Health & Medicine on WCAX News!

Last night we were on the news!

Click here to see our piece from WCAX Channel 3 News as reported by John McMahon.

We were so honored to be featured… here’s the story from their report, and make sure you watch the video here.

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont high school students are getting on-campus experiences, living and learning at the University of Vermont.

They are part of a program learning life-saving skills and building their futures. Students are thrust into emergency simulations at the University of Vermont clinical simulation laboratory.

It’s all part of the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont Health and Medicine Institute, with four days of online learning before they head to campus.

“Once they’re on campus, we have seven days of training hands-on clinical skills,” Governor’s Institute executive director Elizabeth Frascoia said.

Living on campus gives students a glimpse at the opportunities ahead of them.

“A program like this where you’re in residence on a college campus like UVM, they get to picture themselves and their lives here and I think it makes a difference,” Frascoia said.

What they learn sets them up for the Vermont Emergency First Responder certification, opening the door to working with an ambulance service.

“What we’re doing here is getting them the prerequisites to go out and take the initiative to ask fire departments and ambulance services if they accept the certification to become part of a department,” instructor Kevin Adams said.

Students come from all across Vermont, including Nakyah Furtado, who was inspired to look into medicine after a family member’s health battle.

“This year my mom got diagnosed with follicular lymphoma and I thought this institute would be a very good experience for me to learn about health and medicine to more or less learn things about her condition,” Furtado said.

Fellow student Alexis Hebert wanted to be ready whenever an emergency is thrown her way.

“I babysit so making sure they’re safe is my main priority and you never know when an emergency will happen, just making sure you can always help out,” Hebert said.

That readiness, instructors said, is key.

“Having these skills is basically the foundation of any sort of career in medicine, so they can take what they learn here and get a head start on any education they get in the future,” Adams said.

It’s about building their futures and possibly saving lives.

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