On Wednesday Collins Career Center officially opened its on-campus health center.

The health center, which includes exam rooms, a dental room, a medical lab and mental health offices, will be available to all CCC students and faculty.

“The health center will service both our high school and adult students as well our staff and faculty,” Jamie Chafin, the school’s director of post-secondary education, said. “They can come here and see our health professionals as their regular provider or for physicals or whatever their needs might be.”

Chafin said the health center will allow students to concentrate on their studies more and worry less about the ailments and ills that pop up over the course of a school year.

“Obviously students don’t learn as well when they’re sick,” she said. “I mean think about when you go into work. If you don’t feel well, you aren’t as productive. So we know if students are sitting in the classroom and they have a toothache, a headache or just don’t feel well that they aren’t doing as well. So we think for student success the center will be a tremendous asset.”

Completion of the facility moved rather quickly as the construction of the health center was approved by the school board in January of this year and started immediately after. The health center was built with a $200,000 loan from the school district.

“Right now that’s our goal, to raise the $200,000 to pay back what we barrow from the school district,” Chafin said. “We were really lucky to have a lot of people donate time, materials and things along the way that kept the cost fairly low. So we were really fortunate to get that kind of community involvement.”