At San Jacinto High School, there are a variety of different pathways that students can choose from. Within these pathways are the medical classes, which help prepare students looking to go into the medical field.

“This class gives me a lot of hands-on experience, and so I get to do things like take out blood, give injections, blood pressures, and I get to work with real-life patients, and not just like mannequins,” says Tainary Quintero.

“We’re just like training to be friendly with customers and make them feel as comfortable as possible for their care,” adds Camila Zavala.

Not only does it give students first-hand experience within the medical field, but it also helps them decide what possible careers they might go into.

“So right now, my goal is to become a medical assistant, and then from there, I’ll get my degree and become a phlebotomy technician,” replied Tainary Quintero.

“After high school, I want to be a paramedic, but eventually I want to work towards a doctor,” responded Shalim Rodriguez. “So, those are kind of the two things that I’m working towards right now.”

The medical pathways even set up students to join the medical field right after high school.

“It would make it a lot easier from the transition from normal high school towards any other medical setting, so it just trains you for how you could get adjusted to that,” comments Shalim Rodriguez.

“Some of our classes also have the externship, so first semester you come to class, you learn the book part, you go in the lab, you’ll do some skills,” answered Mrs. Salas. “Second semester, instead of coming to me, 4 days a week, you actually go out into a doctor’s office or clinic where you practice skills that you learn in class and out in the real world.”

Overall, there are lots of benefits when choosing to take a medical class at the high school.

“Whether you plan on going on to nursing school or become a physician or physical therapist. These are great programs that you could get into and then learn a little bit more about what’s expected of you in healthcare,” added Mrs. Salas.

For Tiger Media Network, this is Justin Grino and Estuardo Garcia.