kathryn Pastelak, a first-year student in the nursing program, a few staff members spoke briefly about the new space earlier this year. “I am eager to see the future classrooms since they will be based off of the specialty I am looking to go into,” Pastelak said.
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