CPA To Offer Health Science Career Pathway
Community Partnerships Academy will be launching a new Health Science career pathway as of next year. CPA intends to broaden their curriculum by creating a program which will qualify and aid students who are interested in careers in the health care field. With this new career pathway available, CPA will become a small school which offers two pathways; one partnership academy which focuses on information technology for public service professions and another which will contain this new health science career pathway.
“For me, science [education] in general is to show applications where the science actually matters — where it doesn’t just matter in the classroom,” explained Allen Boltz, the CPA science teacher developing the forensics class.
For many years, a third of CPA students have been interested in health careers after graduation. “This year we were approached by a number of our community partners, including the City of Berkeley, the Berkeley firefighters, Fast Response School of Health Care, and Berkeley Youth Alternatives,” said Annie Johnston, a CPA History teacher and one of the teachers in charge of this new program. “They argued that Berkeley High School had no program for students interested in careers in health care other than biotechnology and one new sports medicine class.“
These community partners claimed to be looking for qualified young people in the health science field. Due to the fact that CPA is the only program at Berkeley High which places students in health–related internships, CPA was asked to expand course offerings to provide a health careers pathway.
“The medical profession, since it’s a person–to–person profession, will always be [in demand],” explained Boltz. He believes this to be a strong and reliable career pathway for young people.
“Students will be far more able to access college programs in the health care field,“ said Johnston. This new health science career pathway will make available more choices of classes designed to prepare students for the health care field. Students will be able to receive certifications and training that will enable them get find jobs through previous connections with professionals to aid them to pay the bills while pursuing post–secondary education goals. In turn, those jobs would perhaps open up more doors to careers in health care–related facilities and focuses. “The primary benefit will be giving experience that students will be able to take with directly into the job force,” explained Boltz.
In order to set up this career pathway, CPA teachers and others involved in this program have begun to work with middle schools and community colleges. This system has been designed so that students interested in health careers obtain the information and courses needed to develop a solid post–secondary education plan. Middle school students will begin learning about health career options through career days and other outreach activities held at middle schools. CPA students will also have access to take UC/CSU–transferable courses at Berkeley City College for the community health worker certificate program. “We are working on developing partnerships with Merritt College as well, and we have an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) training program at Fast Response School of Health Care sponsored by Berkeley Youth Alternatives,” said Annie Johnston.
CPA has also revamped their science offerings to students so they will have access to four years of college preparatory science. From freshmen year through senior year, the courses will progress as follows: first forensic science, then chemistry, advanced biology, and finally health science. CPA students will be able to get certified in CPR in ninth grade. In their junior year, the degree of certification will be continued to CPR for the professional and first aid. Students in health science will be encouraged to be certified as first responders. Seniors will have access to a special program which has been developed to provide EMT training. Alternatively, in twelfth grade, students will be offered a sports medicine class, internships at Children’s Hospital, or a chance to join the Biotechnology Program, which would open up internships at major biotechnology firms around Berkeley. As seniors, there will be a much greater emphasis on the biological science in order to lead to the heath career pathway.
By next year, chemistry and advanced biology classes will be revamped to incorporate the health care lessons. The classes are being designed so that students will meet health science standards as well as the traditional standards in a regular chemistry or advanced biology class. The community partners are providing many new opportunities to CPA students, such as the chance to view cadavers, acquire trainings and certification, and to work with health care professionals in a wide range of careers. These opportunities will be incorporated into the CPA health science career curriculum throughout all four years of science. In 2011, CPA foresees that they will also begin to offer kinesiology as well as strength and conditioning for PE credit. CPA teachers will continue to integrate the topics and concepts from both pathways into the core English and history classes, and new connections as well as new opportunities should be opened up by expanding the health careers pathway. They will continue to offer all students in both pathways access to AP English augmentation and are planning to start an AP statistics augmentation next fall. “We will be adding students to all grade levels next year and we especially encourage students who are seeking health careers to select CP Academy if they want to access these options,” explained Johnston.
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