Students from West Dallas got a first glimpse today at what could be a life-changing opportunity. NBC 5’s Education reporter Wayne Carter discusses the goals for the first students to attend a healthcare-focused high school.
For as long as he could remember Adedoyin Adeyen has wanted to be a doctor.
"I really wanted to do surgery since I was 10, I've just always been fascinated with the human body," he said.
Adeyen couldn't stop smiling when he and other eighth graders from Uplift Heights tried on a different kind of uniform scrubs and a surgical hat and got to experience life at Baylor Scott and White. The students got their hands dirty, learning from everything from spotting broken bones to the right way to give CPR, and that wasn't easy.
"Just like how hard you had to push and how, like, to keep the consistency going," Adeyen told us.
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This will be a high school for these students. Baylor Scott and White, Uplift Education and billionaire Mike Bloomberg are teaming up to create a school where there's training in everything from how to be a surgical tech to pairing up with mentors at Baylor who are physicians.
They graduate with credentials allowing them to work and job offers here at the hospital.
"I wanna do ultrasound tech in nursing," said Lizeth Texpa, a student attending the school in the fall.
Carter In The Classroom
Focusing on unique things school districts are doing to help children succeed.
"I just like experiencing with babies and it will be so much fun, I get to see the baby and tell the person 'Oh it’s a girl, it’s a boy.'"
Texpa never thought medicine was in her future, but says this is too big of an opportunity to ignore.
"We’re the first school to ever have that, I’m excited to be the first to be a part of it," Texpa said.
Her only disappointment was that it wasn't around for her brother, an aspiring doctor who didn't have the opportunity to get there.
"I wish he was still here he’d be going to school every day getting them grades all 100s," she said.
Most of the students here face economic challenges and never thought about receiving opportunities like this.
The new school will open in the fall. Tuesday students got a chance to meet their future teachers who might be the most excited about all this.
"All the leadership members, excluding one, actually went to college for a science degree, so a lot of us were aspiring doctors at one point and then we fell onto education and fell in love and stuck around. So the fact that we actually are turning into a healthcare high school seems kind of like it was in the plans all along," said Chelsea Bettis, Dean of Students, Uplift Heights.
Baylor employees are eager to put teacher hats on too.
This program will create a pipeline of new employees to tackle the shortage of healthcare workers in Texas not to mention helping the kids who dreamed of something like this get on path to actually make it happen.
