In a building where newspaper reporters once told the stories of the Wyoming Valley, King’s College students will learn how to treat the region’s residents.
The college blessed and dedicated the new Frank and Carolyn Kowalski Center for Advanced Healthcare Education on Friday, an $8 million redevelopment project now home to the school’s first doctoral program.
“What an amazing thing to be in this space, transformed from a sacred place of journalism and sharing the news of the community to a sacred place where learning about healing and bringing life and hope to people will move us forward,” said Rev. Thomas P. Looney, C.S.C., Ph.D., college president.
The 60,000-square-foot building honors the Kowalskis, who committed a major gift to the college’s recent Send Us Forth campaign. Frank Kowalaski was a business leader and Carolyn Kowalski worked as a registered nurse.
“There's a need for this type of education in the valley and in the state,” he said, before the audience gave him and his wife a standing ovation. “We came up with a plan, and everything has fallen into place.”
The facility is home to the new Doctorate in Occupational Therapy program and new accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. Students will learn in high-tech, advanced spaces, including pediatric, physical rehabilitation, daily living and cadaver labs, many of which feature augmented reality technology, 3D imaging and printing services and other advanced educational equipment.
The college expects students in a half-dozen other health science programs to also use the space, along with engineering and computer science students who can operate some equipment.
For occupational therapy, students will learn the skills to help people with daily living, including helping older adults stay in their homes longer. For the nursing program, students will be trained to provide great care in local healthcare systems, Looney said.
“It's an amazing reality,” he said. “Transformational for the college, transformational for the city, transformational for Northeast Pennsylvania.”
Shelby Davis, of Scranton, and Jacquelyn Shanley, of Jessup, are in their fifth year at King’s — their first year of the doctoral program. They gave tours to visitors on Friday.
“I thought the campus was great as a whole, but when they announced the new occupational therapy program, my whole world changed,” Davis said.
Beyond the new equipment and technology, King’s provides lessons visitors don’t see on a tour, Shanley said.
“King's College as a whole stresses that they want to teach you how to be successful in your major and how to be successful in your career field … but also just how to be successful as a human. And I think this program, this OT program, perfectly exemplifies that.”
The college bought the former Times Leader building on North Main Street in 2018, as the newspaper consolidated its staff at the former Sunday Independent building on East Market Street.
The project includes $3.5 million in Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program funds, $500,000 in Luzerne County American Rescue Plan Act funds and $450,000 in congressionally directed Community Project funds.
The city briefly closed North Main Street on Friday so the crowd could move outside for a building blessing and dedication. Looney sprinkled holy water onto the building and asked for prayers for the Kowalskis and those who will “teach, learn, study and practice” in the new center.
Over the past decade, the college has acquired several buildings, expanding campus closer to Public Square.
Mayor George Brown, who took night classes at King’s for eight years to become the first in his family to earn a college degree, called the building a new “landmark.”
“It's going to be your legacy,” Brown said. “There's a demand for the curriculum that's being held in this building, and it's unrealized. What the demand is going to mean, what you're providing to the city and to the students, is just amazing.”
