BRONX, N.Y. — A day at school is also a day on the job for Lehman College nursing student Rachell Santos. Two days a week, she’s at BronxCare Health System where she works as a patient outreach coordinator. She makes phone calls to patients, let’s them know what to expect, and welcomes them once they arrive.

“I’m learning more about what the patients want, what they’re expecting, how to communicate with them,” Santos said.

Santos is one of dozens of Lehman students taking part in the Bronx Recovery Corps. It pairs students with businesses and community organizations for paid, part-time positions. Through on-the-job experience, the students get training and mentoring that prepares them for careers in education, hospitality and health care.

Lehman created the program last year with the non profit Here to Here to help integrate work experience into student education.

"A braided learning has shown to empower students who do go to college with a sense of direction about their future give them real skills to and offer them opportunities to apply their skills and interest," said Jennifer Cortez, Project Director, Placements at Here to Here.

Gabriel Foreman has already had three BRC students work at his marine drone and sensor business.

“They’ve helped up with our educational program , developing material, collecting data for us in the Harlem and Bronx River they collect content for social media, a wide variety of tasks and they’ve been helpful to our company,” said Gabriel Foreman, Co-Founder, DURO UAS.

The program also benefits businesses by providing them with a skilled local workforce  and that may prove critical to the borough’s economic future.

“Building that foundation and setting the expectation of the student early on giving them that valuable experience and exposure at the end of the day when they do obtain their degrees we want to welcome them back to into Bronx Healthcare Systems,” says Michael Giambalvo, Administrative Director, BronxCare Health System.

Santos hopes to learn not just about nursing but more about herself.

“I wanted to be in this program just to learn. And to figure out who I am in this society because this society is changing everyday," Santos said.