During the first week back to school, Spring Hill College held a ceremony for officially breaking ground on the new Health and Science Innovation Center. This building was cordially named after philanthropist and professor Annette N. Shelby, an Alabama native and pioneer of higher education working for women. 

According to Catalyst Construction, a breaking ground ceremony typically takes place when a significant milestone has occurred within the construction site. In this case, Spring Hill College achieved a milestone of completely removing Walsh Hall and beginning construction of the new Health and Science Innovation Center. The building is expected to be finished in the Spring of 2027, allowing its first round of students to pass through with majors from 

Pre-Med, Natural Sciences, Nursing, and Health Sciences. It is expected most students will get to enjoy the modern amenities of an Anatomize lab, digital cadavers, sim labs, research opportunities, labs dedicated to nursing skills and microscopy, and new equip ment all thanks to the $35 million grant.

Spring Hill College Provost Dr. Rebecca Cantor stated she is “so excited about this building that will house our nursing and most of our science programs,” and “we also recently moved our Math, Physics, and Computer Science faculty and most of the classes to the library.” She continued by describing the library as “a great space where we house our data servers already.”  With this being said, current Spring Hill students can be reassured about their future within the science and technology departments. 

Students and staff are excited for the future surrounding the recent developments and are optimistic seeing the drastic changes on the campus. Spring Hill College Junior and nursing major Angel Nettles put it best, stating she “thinks that the new health science building will be a great addition to the campus.” She spoke highly of the nursing program, even going so far as to say Spring Hill has both “top nursing and health science programs.” In fact, Spring Hill College is reported as having the number one four-year nursing program within the state of Alabama.

Students are always the first priority here at Spring Hill College, with Nettles enforcing that ideal by explaining how “Spring Hill has amazing professors that help foster the community and contribute to our growth in education.”  

The construction is taking place near the senior apartments called The Fairways, which are three beautiful student residential buildings. In Dr. Cantor’s recent social media post, it is seen that we are “going vertical” in construction, meaning that we are finally building up and making immense progress.

There is much to look forward to in the Badger community and Nettles reminds us of that bright future when stating, “Having a new building with more resources can really help expand the majors and bring new students in.”