Plenty of high schoolers plan on being a doctor someday, but not many of are ready to be one out of high school. For the students of the Osseo High School health science program, that’s not the case.
Osseo has had a health science program in some capacity for 30 years. It started as an emergency medical technician (EMT), first responder, CPR and first aid training program. It began on a small scale, but gave students skills and direct experience in various medical fields.
Over the years the program has expanded, and five years ago, it became a magnet program. The designation served a practical purpose in that it came with more funding from the state, but it also expanded the class offerings. The magnet program allowed an expansion that included biology, chemistry and physics classes along with other medical class options that focus on health sciences, meaning students could get the necessary science credits for studying medicine.
“Kids who go through the EMT class can get credit because it is taught to a national standard,” says Gary Leafblad, who has taught health sciences at Osseo since the program began. He and Dave Casella head up the program, and both are certified in a variety of medical fields.
It’s also valuable in that the classes can show kids that maybe medicine isn’t right for them. Instead of spending valuable time and money on college courses, they can come out of high school having tried medicine and deciding something else would be a better fit.
“Kids come out of our program with confidence and direction of where they want to go,” Leafblad says. “They are able to know if they want to go into medicine.”
Kaitlynn Arbogast is a 2014 graduate of Osseo High School who took part in the health science classes. She’s now a sophomore at Bemidji State University and is pursuing a degree in nursing.
“I knew I wanted to be in the medical field since I was little,” Arbogast says. “I really wanted to help people and make an impact.” She says taking the classes at Osseo gave her a leg up going into college and a better understanding of nursing.
By the time she got to Bemidji, she had already done an EMT internship that gave her hands-on experience working with medical equipment like IVs and important skills like intubation. By her senior year of high school, Arbogast was teaching a CPR class to younger students and working medical tents at events such as the Twin Cities Marathon, giving her real-world experience in her chosen field.
Arbogast has completed all her general education classes at Bemidji and will officially enter the nursing program in spring 2016, and is on track to graduate in 2018. After graduation, she hopes to work as a nurse in the military or in an emergency room. She likes the adrenaline and quick thinking that comes with those roles.
With all that Arbogast learned from the Osseo program, she recommends it to everyone, not just students interested in medicine. “With the communication skills you learn, I would recommend the classes for any career field,” she says.
