New Mercer County Technical Schools Health Science Academy prepares students for the future
Entering high school, Lenaya Ford was considering a career as a physical therapist.
Thanks to Mercer County Technical Schools Health Science Academy, the Ewing resident was able to get training in the healthcare industry and ultimately decide she was going to pursue another field of study in college.
On June 30, 19 students, including Ford, became the first graduates of the Health Science Academy, a full-time, four-year high school program that prepares students for careers in the field of healthcare.
Although students at the Health Science Academy are required to take the same core subjects as other high school students in New Jersey, the program has a specialized focus in medical and biological sciences. Students have the opportunity to take sciences classes that might not be offered at a regular high school such as molecular biology, anatomy and physiology and organic chemistry. They also get to use high-tech laboratory equipment such as spectrometers, electron microscopes and 3-D printers.
One of the unique classes that students at the Health Science Academy take is Dynamics of Healthcare, a course that introduces students to basic principles, techniques and vocabulary common in the medical field. The course also teaches students about the different career opportunities within the healthcare industry including nursing, therapy, dental care, administrative services and lab technology.
Lastly, the students learn about practical side of being healthcare provider by studying topics like professional behavior, stress and time management, communication, resume creation and the interview process.
In addition to offering specialized courses on the subject, health science is a theme that spans the entire curriculum at the Health Science Academy.
“We embed a medical literacy or medical technology component into all of their activities,” said Kimberly Schneider, the superintendent of Mercer County Technical Schools.
Students at the Health Science Academy who excel academically also have the option to take classes at Mercer County Community College and earn college credit as early as their junior year of high school.
The program also provides students with a variety of ways to learn about careers in healthcare outside the classroom from attending lectures with guest speakers to touring local medical facilities like Capital Health Hopewell. Students also participate in HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America), a national student organization which focuses on leadership, motivation and recognition for students interested in careers in healthcare.
Finally, seniors at the Health Science Academy are required to complete a 160-hour internship, which gives the students field experience working with medical personnel throughout the community.
The idea for the Health Science Academy came from Department of Labor data that indicated an increased demand for qualified healthcare employees in Mercer County.
“Using the data, we created a program that would serve the needs of the community,” said Schneider.
The Health Science Academy is open to high school students in every school district in the county. While the other programs at Mercer County Technical Schools are only open to juniors and seniors and students in those programs continue to take core subjects at their home high schools, the Health Science Academy functions as a magnet school.
Students must apply to the program in the fall of eighth grade, which means that the students must choose to start specializing their educations at a relatively early age.
“I think for some students, maybe they would prefer more experience in a generalized setting, but I do believe there are some students who find out quite early what they love to do best,” said Schneider. “I believe we appeal to those types of students.”
The program might be perfect for some students, but it isn’t good for everyone. Schneider said that the class of 2014 “started with more students, but we found very quickly that students knew whether or not this career was for them. Either they were interested in blood or working with people in an intimate medical setting or they weren’t. We did have some students who felt the program was not for them. We encouraged them to follow their passions.”
While many students at the Health Science Academy intend to pursue nursing or becoming a doctor, they learn through the program that there are other possibilities available to them.
Schneider recounted the story of one student who started at the Health Science Academy thinking that he wanted to be a doctor.
“His experiences led him to the field of healthcare analytics and becoming more involved in medical technology and data analysis,” she said. “His goal is preparing for a medical field that we have not created yet. He wants to be one of the leaders in developing the field.”
For Ford, the experience made her change her mind about her choice in career.
Ford, whose mother is programmer and whose father is an architect, chose to go to the Health Science Academy because she liked science and she wanted to become a physical therapist.
However, while attending the school she realized that she wasn’t interested in going into healthcare. Even so, she decided to stay at the Health Science Academy.
“I felt like any other place wouldn’t feel the same,” said Ford. “I knew a regular school wouldn’t be as personal and close knit as at Health Science Academy. I enjoyed the small classes. It becomes more like a family, instead of just a school. You become closer with the teachers and make lifelong friends.”
Even though Ford will not be pursuing a career in healthcare, she will benefit from what she learned at the Health Science Academy.
Ford plans on pursuing business marketing, specializing in clinical marketing, which requires a sophisticated understanding of the science behind products such as medicated skin lotions.
“For clinical marketing, it’s important to know the products and how effective they are,” said Ford. “If I am making an advertisement or building an idea, I know what the product does better than anybody else at a regular advertising agency. I know what I’m talking about and what it can do for somebody.”
Ford said that as the first students to attend the Health Science Academy, she and her classmates took it upon themselves to build the school’s reputation. Her first year at the school, she and some classmates made a public service announcement about sun protection from HOSA that went all the way to the nationals. She noted that students from her class made it to HOSA nationals every year that they were in high school.
“We built our school, since we were the first class,” she said. “We made sure people knew our name—that we went to a great school that did great things for us.”
Even while attending the Health Science Academy, Ford got the best of both worlds. She got the small classes and specialized education, but she also got to play sports at Ewing High School where she was on the tennis team for all four years.
Next year, Ford will begin studying marketing at Montclair State University.
The other 2014 Health Science Academy graduate from Ewing is Jovan Griffin, who will attend Mercer County Community College next year.
Another graduate is Hamilton’s Shawnee Chaudhury.
When she was growing up, Chaudhury’s father, a civil engineer, and mother, a front desk manager at a hotel, told her that medicine would be a good career to pursue if she was interested.
Because of that, Chaudhury always considered the possibility of becoming a doctor, but she wasn’t completely persuaded that that was the path she wanted to follow.
At first, she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to go to the Health Science Academy, but her father decided she should enroll in the program, anyway.
“It wasn’t necessarily my decision, but it was okay,” said Chaudhury.
Once she arrived at the Health Science Academy, she knew that it was the right place for her to be. With the opportunity to study science so intensely and being exposed to teachers and guest speakers who had worked in the field, she realized that she definitely wanted to be a doctor.
Even though Chaudhury thinks that she may have missed out on things by not attending a traditional high school, she also thinks that she got much more out of her high school experience than she would have at another school.
“Since [the Health Science Academy] does have such a small class size, honestly it becomes like family, which is such a valuable thing. Everyone is there for each other. It’s really supportive. No one is out to get each other,” she said.
Chaudhury said that the small class size allowed her to have more contact with her teachers and counselors.
She also said that she received more guidance which “really helps you understand what to do at such a pivotal moment of your life.”
Next year, Chaudhury will be attending the Rutgers University School of Engineering where she plans to study biomedical engineering. After that, she wants to go to medical school.
As of now, she’s interested in pursuing either cardiology or dermatology.
The other 2014 Health Science Academy graduates from Hamilton are Omar Abouhabib, who will be attending the New York Institute of Technology next year, and Alexa McCullough, who will be going to Rider University.
Graduate Jacklyn Rapport, of Lawrwence Township, said she liked the idea of going to a school with small class sizes and the opportunity to study lab science classes. “I felt like it would give me a head start toward my career,” she said.
Rapport, whose mother is a writer and whose father is a musician and stand-up comic, plans to study medicine and became a pediatric oncologist.
For Rapport, going to the Health Science Academy was also crucial component to her extracurricular activities. For her Girl Scout Gold Award project, she created a county-wide Science Fair to generate interest in science among fifth through eighth graders.
“HSA supported my efforts and hosted the fair,” she said.
Because of her work with the science fair, New Jersey First Lady Mary Pat Christie, awarded Rapport with the Spirit of a Hero Award. She also won the New Jersey Healthcare Hero award for contributions to the field of healthcare.
“HSA helped provide me with these opportunities I may not have had otherwise,” said Rapport.
Rapport noted that even though she really appreciated her education at the Health Science Academy, she did miss be able to go to high school with her friends from Lawrence.
Next year, Rapport will be going to Drew University where she will be studying biology on a pre-med track.
Schneider said that by going to the Health Science Academy, students “gain a community of staff, students, adults and parents that support their interest.”
“We love career and technical education because we watch students transition into a career setting that they are passionate about,” she said. “They live in the community, they work in the community, they take care of us.”
Lenaya Ford shows off her diploma from the Mercer County Technical Schools Health Science Academy after graduating on June 30, 2014.,
