On Wednesday, May 9th, the Paramount Rotary Club and Healthcare Career College hosted 15 sophomores from Paramount High School students as part of a grant entitled, “Career Exploration Tours”. The purpose of this program is to introduce high school students to potential companies and careers by visiting places of work and talking to professionals in the fields in which they might be interested. The goal of the program is to open doors and pave the way for these students. So that they may go straight from high school into preparing for a professional career. The field trip included a campus tour of Healthcare Career College and workplace tours F&F Adult Day Care Center and West Anaheim Extended Care. The day was centered around the nursing field.
The high school students arrived at the College together with their teacher.
The College’s Campus President, Amita Garg, opened the orientation with the question “What are you most excited to learn about today?”
Many of the students said they were open to learning anything about the healthcare field. Students were introduced to programs that Healthcare Career College offers, such as Medical Assistant, Dental Assistant, Vocational Nursing, Medical Billing and Coding, Ultrasound Tech, and Patient Care Tech.
The students were then provided a general glimpse of the length of the courses and the types of classes offered for each program by the Director of Admissions, Tricia Walker, and the Director of Education, Dr. Ramon Geluz. They presented that the need for people to go into Healthcare careers is strong. People will always have healthcare needs. Healthcare workers are always in demand as there are always patients to take care of. Therefore, the healthcare field will always be in demand.
Vocational Nurse Instructor Cynthia Jansen shared her story of what inspired her to go into nursing, a career she had been in for 50 years. Cynthia said she is proud to be an instructor for the wonderful LVN program at Healthcare Career College. She stated she takes great pride and care in the quality training of each student.
She concluded that “If something were to happen to me, I would want one of my own students to take care of me”.
Healthcare Career College is especially proud that they have a 100% job placement for their Vocational Nurse graduates. This sparked an interest for some of the high school students to go into Nursing. Healthcare Career College is different because students can apply the skills they learn right away. Every day, students attend lecture and lab practice.
“What you learn here at our school are skills that you can apply to your jobs right away” Dr, Ramon Geluz, the Director of Education assured.
Students saw the College’s training in action as they proceeded to tour the labs of for each program.
Some students grimaced at the sight of blood as the Medical Assistant students practiced phlebotomy on each other during class. Some students seemed interested in the equipment used by Dental Assistants. All of the students paid close attention as they were shown a gallbladder in the Ultrasound lab. After the tour, a student claimed her favorite was the Ultrasound Technician lab.
“It’s something I want to do someday, I think it’s really cool” she said proudly.
The campus tour gave the students a personal, up-close and emotional experience. Hopefully, it will influence them to choose a rewarding career path one day. In just a couple hours, we noticed the difference in the students. The personal experience and tours the students received helped the students to be excited. It helped them reflect about how they can make their career goals a reality.
After the campus tour, the students visited F&F Adult Day Care Center and West Anaheim Extended Care.
At these sites, each and every one of the staff talked at length about their job. They then allowed the students to see the work they do with their patients. Dr. Damon Dragos, Vice Principal of Paramount High School, stated that the experience was positive for the students and expressed interest in more field trips. Healthcare Career College is hosting the next field trip on Wednesday, May 16th. The students will receive a campus tour and then visit a dialysis center and an OB/GYN clinic.