| Professional Health Careers Academy Christine Hauch Senior The Professional Health Careers Academy program introduces high school juniors and seniors to professional health careers through both course work and rotating internships in area health care facilities. It is a partnership between the Lakeland Regional Health System, Lake Michigan College, Western Michigan University, the PA 56 consortium, and the Berrien County Intermediate School District. The focus of the program is to target students in health careers who have demonstrated serious interest and high academic achievement. The program allows students to work side by side with healthcare professionals. Most assignments are project and teamwork based. A few examples of the individual assignments students work on are medical terminology, daily journals/portfolios, written and oral presentations on their clinical rotations, clinical rotation questions, current events and issues in health care, and a presentation of journal materials to real audiences. Nurses, physicians, lab technicians, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, and more are teaching the students these skills. Three Coloma High School students are currently enrolled in this program. They are Stella Bunn, Mallory Golas, and Stephanie Kerlin. On Monday through Thursday afternoons, these students go to Lakeland Hospital. Friday afternoon they go to LMC for a Human Anatomy class. While at Lakeland Hospital, they go through 3-week rotations. One of Stella Bunn's recent rotations was in the ER. Stella stated, "The best part of the program is that we can explore many different careers through our clinical rotations." A recent rotation Mallory Golas was in was pediatrics. A few other rotations students may experience are care management, rehabilitation, adult day care, veterinary, sports medicine, dentistry, dental labs, podiatry, dermatology, allergy/immunology, orthopedics, and chiropractic. Students are also able to earn 12 college credits in English and Science for Lake Michigan College and Western Michigan University. Stella Bunn applied to Michigan State University and was accepted shortly after. In order to go through this program, you must first fill out an application, then go through an interview process. Applications for students interested in this program for next year will be available in the spring from Mrs. Megyse. |
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