Jan. 3—HIGH POINT — Connections and happenstance will bring High Point two health care entrepreneurs starting a new business in mid- to late January.

Jessica Warren and Kendal Concepcion are two of the first four people to complete Alamance Community College's new massage therapy program and knew they would like to go into business together.

They have High Point connections through the college's massage therapy staff — their instructor, Debbie Schmitz, and program Coordinator Nancy Triplett, who still lives in Archdale, both used to practice massage therapy in High Point. And Schmitz told Warren and Concepcion that the space at 1200 Eastchester Drive where she and Triplett used to practice was available for lease, Triplett said.

"It's just a great deal," Triplett said.

All that remains is getting the space for the new business, to be called Connective Hands & Body Complex, ready to open.

The two had much different paths into this profession.

For some time, Warren, 38, a married mother of two, had thought about training to become a massage therapist, but most programs were too far away. Then Alamance Community College started its new program in the spring 2023 semester.

"I wanted to become a licensed massage therapist because it's a profession that provides a means for clients to feel great coming off the table," Warren said. "It's all about an energy and calmness exchange between therapist and client."

Concepcion, 22, on the other hand, worked in a textile mill for three years after graduating from River Mill Academy in Alamance County. He planned to one day enroll in college and work toward a degree in psychology.

Then last year he saw an ACC brochure about the new massage therapy program. The idea of helping people through massage therapy appealed to Concepcion, so he switched to working part-time at the textile mill and enrolled in the ACC program.

"I saw this as a career opportunity to help people," Concepcion said. "I wasn't at first comfortable being in other people's personal space, as required for this program. But as all of us in the class started learning and practicing the massage techniques, it actually served as therapy for me to become more comfortable with others."

Warren said the massage training has had the side benefit of teaching her ways to help her own family's health through means other than taking medications for pain.

"With massage therapy, it's possible to find solutions to pain that do not include popping pills to feel better," she said.