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Tonya Papanikolas Reporting More and more Utah high schools are offering special programs for students interested in specific fields. At East High, the school will have a new academy next year to prepare students for careers in the medical field.
These students are dissecting a heart. It's part of their medical anatomy and physiology class at East High.
Victoria Gochnour, Sophomore: "We've dissected hearts and eyeballs."
It may sound gross, but the kids love it because many of them want to be in the medical field.
William Wall, Sophomore: "I'm not quite sure yet, maybe a nurse or doctor or surgery."
Michelle Cedeno, Sophomore: "Maybe a pediatrician or in family practice."
They're at the right place. Next year, East High will house a Health Professions Academy. Kids interested in medical careers will have extra course options.
Jim Dalton, Biology Teacher: "Senior year, they would have some choices. They could do sports medicine, they could do nursing assisting."
The school will be partnering with the University of Utah, so students will take field trips to the college. When the students go to the university, they may tour an area of the hospital they're interested in, like the neonatal unit, or they'll do lab work or listen to college lectures. And they'll do a lot more dissecting.
Jim Dalton: "They can provide them more hands-on experience than we can in the classroom."
East High has already been working with the University. The kids involved now love it!
Michelle Cedeno: "You do more labs and experiments and dissections than other classes."
Jim Dalton: "They get a chance to talk with the professionals, the people that are in the fields, and they get to see them in their setting."
And those enrolling in the Academy next year can't wait for the more specialized program, which will include concurrent enrollment credit and a university internship.
The Academy is open to any high school student in the Salt Lake school district. East High expects to have about 40 students enrolled by the fall, many of them freshmen. If you're interested in finding out more information, the district is holding a "school choice fair" tonight.
