SAN DIEGO, Calif. One Sunday in August, the normally sleepy parking lot of South Bay Community Services was abuzz with activity. Balloons adorned a dozen or so booths, each providing information about different health issues: immunizations, nutrition, exercise. Visitors were weighed at one station, had their blood pressure taken at another, then their blood sugar at anotherall free of charge. Nearby, kids could play hopscotch, jump rope, or Frisbee.

Although there were a few doctors milling around, most of the health fair volunteers were teenagers. Theyre part of Medical Pathways, a job-training program based at San Ysidro High School, whose chain link fence frames the outskirts of Tijuana less than two miles away. More than four out of five students at the border school live in poverty, with median family income less than $28,000 a year. Much of the student population is transient and seasonal, and almost all of the students are bilingual. Health-wise, San Ysidro is hurting; there are high rates of obesity, diabetes, dental disease, and teen pregnancy.

Sheila Krotz, a former nurse who started working as an administrator at San Ysidro High School nearly a decade ago, saw a way to help fill that gap by creating a pipeline to the medical field for her students.

Its a pretty simple concept, really, she said. This community needs more bilingual health care workers, so we create the local workforce.

When a biology teacher quit unexpectedly, Krotz stepped in to pinch-hit, and realized there wasnt any direction in the science curriculum or anybody looking at long-term outcomes at how to improve [the health of the] community. So Krotz created the Medical Pathways program, a multi-pronged approach to encourage students to take four years of science and seek out medical training. This fall, Krotz became dean of a San Diego charter school but has maintained an advisory role at Medical Pathways, which lives on through several science teachers divvying up the work of fundraising, recruitment, curriculum, and internship placements.

The program recruits students in local middle schools then guides students through four years of medically-focused science classes, beginning with anatomy and physiology. Funded by grants from University of California-San Diego and other sources, the classrooms are well-supplied with model skeletons, plastic dummies, and intricate diagrams. Since the programs inception nine years ago, Medical Pathways has grown to include an extracurricular group called Medics Club for younger students; internship programs at the local clinics and recently at UC-San Diegos renowned medical center; and the new summer program at the nearby Kaiser Permanente hospital, which culminates in a student-run community health fair.

This community needs more bilingual health care workers, so we create the local workforce.

Most of the people in my community dont know how to take care of themselves, said Riki Broadway, a recently graduated Medical Pathways student who came to the United States from Mexico in 5th grade. [At the fair] we tell them what healthy eating means, what does their blood pressure mean. We give them care since they dont have money or medical insurance.

Medical Pathways is full of motivated, high-achieving students; Krotz said in the history of the program, none of the students have dropped out. But the point of the program isnt to pluck the students from poverty and ship them off to elite schools; its to give them real-world training to help their neighbors after graduation. In addition to the science classes, the internships allow the students to clock enough hours for a medical assistant certificaterather than enrolling in a pricy certification program like the local Pima Medical Institute, which can cost up to $20,000.

Lorenia Gutierrez, a recent graduate of the Medical Pathways program, talks to a health fair patient about making good nutritional choices. Gutierrez says she's fascinated by the human brain and wants to become a neurologist.

View original post here:

Border High School Trains Teens for Health Jobs