Foundation Awards $1,000 Scholarship to Health Information Student

Published 08.06.2009

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A student in Pennsylvania College of Technology's two-year health information technology major has been awarded a merit scholarship from the AHIMA Foundation, the philanthropic and charitable arm of the American Health Information Management Association.

Carol E. Withey, of Jersey Shore a frequent dean's list honoree and recent inductee into the Phi Theta Kappa honor society for associate-degree students was among the latest students to receive a $1,000 award. Withey, who works part-time and volunteers with the college's Disability Services Office, hopes to pursue further study into the security and privacy of health information in a hospital setting.

A major initiative of the AHIMA Foundation is to attract and support new talent in the industry by improving educational opportunities for future professionals particularly through scholarships to students enrolled in accredited programs. Three levels of scholarships are offered: $1,000 for an associate degree, $1,200 for a bachelor's degree and $2,500 for credentialed professionals pursuing a master's or doctoral degree in a related area.

In 2008 alone, 90 scholarships were awarded, providing undergraduate and graduate students with more than $100,000 in funding for their education.

Penn College's two-year major is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education, and the institution this fall begins a four-year distance-learning degree in health information management.

Medical records and health information technician occupations are ranked 14th among the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' "Top 50 Occupations With the Most Anticipated Openings" through 2016 and 27th among the BLS's "Top 50 Fastest-Growing Occupations" for the same period.

Also, as noted by Edward A. Henninger, the college's dean of business and computer technologies, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act earmarks more than $19 billion to support widespread demand and deployment of health information technologies and the availability of electronic health records for everyone including the special launch of the Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record, an electronic system for storage of veterans' health-care records.

For more information about the School of Business and Computer Technologies, visit online or call 570-327-4517. For general information about Penn College, visit on the Web , e-mail or call toll-free 800-367-9222.