Revere is offering students a chance to join Cleveland Clinic’s Student Pathways Program for information and guidance on different areas of the medical field..
Nancy Vondrak is the career specialist at Revere, meaning she facilitates programs such as CVCC for students. She facilitates the Student Pathways Program for Revere.
“The program will give you some interaction with medical professionals from a variety of different careers. It’s good for anyone who wants to consider a medical career whether it’s working with patients or sometimes people want hospital administration . . . or lab work,” Vondrak said.
To apply for the program, students must meet various requirements. These requirements are on the Student Pathways website and include being in eleventh or twelfth grade, being a US citizen, being interested in a healthcare career, having permission from parents or legal guardians to participate, having WiFi and a way to access Zoom and Microsoft Teams and providing proof of having several health immunizations (vaccines).
Vondrak said that students who apply in September for the fall will have sessions in October and November. If students have a tight fall schedule Vondrak also said that the program offers a winter session during January and February.
“You have to apply by September 27. . . . That is the date to apply for the fall session of the program. There will also be a spring session. . . . The program itself lasts for six weeks. Five of those weeks are virtual on Zoom,” Vondrak said.
The remaining week is an in person learning experience held at a location picked by the Cleveland Clinic where students can talk to medical professionals and have hands-on experiences with some of the equipment according to the Student Pathways website.
Sophomore Alayna Esplin enrolled in the Student Pathways Program last year and attended several meetings.
“You are in the library listening to people talk about their jobs in the medical field. They talk about price ranges of what they get paid and what degrees they need to be a certain doctor, like an anesthesiologist,” Esplin said.
Vondrak said she wanted to bring the program to Revere to help guide students if they have any interest in pursuing a medical career in the future. Esplin is benefitting from this process.
“I’ve always wanted to be a heart doctor (a cardiologist). There’s people who have the actual job that you can ask questions,” Esplin said.
Vondrak has also been looking into other programs facilitated by the Cleveland Clinic to provide even more opportunities for Revere students.
“Luckily, last year we started a pretty good partnership with the Cleveland Clinic,” she said.
Vondrak said that she was planning on exploring other programs because of this connection. One specific program she mentioned was the Connected Career Rounds. According to Vondrak, the Connected Career Rounds is a program that any interested student could participate in because they do not have to apply for the program.
“We started doing this last year. The Cleveland Clinic started doing it and we affiliated with them,” Vondrak said.
She said that the program is a virtual, in-school field trip that takes place on Tuesdays during the sixth period. The Connected Career Rounds program also takes place on Zoom and focuses on different medical career themes.
“One that was real popular last year, and it was one that Revere didn’t do but we’ll do it this year, it was called Play Ball,” Vondrak said.
Vondrak attended the meeting last year and said the Play Ball program focused on sports medicine topics. She said that the program included information and meetings about sports medicine doctors, physical therapists, and even athletic trainers.
There are similar programs such as All About Therapy and All About Doctors which are also run by the Cleveland Clinic. In a similar Zoom fashion, students will get to meet with various types of therapists and doctors and even first-year medical students and ask them questions about the medical field.
Vondrak also took students on a field trip last year. The field trip was to the Cleveland Clinic and allowed students to see and use equipment themselves and ask questions to medical professionals in person while observing the work environment.
Sophomore Ellie Sable attended the field trip.
“We went to an interactive center with tools and models that they use to practice before actually being in the hospital scene. We got a tour around that to see what they get to do. It was interesting to see how they do things,” Sable said.
Sable also said that the trip was a hands-on experience where her group was able to learn how to take ultrasounds and test blood pressure. Sable said that the group could also ask questions about different medical professions if they had any interest in it.
Vondrak said she wants to keep exploring options through the Cleveland Clinic for students who have interest in medical practices.
