For some students at Uplift Schools in Dallas, their first day included a whole new way of training kids for the future. NBC 5 education reporter Wayne Carter is in the classroom with a look at a new medical high school being taught by Baylor Scott and White and Uplift Schools.
Uplift Heights Medical Institute stands out as one of the most distinctive educational opportunities in North Texas. Thanks to a grant from Bloomberg, Uplift Charter Schools and Baylor Scott and White have collaborated to establish a school dedicated to training and certifying urban students for careers in the medical field upon graduation, guiding them toward becoming physicians.
"I got into a disagreement with my parents because I was like, 'No, like, I don't want to be at that school. I want to go somewhere else. I'd rather give that spot to somebody who really, deserves it and wants it,'" said Daisy Gonzalez
"I was kind of scared it was a new thing for me, and I don't really like new things. And they were like, no. They were encouraging me. And I was like, You know what? I'm gonna give it a try," said Janelle Lopez
Cutting into people, gross stuff was not for Daisy and Janelle. Parents and staff encouraged them, and after just two visits to the campus of Baylor Scott and White, they both fell in love with X-rays and ultrasounds.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
But so is this lunchtime lesson -- mainly because it's taught by Sarai Thomas --- who went to Uplift herself, and didn't know what she wanted to do until the 9th grade.
"My gym coach, my Uplift Hampton, teacher coach Gray, showed us the video, you know, just the health class and showed us about health and you know, meat production and I got turned off. Became a vegetarian my freshman year of high school, and I became passionate about nutrition. He informed me that there's a career path of four dietitians, and throughout that, I knew that's what I wanted to do," said Thomas
Now she's teaching kids in the same shoes she once stood in. The students will spend most of their time on their school campus with regular visits to Baylor Scott and White for more hands-on work to help them get a feel for the place and learning healthcare is much more than blood and gross stuff.
