Wheaton’s biomedical students keep their sights set on college and careers

This year’s class gets more than $1.5M in scholarship offers, grants

‘‘What they are doing in high school is relevant to what they want to do in the future,” said Heather Carias, the Biomedical Academy’s head who teaches Advanced Placement biology and the ‘‘Principles of Biomedical Science” course. ‘‘They want to do well in the courses because they associate these courses with career options.”

Wheaton is the only school in the Downcounty Consortium with a biomedical academy, which began in fall 2006, Carias said. Students can choose a high school within the consortium.

Senior Irene Neequaye said she had wanted to attend Montgomery Blair High School with many of her friends, but her parents, both of whom work in medical professions, insisted she go to Wheaton because plans for the academy were under way.

‘‘I was sad at the time, but it turned out to be worth it,” said Neequaye, who earned her nursing assistant’s certificate this past year through the academy and will attend the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Carias said there are only nine schools in Maryland that offer a national curriculum called Project Lead the Way, which includes four intensive medical courses focusing on hands-on experience. Wheaton’s curriculum began this year with the ‘‘Principles of Biomedical Science” course for freshmen and sophomores and will add another course in each of the next three years.

This year’s senior class missed out on that curriculum, as well as a new lab at Wheaton, expected to be finished next year.

This class completed a medical elective course, a senior course designed around research or an internship and AP science courses.

‘‘I was kind of jealous. I got the opportunities but they will get more,” said senior Faland Villard, who will attend University of Maryland in College Park next year on a full tuition scholarship and earned an internship at Kaiser Permanente.

Villard also got to work at Bethesda Naval Hospital as part of the academy’s Medical Careers course for seniors. Other opportunities for students included working at the Randolph Hills Nursing Center and attending conferences, including the national Experimental Biology 2008 conference in San Diego.

‘‘It’s a career area in great demand and we look at ourselves as an incubator for those professions,” said Michael Hunt, academy director at Wheaton.

For students with more research-based interests, biotechnology and biomedicine course ‘‘pathways” are offered, in addition to the medical careers option. Olivia Bathersfield, who will be attending Catholic University in Washington, D.C., next year, was able to do college-level lab research studying different proteins in Jell-O.

‘‘Because of all the skills I acquired, things that come up later [in college] will be familiar,” she said of her senior biotechnology course, which utilized the labs in neighboring Thomas Edison High School of Technology. Staff members at Edison teach some of the lab courses and also help set up internships.

Only four males are in the graduating class, although Carias said she is trying to dispel the notion that the academy is geared toward nursing. Senior Ricardo Diaz said he was surprised at the exposure the academy provided to a variety of careers.

‘‘A lot of students find out what they want to do during high school, but they really don’t get to experience it,” said Diaz, who aspires to be a surgeon and will attend Loyola College in Baltimore. ‘‘I got to see and work first-hand in many different clinics.”

There were 98 students in the academy this year, with 138 students enrolled for next year, with male enrollment increasing, Carias said.

The academy’s teachers have some background in medicine, but intensive summer training sessions are required, said Carias, who has an undergraduate degree in biology.

Catherine Sobieszczyk, who teaches a ninth-grade biomedicine course and AP and honors biology, said the subject matter is advanced for high schoolers, but students realize what benefits the hard work can bring.

‘‘The [younger] students’ eyes lit up when Ms. Carias showed all the schools and scholarships of the senior class,” said Sobieszczyk, who has a master’s in science education.

‘‘It makes it seem like it’s tangible. It’s something on the horizon.”