Junior Health Sciences Academy helps Bloomington students explore medical careers

NORMAL — For students in the Junior Health Sciences Academy, putting on nursing scrubs is empowering.

"It's super exciting, because I just, like, love learning new things and especially about your future, deciding about, like, what you want to do, or just the fact that we get to wear scrubs, and we get to ... feel what it's actually going to be like ... it feels real," said 13-year-old Aly Crispin.

Crispin is in eighth grade at Bloomington Junior High School. She is one of 12 students enrolled in the academy sponsored and administered by volunteers and members of the Black Nurses Association of Central Illinois.

BJHS students take classes every Tuesday for six weeks at Heartland Community College, with volunteer instructors and nursing students from HCC.

"The primary focus of the Junior Health Sciences Academy is to plant the seed and kind of get kids in junior high thinking about the possibility of pursuing careers in health science," said Dameron Beverly, an instructor and assistant professor of nursing at HCC.

On Tuesday, medical professionals and members of emergency response teams spoke with the students during their regularly scheduled class and displayed some of the equipment they use, including an OSF Life Flight helicopter.

"To be able to show this, like, I wish I would have had something like this where I could see some of the options" in the medical field, said Daniel Delinski, a nurse with OSF Life Flight based in Bloomington.

Members from Bloomington Fire Department EMS and the El Paso Gridley Fire Protection District brought their ambulances as well.

Life Flight, while used for "the sickest of the sick," is not always available, said Jeannie Mekley, EMS chief for the El Paso-Gridley Fire Protection District.

"(Helicopters) are weather dependent, obviously. So, if it's bad weather, they call El Paso," Mekley said.

Opening doors

Hosting classes at HCC helps students imagine a future in higher education and the medical profession, Beverly said.

"We're hosting the classes here on the campus of Heartland Community College because we want these students to envision themselves being here at college," she said.

The Junior Health Sciences Academy is funded by a $10,000 grant through the John M. Scott trust with the City of Bloomington and follows the success of the Mini Nurse Academy that BNACI hosted in Bloomington's elementary schools last year.

The Bloomington School District 87 Board of Education approved the proposed curriculum during last month's regular meeting.

The BNACI received the grant to offer this opportunity specifically for students from demographics that are historically underrepresented in medical fields, Beverly said, something that is not lost on the students.

The academy helps students "build a relationship where, like, seeing where you want to go in your life," said eighth grader Shenice Jones, 14.

Meeting professionals from other aspects of medical services expands the opportunities for the students.

"I feel like we're lucky to have these people who have, like, the experience and stuff," said 13-year-old Sienna Langford.

"It's actually very comforting for us because ... they're telling us how it's probably going to be, and teaching us," the seventh grader said. "And I feel like that's very good for us."

Hands-on experience

After the presentation from EMS personnel, the students got their hands "dirty," as it were, as they practiced how to draw blood and start an IV.

Volunteers and HCC nursing students helped the students find veins on advanced mannequin arms, with "blood" that would flow if the needle entered the arm properly.

That is just one of many techniques the students are learning in the academy, Beverly said, adding the program also will include two weeks of CPR training from the American Heart Association.

"These junior high students will leave with CPR certification," Beverly said.

But through a mentorship program, those volunteering in the program plan to continue guiding these students even after the last lesson, Beverly said.

"Once the six weeks of coming in and talking with professionals and learning about the different professions (are over), they will be assigned a mentor ... working in that field to help shepherd them as they're looking to enter high school," she said.

Contact D. Jack Alkire at (309)820-3275.

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