T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Belmont College President Paul Gasparro and Wheeling University President Ginny Favede announce a transfer agreement allowing nursing and mental health/psychology students to complete two years at Belmont College, then two at Wheeling University for a four-year degree.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont College and Wheeling University announced a new partnership to provide nursing and mental health/psychology students to pursue their accreditation smoothly across the two universities.

On Tuesday, Belmont College President Paul Gasparro and Wheeling University President Ginny Favede announced a transfer agreement that will allow students to complete two years at Belmont College, then two at Wheeling University for a four-year degree.

Students will be able to complete an associate of science degree in nursing or mental health at Belmont College and transfer to Wheeling University to earn a bachelor of science in those fields.

Gasparro said Belmont College has worked with local K-12 schools to bring prospective students into the college, and this is another step.

“Anytime we can continue that seamlessness with a university, especially one with such stature, you can’t do anything better for the students,” he said.

Gasparro said this arrangement would be an advantage to students in terms of cost, location and simplicity.

“Over the years, there’s been more and more demand for nurses with a bachelor’s degree,” Gasparro said.

Many students begin work in their fields once they have earned an associate degree.

“It enables them to stay in the valley, and it helps us address the health care shortage by providing a seamless transition and an ease of transition,” Favede said. “If they’re already working, they can continue to work in the valley supporting the need here while acquiring their BSN.”

Gasparro and Favede added that Belmont College and Wheeling University have entered into transfer agreements before, but the COVID-19 pandemic has driven home the importance of these professions.

“This particularly benefits our community, because we have a health care crisis in this nation, but we especially suffer from that here in Appalachia,” Favede said. “The opportunity to have a RN to BSN seamlessly from Belmont College to Wheeling University, to have an opportunity to increase their skills in a career in nursing at a time when there is a great need in general. We are still struggling with COVID and the health ramifications of that.”

Gasparro said the area is still dealing with an opioid epidemic, and health professionals are in demand.

“Only a pandemic could have overshadowed the crisis,” Favede said.

She emphasized the importance of cooperation between the two colleges.

“It’s important for higher education to work together,” Favede said. “We all have the same mission, which is education, and the ability to work together and not compete provides better access to education in the valley.”

Favede and Gasparro said they have been friends through various other projects, from Favede’s time as a Belmont County commissioner in the mid-2010s.

“We’re able to benefit both institutions by having these articulation agreements,” she said. “It’s a friendship that runs very, very deep.”

“It’s rare,” Gasparro said. “It’s very hard for schools to get over. … We’re not in competition. … This works really great for us both.”

They commended the faculty members at both colleges for going above and beyond.

“We can’t do what we do without the support of the faculty members,” Favede said.

“It is tough for faculty to look at their courses and make sure it’s something that can and will transfer,” Gasparro said. “There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work.”

They are committed to working together and expanding more programs.

Karolyn Fox, director of nursing at Belmont College, spoke in favor of the opportunity.

“As a graduate of Belmont College and Wheeling Jesuit, now Wheeling University, this really spoke to my heart, because this was the path that I took as a first-generation college student, and I was able to graduate, pass my university courses and work as a registered nurse, supported and financed my own family’s needs with an RN wage,” she said.