A Head Start for the Medical-Minded
High Schools Offer More Classes in Growing Field

By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 4, 2008

Juno Love started at Wheaton High School without a brain, but the students fixed that. The 29-inch-tall manikin soon had a wrinkly, reddish frontal lobe, a blue parietal lobe, a yellow occipital lobe and a green temporal lobe.

"She's going to be a genius," said Michael Robles, 16, as he admired the cerebral cortex sculpted from clay.

Aspiring doctors and medical technicians these days can often get lessons in anatomy, disease or radiology before college. The human body systems class at Wheaton High is among an increasing number of rigorous classes for high school students seeking an early glimpse into the growing health-care field -- and a head start on the training they'll need.

This summer, 50 Fairfax County public school students passed Virginia's pharmacy technician exam, qualifying them to step into a job at a drugstore or hospital. Prince George's County schools launched a biomedical program at Bladensburg High School in 2005. Loudoun County is offering classes in radiology technology, with plans to add pharmacy and medical laboratory technology classes.

Health care, one of the largest industries in the country, is projected to grow as the ranks of aging baby boomers swell. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 3 million health-care jobs will be created in the decade before 2016 -- more than in any other industry. Seven of the 20 fastest-growing occupations are in health care.

Among the 10 students in Loudoun's radiology technology class, there is a would-be radiologist, a future cardiologist and a prospective pediatrician. Sarah Nuval, 18, has her sights set on becoming a chiropractor.

"My brother has a back problem," she said, "and I want to fix it someday."

The programs are designed with a hands-on style intended to give students a clear picture of the connection between real-world jobs and the biology and chemistry they study in other classes. Many of them, reflecting an effort by schools to provide increasingly sophisticated vocational education, prepare students to graduate with the training and certifications they'll need to immediately enter health-care jobs. Those jobs can be a starting point for students who plan to work to help pay for college.

One morning this week, Nuval and her classmates, sporting crisp white lab coats, toured the Loudoun Free Clinic in Leesburg, which provides care to poor, uninsured county residents. Teacher Terri Settle fired off questions.

"Another name for swelling is?"

"Oh! Edema," Nuval said.

"Bile is secreted by the . . . ?"

"Liver," several students chimed in.

"And it's used to digest what?"

"Fatty food," they said.

Health-care providers see the students as part of a promising workforce. And as hospitals and doctor's offices serve an increasingly diverse population, many high school students in the immigrant-rich Washington suburbs come to the field with the added skill of a second language. In Settle's class, there are several Spanish speakers and students fluent in Urdu and Arabic.

In the clinic, Katherine Gatewood, volunteer and administrative coordinator, showed students around and pitched volunteer opportunities. "If any of you are Spanish-speaking, I need interpreters really bad," she said.

Schools nationwide use different models. Last year, Mesa, Ariz. schools opened a high school devoted to health sciences. The Loudoun program is a partnership between the county school system, the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation and the Inova Health System. Students also earn credit at Northern Virginia Community College.

"We said, 'How do we address the growing need for medical providers?' " said David Goldberg, chief growth officer at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital. "The goal was to educate and cultivate people."

In Montgomery County, Wheaton High's human body systems class is among the offerings at the school's Biosciences and Health Professions Academy. The class is part of a four-year program at 152 schools nationwide developed by Project Lead the Way, a nonprofit group based in Albany, N.Y., that helps prepare students for careers in engineering and biomedical sciences.

Sasini Bentota, a Brown University freshman, said classes at the Biosciences and Health Professions Academy gave her an advantage in the lab sessions she has each Friday. "They expect you to have experience using a pipette and using a centrifuge," she said. "There are so many kids in the Ivy League hoping to be doctors. I feel like I have much more experience than a lot of people."

Human body systems teacher Heather Carias and her students spent a recent morning molding lumps of clay into parts of the brain and learning the role each plays in human bodies. Later, using a box of bones, they will take on a missing-person case and determine the skeleton's gender and race. They'll also learn to match DNA samples.

"What does the parietal lobe do?" Carias asked, checking out the brains on manikins the students have named Little Miss Sunshine, Bones and, after a Red Hot Chili Peppers' song, Danny California.

"It handles your sensory perception, your taste, touch," Joseph Akeefe, 15, said.

"Good," Carias said. "Even as you touch your clay, your parietal lobe is processing that."

Vanessa Rueda, 15, a junior, said the class is helping her decide what career will suit her.

"I wanted to be a veterinarian, but my cat died two years ago, and I don't think I'm ready for that," Rueda said. "I'm thinking about being a chemist, but my chemistry class is killing me, so I'm thinking about changing."

Akeefe said he's getting a jump on the education he'll need to become a biochemist like his brother. "I want to follow him," said Akeefe, who is also taking honors biology. "They are looking for medial solutions for cancer and HIV."