Students, like those at Tenaya Middle School, now have a chance to pursue a career in medicine. In a first of its kind program, Fresno Unified is partnering with California Health Sciences University (CHSU).

At a press conference Wednesday morning, Fresno Unified Board President Brooke Ashjian said, “We are creating a pathway that will start here at Tenaya Middle School and will continue through Bullard High School.”

Ashjian has long championed career and technical education. He says the generosity of the Assemi Family will revolutionize this new step to education.

“Their children are the children of the Central Valley. They have taken their wealth, they’ve taken their reputation and they’ve used it for the betterment of people right here,” Ashjian said. “There was not one second of hesitation in his voice when I said Darius, we have to do this and he said done, it’s done.”

The Assemi Family founded CHSU. They also own Granville Homes, which is the corporate owner of GV Wire.

Granville Homes President Darius Assemi said, “And we’re going to do it through education. And we know that education is the most powerful tool to change this world. You folks in the education business, you do God’s work.”

The partnership even brought down State Superintendent, Tom Torlakson from Sacramento.

“From my six years of sitting on the CSU Board of Trustees I haven’t seen a program as unique and creative, innovative as this program, and so we’ll do everything we can to make sure the graduates articulate, work with the Health Science University and work with CSU Fresno so we have a comprehensive plan,” Torlakson said.

California Health Sciences University President, Florence Dunn said the medical program is for the entire valley region. “We want to work with every single hospital – rural, urban and our university is really for the entire Central Valley.”

Dunn said all of their graduates find work. “We have all of the large community retail chains after our students. They hire every single one of the interns because they want them to stay here,” Dunn said. “And we all know Fresno is the best kept secret right – with really good quality of standards and we have a good lifestyle.”

Fresno Unified School District Executive Officer Sally Fowler remarked, “This is a huge opportunity for us to educate our students’ right here on the valley floor. The statistics show us that where students do their residency is usually where they are hired and where they stay, so this is a great opportunity for our hospitals to hire a very diverse population.”

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