Two experiential programs in the Beachwood City School District are arming students as young as 12 with early career knowledge and exposure in engineering and medicine: Beachwood Middle School’s Career Design & Exploration program and Beachwood High School’s Medical Academy.
High Schoolers Go Hands-On
At the high school, the Beachwood Medical Academy prepares students for pre-med programs via coursework, doctor shadowing and hospital immersion opportunities.
“The program was designed for our students who are interested in pursuing a career in medicine, specifically becoming physicians,” says Linda LoGalbo, director of curriculum & instruction for Beachwood City Schools. She leads the academy, which started in 2014.
Students take rigorous coursework, namely advanced placement math and science classes. Then, during the summer, they have the opportunity to get hands-on experience through a partnership with UH Ahuja Medical Center. During a three-day camp, students perform animal heart and lung dissections, learn how to do ultrasounds, get CPR certified and learn how to suture wounds. They also hear a variety of lectures from doctors in disciplines such as brain surgery and cardiology, and they get to meet physicians and learn about these career paths.
“It allows kids to have an opportunity to shadow medical staff to really find out if medicine is something that they’re truly interested in, and then finding ways for them to be involved and help make those connections for them with different physicians,” LoGalbo says. “We have some pretty motivated kids in Beachwood, and the fact that they have an opportunity to explore a career field as early as ninth grade and get to have some experiences in a hospital setting is pretty unique.”
Middle Schoolers Become Makers
The 2022-2023 school year saw the launch of the Career Design & Exploration program, led by longtime social studies instructor J.C. Lenk, who is now the career design and exploration instructor.
Using STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) as his guide, Lenk says he focused his curriculum and projects on various career pathways.
“We have science; we all use technology; we have the arts and we’re a great mathematics school, but engineering is kind of left out at the middle school level,” he says. “The program really opened the eyes of the 260 students who came through, and they were excited about the opportunities.”
Outfitted with a laser engraver, 3D printers and a CNC router, Lenk taught the students how to safely use the equipment and then moved on to hands-on projects.
“Once we got all the training done and all of the designing process of what they wanted to make, they had free rein to go make it. They’re in control of their own learning and exploration. That’s what is really cool,” he says.
Sixth graders start out with mousetrap cars, while older students make items such as chessboards out of the wood and then design chess pieces on the 3D printer. “Some of them are so apprehensive and even afraid of the equipment, but after they make a simple cutting board, they’re so proud of themselves,” Lenk says.
For Lenk, an avid woodworker, the program has been a home run for him personally, too. “I love seeing students grow in confidence as they try new things, create and take risks,” says Lenk. “Every kid can find something they can succeed at in my class.”
Meet two students who have participated in these programs:
Kevin Zhang
As a rising junior, Kevin Zhang would recommend that any of his fellow students who are interested in the medical field spend three days of their summer participating in the Beachwood Medical Academy’s camp. He did, and now he’s considering the physician’s assistant track because it doesn’t require as much schooling as a medical doctor.
“My favorite part of the camp were the dissections we did on the heart and lung of a cow,” he says. “It was pretty cool to just see all the parts. For the lung, they had a thing they used for CPR where they could inflate air and we can see what the lung looked like inflated, and that was also really cool.”
Zhang particularly enjoyed the hands-on learning aspect of the camp. “I think it’s definitely the best type of learning to do,” he says.
He also enjoyed the tour of the new building at the Ahuja Medical Center, noting that he was able to see state-of-the-art technology that he’d never seen in a hospital before, as well as the football field and athletic equipment in the new sports medicine complex.
Parker Borland
As a sixth grader, Parker Borland says he always knew he wanted to be an engineer, so when he found himself in the Career Design and Exploration program, he fully embraced the six-week experiential learning opportunity.
“I’d say that I’m definitely leaning toward mechanical engineering,” he says. “The class was very exciting, and Mr. Lenk put a lot of trust in us after giving us the proper training in how to handle the equipment.”
His first project was a model airplane and then a mousetrap car. “We were free to carve our own designs and use what we needed to create our cars for what we envisioned,” he says, adding that they used all of the equipment, such as belt sanders, bandsaws and precision cutters. “It was the project I’m most proud of, even though it’s simple woodworking.”
Borland especially enjoyed Mr. Lenk’s free-spirited nature in the classroom.
“Mr. Lenk gave us the freedom to explore what we needed to do, what we wanted to do, and he would help us if we needed it,” he says. “But he pretty much let us explore our creativity.”
