Most of the workers at Chattanooga’s biggest employer continue to work remotely and no longer do their jobs from the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee campus atop Cameron Hill.
But on Monday, students in a pioneering new educational venture gathered at the BlueCross headquarters for an inaugural meeting with executive and IT mentors as they prepare for a 27-month training program to provide the students the computer skills to help meet the growing IT talent needs at BlueCross and other employers.
College life for the initial class of 32 students will consist of both classes and real-life IT applications at the BlueCross campus.
The students selected for the first class of the new BlueSky Tennessee Institute are enrolled at East Tennessee State University, where they will be awarded bachelor’s degrees in computer science if they complete the program. But their classes and training will all be in Chattanooga, more than 200 miles from the main ETSU campus at Johnson City.
Autumn Harrison, a recent graduate of Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy, is among the freshman class that will begin her college career with classes on Cameron Hill on Aug. 27. Harrison said she has been intrigued with computers since she began in second grade trying to help her mom navigate the computer while her mother was taking college courses.