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Given the choice, most of us want to stay in our homes. Sometimes, people need help to remain at home. That's where Always Best Care Senior Services comes in.

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TESTIMONIALS

“This is a great company to work for if you’re interested in a flexible schedule. Management is so supportive and will do what they can to make everyday at work a good day. They communicate effectively and quickly to ensure nothing is miscommunicated or misunderstood. Working here as been so rewarding and educational.”

Mckinlye G.
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TESTIMONIALS

“Always Best Care of Southern Ut is a great company. In November I will have worked with them for three years. I am a senior myself and absolutely love working with them. They always try to make sure the client and the caregiver have a good relationship with each other. They are family owned and genuinely care about both client and employees.”

Helen M.
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TESTIMONIALS

“I've been with ABC nearly 3 years(in Feb). They have been gracious and kind whenever I have had to change my schedule or not be able to work a shift. they make me feel like family, and they strive to help the clients feel the same. we love our clients and caregivers and staff.”

TheXploringKay O.
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TESTIMONIALS

“I work for Always Best Care and it's amazing they really do care for their clients and they'll go the extra mile to meet their needs ! Not only that but they care for employees i love the flexibility they give us.”

Aly T.
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TESTIMONIALS

“Always Best Care has definitely been a blessing to our little familys life. As an employer of ABC they have been amazing with flexibility in chosing my schedule so that not only am I able to work but also be home with my kids when I need to be. They are amazing and put their employees first. I love being a member of ABC team.”

Falelua A.
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TESTIMONIALS

“1. Stay active. Exercise may be the last thing you want to do when your arthritis hurts, but many studies show that physical activity is one of the best ways to improve your quality of life. 2. Eat a balanced diet. Studies show that a variety of nutrients may help ease arthritis symptoms. 3. Lose weight. Being overweight puts undue strain on weight-bearing joints such as your knees, spine, hips, ankles, and feet. 5. Use hot or cold packs. By increasing blood flow, hot compresses can ease pain and stiffness. 6. Keep pain under control. Over-the-counter medications can help ease arthritis pain. 7. Talk to your doctor about supplements and complementary medicine. Many supplements have been tested for the treatment of arthritis. 8. Try splints, braces, and other aids. Devices that support painful joints, such as splints, braces, and canes can help ease your discomfort and prevent injury. 9. Seek support. Living with arthritis isn’t easy. Finding other people that you can talk to and share ideas with can help. Check out arthritis support groups online or in your area. 10. Stay positive. Your mental outlook can have a big impact on how you feel, and how well you function. #SelfCare #Osteoarthritis #Arthritis #Disability #GoodHealth #PainRelief #SeniorCommunity #Caregiver #Caregiving #WECANHELP #OlderAdult #SeniorCare #SeniorLiving #SeniorServices #SeniorHousing #AlwaysBestCare #Exercise #SelfManaging #Tips”

Always B.
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TESTIMONIALS

“Always Best Care has some of the friendliest staff. They are quick to learn & eager to assist. Great schedulers who are on top of managing the schedules & keeping their employees accountable. I sure appreciate all the help they give!”

AsAn
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TESTIMONIALS

“I can leave a long review if I wanted to . I can talk about always best cares credentials and talk about mine. But What’s the point of leaving a review if it sounds like everybody else’s. The bottom line is , that they are great at their jobs from the bottom to the top. They have a process and people in place . They keep accountability and are communicative . Ive represented many companies in the past and still do till this day contract with only the best.. If you feel you want to hear more about this company on a deeper level just lmk. Happy Healthy Safe”

Jay R.
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TESTIMONIALS

“I like working for ABC because it works well with my busy nursing school schedule! I also like how I get to work on my own, but there are options to work with other CNAs for the care of some of the clients. It’s the best of both worlds! I’ve been with Always best care since 2021 and have thoroughly enjoyed working with the clients I work with!”

Olivia S.
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TESTIMONIALS

“Love always best care ❤️”

Breezy H.
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TESTIMONIALS

“Amazing business. Staff are helpful and kind.”

Margot K.
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TESTIMONIALS

“Always Best Care is always best!!! Highly recommended! Brent listens and hears what we need for my 94 year old mom and matches caregivers accordingly. Sometimes, the schedule changes and he works to fill the needs immediately and always with a great attitude! The caregivers are compassionate. Again, I highly recommend Always Best Care.”

shell S.
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TESTIMONIALS

“They are seriously so amazing to work with and really care for their clients. I came to them with some pretty difficult challenges that I was not sure we could work with but they were able to make it happen and truly did more than I thought was even possible. I highly recommend them.”

Mandy M.
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TESTIMONIALS

“Love working for this company”

Christina P.
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TESTIMONIALS

“Love them! Staff is always super sweet and easy to work with! Highly recommend.”

Olivia L.
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TESTIMONIALS

“As an employee of this company I could not ask for a better team to work with. They work with schedules, are understanding caring and all around amazing people. The clients are wonderful and have nothing but good things to say. They treat you as family and care from day one!”

Cassandra O.
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TESTIMONIALS

“Always Best Care has provided caregivers for my mother and now my father for the last year. They always send the best people to take care of them and give me peace of mind when I have to be at work. I highly recommend them if you’re seeking care for anyone in need.”

Salle A.
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TESTIMONIALS

“Alway best care! They are so giving and caring to their staff and clients❤️❤️❤️”

Brianne W.
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TESTIMONIALS

“I've been using ABC for about 2 1/2 years and have really met some wonderful people and great caregivers. I know they all work hard and are experienced and dependable which is important to me. At times I've needed a flexible schedule and they've been able to accommodate my needs and been very friendly about it. At times I've also had to ask these caregivers to do things for me outside of their job description and they've been very accommodating. Brent is also been great to follow up with phone calls and help adjust my schedule when needed. I do recommend this company.”

Jim J.
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TESTIMONIALS

“The best home health company that I have ever worked for. Friendly office staff, great scheduler, and the kindest CNA’s and workers that I know.”

Jenny J.
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TESTIMONIALS

“I work with Always Best Care and they're always flexible with my schedule. Everyone there is very nice and understanding and I enjoy working with ABC.”

Anna S.
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TESTIMONIALS

“Always Best Care has been an amazing company to work for! They are flexible with my schedule being a single mom and I can tell they are always putting their clients and the individuals that they care for, the needs and their happiness above all else. I know they care for every individual that they have and they make sure their staff are the same way!”

Aubrey S.
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TESTIMONIALS

“Always best is such an incredible company! They are so accommodating to all of the needs of their clients and do their best to help any way that they can. They are reliable and really seem to care. I would recommend Always Best to anyone looking for these kinds of services!”

Anni H.
 In-Home Care Joseph, UT

How does In-home Senior Care in Joseph, UT work?

Home is where the heart is. While that saying can sound a tad cliche, it's especially true for many seniors living in America. When given a choice, older adults most often prefer to grow older at home. An AARP study found that three out of four adults over the age of 50 want to stay in their homes and communities as they age. When you begin to think about why, it makes sense. Home offers a sense of security, comfort, and familiarity.

The truth is, as we age, we begin to rely on others for help. When a family is too busy or lives too far away to fulfill this role, in-home senior care is often the best solution. Home care services allow seniors to enjoy personal independence while also receiving trustworthy assistance from a trained caregiver.

At Always Best Care, we offer a comprehensive range of home care services to help seniors stay healthy while they get the help they need to remain independent. As your senior loved one ages, giving them the gift of senior care is one of the best ways to show your love, even if you live far away.

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 Senior Care Joseph, UT

Aging in Place: The Preferred Choice for Most Seniors

While it's true that some seniors have complicated medical needs that prevent them from staying at home, aging in place is often the best arrangement for seniors and their families. With a trusted caregiver, seniors have the opportunity to live with a sense of dignity and do so as they see fit.

In-home care makes it possible for millions of seniors to age in place every year. Rather than moving to a unfamiliar assisted living community, seniors have the chance to stay at home where they feel the happiest and most comfortable.

Here are just a few of the reasons why older men and women prefer to age at home:

Comfort
Comfort

How much does a senior's home truly mean to them? A study published by the American Society on Aging found that more than half of seniors say their home's emotional value means more than how much their home is worth in monetary value. It stands to reason, that a senior's home is where they want to grow old. With the help of elderly care in Joseph, UT, seniors don't have to age in a sterilized care facility. Instead, they can age gracefully in the place they want to be most: their home. In contrast, seniors who move to a long-term care facility must adapt to new environments, new people, and new systems that the facility implements. At this stage in life, this kind of drastic change can be more harmful than helpful.

Healthy Living
Healthy Living

Institutional care facilities like nursing homes often put large groups of people together to live in one location. On any given day, dozens of staff members and caregivers run in and out of these facilities. Being around so many new people in a relatively small living environment can be dangerous for a seniors' health and wellbeing. When you consider that thousands of seniors passed away in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, opting for in-home care is often a safer, healthier choice for seniors. Aging in place has been shown to improve seniors' quality of life, which helps boost physical health and also helps insulate them from viral and bacterial risks found in elderly living facilities.

Independence
Independence

For many seniors, the ability to live independently with assistance from a caregiver is a priceless option. With in-home care, seniors experience a higher level of independence and freedom - much more so than in other settings like an assisted living community. When a senior has the chance to age in place, they get to live life on their own terms, inside the house that they helped make into a home. More independence means more control over their personal lives, too, which leads to increased levels of fulfillment, happiness, and personal gratification. Over time, these positive feelings can manifest into a healthier, longer life.

Cost and Convenience
Cost and Convenience

More independence, a healthier life, and increased comfort are only a few benefits of aging in place. You have to take into consideration the role of cost and convenience. Simply put, it's usually easier to help seniors age in place than it is to move them into an institutional care facility. In-home care services from Always Best Care, for instance, can be less expensive than long-term solutions, which can cost upwards of six figures per year. To make matters worse, many residential care facilities are reluctant to accept long-term care insurance and other types of payment assistance.

With Always Best Care's home care services, seniors and their families have a greater level of control over their care plans. In-home care in Joseph, UT gives seniors the chance to form a bond with a trusted caregiver and also receive unmatched care that is catered to their needs. In long-term care facilities, seniors and their loved ones have much less control over their care plan and have less of a say in who provides their care.

Empowers Seniors

Affordable Care Plans

In-home care is a valuable resource that empowers seniors to age in place on their own terms. However, a big concern for many families and their loved ones is how much in-home care costs. If you're worried that in-home care is too expensive, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that it is one of the most affordable senior care arrangements available.

Typically, hiring an Always Best Care in-home caregiver for a few hours a week is more affordable than sending your loved one to a long-term care facility. This is true even for seniors with more complex care needs.

At Always Best Care, we will work closely with you and your family to develop a Care Plan that not only meets your care needs, but your budget requirements, too. Once we discover the level of care that you or your senior need, we develop an in-home care plan that you can afford.

In addition to our flexible care options, families should also consider the following resources to help offset potential home care costs:

Veteran's Benefits
Veteran's Benefits

Aid and Attendance benefits through military service can cover a portion of the costs associated with in-home care for veterans and their spouses.

Long-Term Care Insurance
Long-Term Care Insurance

Many senior care services like in-home care are included in long-term care insurance options. Research different long-term care solutions to find a plan that provides coverage for senior care.

Private Insurance
Private Insurance

Home care can be included as part of a senior's private insurance plan. Read over your loved one's insurance policy carefully or speak with their insurance provider to determine if in-home care is covered.

Life Insurance
Life Insurance

Depending on the life insurance plan, you may be able to apply your policy toward long-term care. You may be able to use long-term-care coverage to help pay for in-home elderly care.


Respite Care Joseph, UT

During your Care Plan consultation with Always Best Care, your Care Coordinator will speak with you about in-home care costs and what options there may be to help meet your budget needs.

Compassionate Care. Trusted Caregivers

When you or your senior loved one needs assistance managing daily tasks at home, finding a qualified caregiver can be challenging. It takes a special kind of person to provide reliable care for your senior loved one. However, a caregiver's role involves more than meal preparation and medication reminders. Many seniors rely on their caregivers for companionship, too.

Our companion care services give seniors the chance to socialize in a safe environment and engage in activities at home. These important efforts boost morale and provide much-needed relief from repetitive daily routines. A one-on-one, engaging conversation can sharpen seniors' minds and give them something in which to be excited.

At Always Best Care, we only hire care providers that we would trust to care for our own loved ones. Our senior caregivers in Joseph,UT understand how important it is to listen and communicate with their seniors. A seemingly small interaction, like a short hug goodbye, can make a major difference in a senior's day. Instead of battling against feelings of isolation, seniors begin to look forward to seeing their caregiver each week.

Understanding the nuances of senior care is just one of the reasons why our care providers are so great at their job.

Unlike some senior care companies, our caregivers must undergo extensive training before they work for Always Best Care. In addition, our caregivers receive ongoing training throughout the year. This training ensures that their standard of care matches up to the high standards we've come to expect. During this training, they will brush up on their communication skills, safety awareness, and symptom spotting. That way, your loved one receives the highest level of non-medical home care from day one.

 Caregivers Joseph, UT

Taking the First Step with Always Best Care

The first step in getting quality in-home care starts with a personal consultation with an experienced Care Coordinator. This initial consultation is crucial for our team to learn more about you or your elderly loved one to discover the level of care required. Topics of this consultation typically include:

An assessment of your senior loved one

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An in-depth discussion of the needs of your senior loved one to remain in their own home

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Reviewing a detailed Care Plan that will meet your senior loved one's needs

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Our caregivers are trained to spot changes that clients exhibit, like mental and physical decline. As your trusted senior care company, we will constantly assess and update your Care Plan to meet any new emotional, intellectual, physical, and emotional needs.

If you have never considered in-home care before, we understand that you and your family may have concerns about your Care Plan and its Care Coordinator. To help give you peace of mind, know that every team member and caregiver must undergo comprehensive training before being assigned to a Care Plan.

When you're ready, we encourage you to contact your local Always Best Care representative to set up a Care Consultation. Our Care Coordinators would be happy to meet with you in person to get to know you better, discuss your needs, and help put together a personalized Care Plan specific to your needs.

Latest News in Joseph, UT

Joseph J. Pancrazio Appointed Vice President for Research

Dr. Joseph J. Pancrazio, associate provost and professor of bioengineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, has been named vice president for research for the University.Effective June 1, the appointment was made after a national search that attracted exceptional candidates, said UT Dallas President Richard C. Benson.&ld...

Dr. Joseph J. Pancrazio, associate provost and professor of bioengineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, has been named vice president for research for the University.

Effective June 1, the appointment was made after a national search that attracted exceptional candidates, said UT Dallas President Richard C. Benson.

“Dr. Pancrazio has a deep understanding of the issues and opportunities that are critical to maintain and expand a dynamic university research program,” Benson said. “His expertise is especially pertinent when it comes to conducting and overseeing interdisciplinary collaboration, which is one of the hallmarks of the UT Dallas research enterprise. I look forward to working with Dr. Pancrazio as we continue to attract top faculty members into our ranks, graduate highly skilled doctoral students and increase extramural research funding.”

Pancrazio succeeds Dr. Bruce Gnade, who served as vice president for research from 2006 to 2017.

The Office of Research oversees research funding, grants and contracts; campus research facilities and information systems; technology commercialization and licensing; compliance and safety; and the institutional review board, which approves research involving human subjects.

“The Office of Research has a terrific group of people who are strongly committed to the University and aim to offer the highest caliber research infrastructure. I’d like to thank Rafael Martín for his outstanding leadership as the interim vice president,” Pancrazio said. “We have an opportunity to engage in research development, such as fostering interdepartmental, interschool and even cross-institution collaborations. Collaborative research is an important approach to catalyze our efforts going forward.”

Pancrazio’s research focuses on the development of novel neural interface technology, which is used to understand and influence the brain and nervous system for the purposes of improving human health. His work leverages advances in materials science and microscale fabrication to create new devices capable of neural stimulation and recording, such as real-time imaging of neuronal activity in the brain.

At UT Dallas, for example, he has partnered with neuroscientists and biologists on an interdisciplinary project that uses innovative measurements of neural activity for screening novel pain therapeutics.

Funding sources for Pancrazio’s research include the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research.

“We have an opportunity to engage in research development, such as fostering interdepartmental, interschool and even cross-institution collaborations. Collaborative research is an important approach to catalyze our efforts going forward.”

Dr. Joseph J. Pancrazio, vice president for research

Before joining the faculty of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at UT Dallas in 2015, Pancrazio was a professor and founding chair of the Department of Bioengineering at George Mason University. Prior to that, from 2009 to 2011, he was a professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the bioengineering program at the university’s Volgenau School of Engineering.

From 2004 to 2009, Pancrazio was program director for the neural engineering and neural prosthesis program at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which is part of the NIH.

He also was an assistant professor in Georgetown University’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, working at the Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

Pancrazio earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984, and his master’s and doctorate in biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia in 1988 and 1990, respectively. He completed postdoctoral training in pharmacology in the Department of Anesthesiology at Virginia and served as an assistant professor of research there with a joint appointment in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Biomedical Engineering.

In 2011, Pancrazio was elected to the College of Fellows in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a distinction reserved for the top 2 percent of professionals in the field. Since 2012, he has served as the chair of the steering committee for Neural Interfaces Conference, an international meeting central to the neurotechnology field. He was named Neurotechnology Researcher of the Year for 2016 by the industry newsletter Neurotech Reports.

UT researchers warn COVID hospitalizations will surge beyond previous high

In the next few weeks Texas’ healthcare system could be facing the largest surge in coronavirus patients since the onset of the pandemic. According to the University of Texas at Austin COVID-19 Modeling Consortium, hospitalizations across the U.S. will peak far above the previous high by the end of January.Tota...

In the next few weeks Texas’ healthcare system could be facing the largest surge in coronavirus patients since the onset of the pandemic. According to the University of Texas at Austin COVID-19 Modeling Consortium, hospitalizations across the U.S. will peak far above the previous high by the end of January.

Total hospitalizations in the U.S. this week surpassed the January 2021 peak to reach nearly 146,000. Coronavirus patients in Texas have surged above 11,000 patients, accounting for roughly one sixth of all hospitalizations in the state.

Anass Bouchnita, a postdoctoral researcher with the UT Austin consortium, says hospitalizations in Texas will likely keep pace with national trends.

“We are in the middle of this tsunami of cases that keep rising day after day with new records set every week,” he said.

Seven-day averages for new cases have shattered previous records this month. The U.S. is averaging roughly 700,000 new cases a day. Texas is reporting more than 40,000 new cases daily. State health officials on Wednesday confirmed 61,113 new infections, Texas’ highest daily case count ever.

Bouchnita and fellow researchers based their latest projections on what’s currently known about the omicron variant's transmissibility, severity of illness and the U.S. population's overall immunity from prior infections and vaccinations.

The team’s best case scenario projects the ongoing surge will result in about half as many deaths and slightly more hospitalizations in the U.S. than the peak last January.

"We will exceed the prior level of hospitalizations by 20% on average," said Bouchnita of the most optimistic projection. In Texas, that rate of increase means hospitals would be treating nearly 17,000 people for COVID-19 by the end of the month.

“This could represent a threat to the healthcare system and we know that some places do not have the capacity to deal with surges like that,” said Bouchnita.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, coronavirus patients account for more than 15% of all hospitalizations in nine of Texas’ 22 trauma service areas. The El Paso area is currently most affected with roughly one in four beds filled with COVID-19 patients.

UT Austin’s worst case scenario projects slightly more fatalities and about three times as many hospital admissions in the U.S. than a year ago. However, the consortium is projecting a lower rate of fatalities overall for the current surge, due to better treatments available and evidence that the omicron variant is generally less severe than previous strains, said Bouchnita.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently updated its data available on the omicron variant characteristics, which prompted the University of Texas research group to push back its initial prediction that the surge in omicron hospitalizations would peak by mid-January.

“It’s really hard to discern whether this reduced severity is due to omicron being less severe itself,” said Bouchnita, “because it does not replicate in the lungs as fast as [the] delta [variant] or whether it’s due to existing protection from prior immunity from vaccinations and also prior exposure to other variants.”

UT’s current modeling predicts the wave of coronavirus hospitalizations will peak in the US and Texas within the next two weeks.

Will The NCAA Let UT Swimmer Joseph Schooling Keep His Olympic Bonus?

One of the most surprising stories to emerge from this summer’s Rio Olympics was Michael Phelps’s defeat by University of Texas–Austin swimmer Joseph Schooling, a native Singaporean who out-swam arguably the most dominant athlete in Olympic history to win gold in the 100-meter butterfly.It was the first-ever Olympic gold medal for Singapore, and the Southeastern Asian nation—which has the world’s eighth-largest GDP per capita—paid Schooling back with an award totaling one million Singapore dollars, ...

One of the most surprising stories to emerge from this summer’s Rio Olympics was Michael Phelps’s defeat by University of Texas–Austin swimmer Joseph Schooling, a native Singaporean who out-swam arguably the most dominant athlete in Olympic history to win gold in the 100-meter butterfly.

It was the first-ever Olympic gold medal for Singapore, and the Southeastern Asian nation—which has the world’s eighth-largest GDP per capita—paid Schooling back with an award totaling one million Singapore dollars, or roughly $740,000. Not a bad haul for Schooling, who just started his junior year as a key member of UT’s swimming and diving team, fresh off of back-to-back team NCAA championships.

But the National Collegiate Athletic Association isn’t happy about the swimmer’s reward. On Thursday, NCAA President Mark Emmert said the swimmer’s huge payment may prompt the NCAA to reevaluate a relatively new policy that allows Olympic athletes to keep whatever award they get from their country’s Olympic organizations for winning medals.

In 2001, the NCAA’s member schools passed a rule that said U.S. Olympians could accept money from the U.S. Olympic Committee: usually between $10,000 and $20,000 for winning a bronze, silver, or gold medal. In 2015, the NCAA OK’d foreign athletes to accept money from their home country’s Olympic organizations too. Those exemptions fly in the face of the NCAA’s hardline commitment to “amateurism,” a vaguely defined status that the NCAA says it protects by preventing athletes from earning money or extra benefits related to their athletics outside of scholarships. The debate over whether college athletes should be paid has been raging for years now, and Schooling swam right into the middle of it.

“To be perfectly honest, it’s caused everybody to say, ‘Oh, well that’s not really what we were thinking about,'” Emmert said Thursday during a panel discussion about college athletics at the Aspen Institute, according to CBS. “So I don’t know where the members will go on that. That’s a little different than 15 grand for the silver medal for swimming for the US of A. So I think it’s going to stimulate a very interesting conversation.” Emmert said later that when the NCAA first gave the OK for Olympians to get paid, “it was such a rare occasion that somebody would be a college student and go out and win a medal. They get to do it once in their career, maybe, because it was once every four years. The members at that time hadn’t anticipated—at least this is what I’ve been told—this phenomenon of like the Singaporean kid getting paid a very large amount. I suspect they’re going to want to address this quickly because that’s a very different notion than just covering their training costs.”

Although there’s little precedent (remember, the NCAA’s international Olympic medal award exemption is less than a year old), it’s highly unlikely the NCAA will retroactively rule that Schooling must either fork over his award or forfeit his amateur status. Doing so would be a public relations nightmare. With that in mind, it’s difficult to imagine what Emmert’s end game is in expressing so much concern, other than that he’s possibly worried about the potential for Schooling’s payout to impact future litigation challenging the NCAA’s strict rules regarding pay-for-play. If the NCAA allows Schooling to earn $740,000, is it really fair for the organization to bar athletes in higher-profile sports, such as football and basketball, from profiting off of their own athletic talents?

Should the NCAA decide to do away with the Olympic payment exemption, it would end pretty much the only NCAA-sanctioned opportunity for college athletes to get paid for their athletic abilities. They already aren’t allowed to sign sponsorship deals or accept anything that even remotely resembles a performance bonus or a gift. Athletes have been found in violation of NCAA rules for everything from football players eating too much free pasta to a high school basketball recruit’s mother accepting a loan from an AAU coach to keep her family from becoming homeless. In some cases, they’ve made the athletes return what they earned, with penalties ranging widely in severity. The pasta-eaters were forced to pay $3.83 each to a charity of their choice in order to regain their eligibility, while, in 2004, the NCAA barred Colorado’s Jeremy Bloom from ever playing college football again after the Olympic skier accepted endorsement money he said he needed to fund his training for the upcoming winter games.

Of course, it’s not against the NCAA’s rules for the NCAA to make money off of athletes like Schooling. Emmert reportedly earns a salary of about $1.8 million a year, while the NCAA sells tee shirts commemorating UT swimming’s national championship win on its website for $27.99. But Schooling won’t see a penny of that profit.

The devil is dead. The hawk lives on. USciences is officially part of St. Joseph’s University.

The red devil with the pointy white ears and pitchfork — University of the Sciences’ mascot — has been gracefully retired, along with the school colors and name.Now, those devils are hawks — St. Joseph’s University Hawks — and as the saying goes: “The Hawk will never die.”The merger of the health and sciences university i...

The red devil with the pointy white ears and pitchfork — University of the Sciences’ mascot — has been gracefully retired, along with the school colors and name.

Now, those devils are hawks — St. Joseph’s University Hawks — and as the saying goes: “The Hawk will never die.”

The merger of the health and sciences university into the Catholic university — about 18 months in the making — is now official. Click on the USciences website, and it redirects to St. Joseph’s. USciences’ board of trustees no longer exists, though four of its members — two of them coincidentally St. Joe’s alumni — are now on St. Joseph’s board. USciences’ signs and banners are being replaced with St. Joseph’s signs and banners. There will be a single alumni association. And in June, new students to both campuses will have a unified orientation, with breakout sessions at the campus where they will live.

» READ MORE: St. Joe's merger with USciences is approved by Middle States Commission on Higher Education

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“We’re at that point right now where we’re ready to go,” said St. Joseph’s president Mark C. Reed, who will be departing in August to become president of Loyola University Chicago.

The new combined St. Joseph’s will hold a news conference at the University City campus Wednesday morning, and by evening, Boathouse Row, the Peco building, and other city landmarks are scheduled to be lit in St. Joe’s colors of crimson and gray in celebration.

By adding USciences, St. Joseph’s automatically has 26 new programs in its repertoire “that have the ability to transform our institution for the future,” said provost Cheryl McConnell, who will become interim president when Reed leaves.

They include programs in pharmacy, physician assistant, physical therapy, and occupational therapy, all cornerstones of a USciences education. Genomics, cancer biology, and neuroscience are among other adds. And the university already is talking about potential programs that could be developed, such as pharmaceutical marketing, pharmaceutical engineering, and “nutraceuticals” — the combination of food and pharma.

» READ MORE: St. Joe's and University of the Sciences vote to proceed with a merger

Combined, the institutions will enroll more than 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students, employ nearly 400 full-time faculty, and have an endowment in excess of a half-billion dollars, an operating budget over $300 million, assets of $1.2 billion, and an alumni network of nearly 100,000.

“I’m incredibly optimistic and hopeful that this ultimately will lead to a wave of innovation, creativity, and accomplishments that we can’t even possibly conceive of at this point in time,” Reed said.

But Reed said he understands that the merger isn’t fully in swing just because a date on the calendar flipped.

“It’s going to take time for people to experience the university as a single entity, and we’re aware of that,” he said. “Students who applied to USciences only visited there. That’s where they expect to live and spend the majority of their time, and that’s what will happen. But over time, we certainly expect and foresee much greater integration.”

» READ MORE: St. Joe’s president announces his departure less than a month before merger is final

The culture of a Catholic university may take some adaptation, too. Some students expressed anger in April when USciences’ student health center said it no longer would dispense birth control once the merger took effect. But Reed said St. Joseph’s Jesuit identity was known from the start and a drawing point for USciences.

It was USciences that initiated merger talks with St. Joseph’s, which was on the hunt for health and science programs. In February 2021, the schools announced they were exploring a merger to help them grow and thrive in an increasingly challenging higher-education market. A little less than a year ago, their boards voted to proceed with the process — and a process it has been.

The merger required a series of approvals, including a nod from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which came in March, and another from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, which just came in May. Even the U.S. Department of Justice had to sign off, given the size of the schools and the value of their assets, Reed said.

The universities’ email, phone, and computer systems, and policies and processes, had to be evaluated and integrated. Even their policies governing intellectual property had to be combined. Some practices ofUSciences will be incorporated into St. Joseph’s. St. Joseph’s, for example, is adapting USciences’ human resources, finance, and payroll system as its own.

In mid-May, Reed signed off on faculty handbook policies and procedures developed by educators at both schools, including a process for non-tenure track faculty appointments, which USciences had in place. Known as professors of practice in some institutions, they are faculty who are experts in their fields but didn’t train as professors.

“We didn’t just take one or the other,” McConnell said. “We really came up with a better policy going forward.”

There will be one student government and combined student activities. USciences’ sports program, which was Division II, will no longer exist; St. Joseph’s is Division I. But scholarships already in place for USciences’ athletes will continue to be honored, Reed said, and combined club sports will continue.

Under the merger, both campuses, which are less than five miles apart, will be retained. The St. Joseph’s campus, which straddles the Philadelphia/Lower Merion border, will be known as the Hawk Hill campus, and USciences will become the University City campus.

Interest in the merger from other universities has been building, Reed said, so much so that later this month, Reed and McConnell will present a webinar on what they learned. It will be hosted by Stephen Spinelli Jr., who had been president of the former Philadelphia University when it was merged with Thomas Jefferson University in 2017. Spinelli had served as chancellor of Jefferson after the merger and then in 2019 became president of Babson College, an entrepreneurship-focused school in Massachusetts.

“People are intrigued by it, and impressed by it, and they kind of want to know how it came about,” Reed said of the St. Joseph’s merger.

St. Joseph’s is having conversations with other potential partners, too, though no one on the scale of USciences, Reed said.

“We have been talking very openly on our campus about nursing being a fit at St. Joe’s,” Reed said. “Is that something we can start ourselves or can we acquire it from another entity or some other partnership?”

But at least for a day, Reed and McConnell will relish the birth of a new era at St. Joseph’s, one that didn’t come easy. When the merger talk started, employees brainstormed on all the things that would have to be done and filled up multiple whiteboards and then went about tackling them one by one.

“We knew it was going to be hard work, and it was,” McConnell said.

UT Tyler student named VFW Help a Hero Scholar

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - A graduate student at UT Tyler was named the 2023 Help a Hero Scholar, winning a scholarship sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation and Sports Clips Haircuts.Joseph Brewer, of Tyler, is a graduate student in the clinical psychology program at UT Tyler. In a release, the university announced Brewer has received a $5,000 scholarship as this year’s Help a Hero Scholar.“I appreciate Sport Clips and the VFW for selecting me for the Help a Hero Scholarship,” said Brewer, who has s...

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - A graduate student at UT Tyler was named the 2023 Help a Hero Scholar, winning a scholarship sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation and Sports Clips Haircuts.

Joseph Brewer, of Tyler, is a graduate student in the clinical psychology program at UT Tyler. In a release, the university announced Brewer has received a $5,000 scholarship as this year’s Help a Hero Scholar.

“I appreciate Sport Clips and the VFW for selecting me for the Help a Hero Scholarship,” said Brewer, who has served in the U.S. Marine Corps. “It made a huge difference in my life. Everyone who donated money has helped keep my educational goals alive, and for that I am deeply appreciative of all who played a part in it.”

At UT Tyler, Brewer is a research assistant in the Enhancing Lives and Experiences of Veterans Affected by Traumatic Events, or ELEVATE, research lab, under Assistant Professor of Psychology Dr. Adam McGuire.

“It’s an honor to see local veterans chosen for this prestigious scholarship,” said Mike Johnson, commander of the VFW Carl Webb Post 1799 in Tyler. “Having served his country honorably, Joseph is a great example of a veteran whose service didn’t end after the military.”

Brewer will graduate with a master’s degree in clinical psychology with a neuropsychology specialization next summer.

Help a Hero Scholarships are awarded to qualified veterans across all branches of the military by sending the funds directly to the college or technical school of their choice. To apply for or learn more, visit SportClips.com/Hero. Sport Clips, through its annual Help a Hero fundraiser, has contributed $13 million to the VFW. Founded in 1899, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. is the nation’s largest and oldest major war veterans organization, with more than 1.4 million VFW and auxiliary members located in nearly 6,000 posts worldwide. The VFW is dedicated to veterans’ service, legislative advocacy and military/community service programs. For more information, visit vfw.org.

With a mission to improve educational and health care outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programs to nearly 10,000 students. Through its alignment with the UT Tyler Health Science Center and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has unified these entities to serve Texas with quality education, cutting-edge research and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.

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