Thirteen students set to graduate from Community High School and Pioneer High School will soon shed their cap and gown and trade them in for a set of scrubs, having earned important health care certifications allowing them to enter the workforce or further their medical education.
The students took the Health Sciences Technology class at Pioneer High School and qualified to sit for the certification exam for either CPCT-A (Certified Patient Care Technician/ Assistant) or CCMA (Clinical Certified Medical Assistant). All 13 passed the exam and are now certified in their chosen specialty.
“This certification opens up many possible pathways for these students whether they plan to go directly into the workforce after high school, take a gap year or start college in the fall,” said Elaine Mitchell RN, BSN, MSN and health sciences teacher at Pioneer.
Mitchell said the students worked hard to earn their new titles and that one student has already been offered a job at Michigan Medicine to begin after her graduation this week and another has an interview scheduled at Trinity Health in Ann Arbor.
The Health Sciences Technology class combines textbook learning in the first semester, with students getting clinical experience in area health care facilities in the second semester. They learned valuable skills including how to take blood pressure and other vitals.
“This class has given us a lot of structure, we’ve learned so much especially the first semester, and then being able to go to clinical and see it happen in real life, also helps a lot. It’s not just textbook learning, we’re actually learning in real situations,” said Rachel Brewbaker, who plans to attend Michigan State University in the fall to major in nursing.
Brewbaker said the class prepared her for the certification exams and will give her a step up on a job to help pay for college.
Elena Fortin, who will be attending Washtenaw Community College in the fall said the rotation of clinicals helped her understand what areas she’s more interested in considering for a career.
“I came into this class being I want to be a nutritionist, then I had a nutrition rotation and I learned I really don’t want to do that. So that really helped me kind of figure out this is what I want to do, and this is what I don’t want to do so much,” she said.
The students receiving certification are:
Kennedy Flowers, CCMA
Yoonji Hong, CCMA
Alyssa McKay, CCMA
Amitha Ravikanth, CCMA
Ailin Arias-Salazar, CPCT-A
Rachel Brewbaker, CPCT-A
Elena Fortin, CPCT-A
Ella-Sophia Hawley, CPCT-A
Andrea Juarez-Salazar, CPCT-A
Angie Liu, CPCT-A
Sadie Todd, CPCT-A
Knoi Tran, CPCT-A
Eleanor Vogel, CPCT-A
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