The Pima Joint Technical Education District (JTED) has broken ground on a facility in Tucson, Ariz., that will provide local high school students with access to health, medical and veterinary science education opportunities. 

The Mel and Enid Zuckerman Center for Health and Medical Careers is being built at the University of Arizona Tech Park at The Bridges.

JTED is a technological education district that partners with more than a dozen local school districts to provide high school students extracurricular technical training outside of their normal studies.

The new two-story, 50,000-square-foot center is the second addition to JTED's Innovative Learning Center campus at The Bridges and will house classroom, laboratory and clinical space for a variety of programs, including JTED's licensed nursing assistant, medical assistant, public health and veterinary science programs. Students can begin attending classes through JTED in their sophomore year of high school.

The community raised about $13 million to pay for  the center's construction. Significant contributions were made to JTED by Mel and Enid Zuckerman, for whom the university's Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health is named, and the Zuckerman family.