Students interested in a wide variety of health care careers can prepare for well-paying jobs at Oakton College, which recently opened a health care campus in Evanston.
Oakton partnered with Endeavor Health to allow students to learn using professional medical equipment on Evanston Hospital’s campus. Oakton and Endeavor are calling the Health Careers Education Center, in an Endeavor building at 2500 Ridge Avenue, their education-to-training-to-jobs pipeline.
Hailed as a jobs training site, the center enables students to use medical equipment similar to what they would use as professionals. Students will also be able to complete the training required for their two-year Oakton degrees at Endeavor Health facilities. This could make them attractive job candidates at Endeavor, for positions that pay between $67,000 and $97,000, according to May Alimboyoguen, Oakton’s dean for health care careers.
“In healthcare, there’s always a fast-growing demand for a workforce,” Alimboyoguen said. “Once our students graduate, we know at the end of it that there are employment opportunities right away.”
Classes at the center began over the summer. It houses three two-year programs in surgical technology, radiography and cardiac sonography.
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, who attended a kickoff event Tuesday, said he and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth helped secure an $800,000 grant to purchase medical equipment.
Oakton spent an additional $800,000 towards the facility, according to Oakton’s Communications Manager Ewa Lyczewska.
Oakton College purchased medical equipment for its new Health Careers Education Center on Endeavor Health Evanston Hospital’s campus using federal grants secured by U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin. The college and Endeavor held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Aug. 5, 2025. (Richard Requena/Pioneer Press)
Oakton and Endeavor shared the cost to build the center, and the two will share the building at 2500 Ridge Avenue.
Oakton and Endeavor first began planning to collaborate on a healthcare program and facility in 2021. The healthcare group found that it was facing a shortage of technicians available to work as cardiac sonographers, surgical technicians and radiographers, according to Skokie Endeavor Hospital President Gus Granchalek.
Visitors tour the newly inaugurated Health Careers Education Center for Oakton College in Evanston on Aug. 5, 2025. (Richard Requena/Pioneer Press)
The three professions don’t require advanced degrees, but the workforce needs a high level of technical knowledge on high-quality testing, Granchalek said. Employees looking to get into those fields can achieve the education, training and experience at the center.
“What I’m really excited about is that folks graduating from this program are making living wage jobs. They can support themselves, pay rent, support a family, and as these things go, as you get more experience, those wages increase,” Granchalek said.
“I think what I’m realizing and seeing is that when students, particularly young people, see healthcare, they think about it as doctors and nurses,” he said. “It’s not depicted in the media out there… in the shows, so to speak, that there’s more than just doctors and nurses out there.”
“We have to go into the high school levels, share with people that these careers exist and also create pathways for them to be employed. “
Oakton College allowed visitors to tour the college’s new Health Careers Education Center, a collaboration between the community college and Endeavor Health. Up to 24 students will be able to enroll in one of the three programs taught at the center, and train at Endeavor Health facilities. (Richard Requena/Pioneer Press)
On Oakton’s side of the partnership, the programs are new for the college. Students interested in taking classes at the center must complete prerequisite courses, depending on the program to which they apply. Students can take those courses at Oakton’s campuses in Des Plaines and Skokie. The college has a limit of 24 students for each program, Alimboyoguen said.
For Beheshta Haidari, a student enrolled in the cardiac sonography program, Oakton has given her a sense of belonging, confidence and self-esteem. She took her first course with the college in English as a Second Language.
An immigrant from Afghanistan, Haidari said she has always wanted to pursue a career in the medical field, having attended school in her home country for it. Now she plans to stay in the United States and continue her pursuit of a job in the medical field.
Oakton College student Beheshta Haidari stands at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the college’s new Health Careers Education Center in Evanston on Aug. 5, 2025. Haidari is enrolled in the college’s new cardiac sonography program, which takes two years to complete. (Richard Requena/Pioneer Press)
“In the short term, I am looking to get a job, get into the community, serve the people and serve this country,” she said. “In the long term, I am interested in teaching in this program… maybe in the future.”
“I see the future (as) bright. This is a program (where) you have an open future.”