Parkway Students To Get Real-Life Education In A Creve Coeur Hospital

Thirteen high school seniors in are the first to join a new medical course of study linked with Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital that will run the full school year several days a week.

Parkway's Board of Education approved the program last week, after a Parkway coordinator developed the partnerships for more than a year. 

Parkway district high school seniors-to-be applied for the medical-related study, and were required to commit for a full school year, a district spokeswoman said.

Students will start school 2-3 days a week at Corporate College of St. Louis Community College for 2.5 hours of instruction by a Special School District teacher

After that, students spend another period of time at Barnes-West. Students would observe procedures and other medical protocol.

The program begins in the 2012-13 school year. Students in the medical program would attend regular classes at their home high school on the alternate days and hours that they are not in medicine.

The notion would be to expose students to a range of fields, topics and careers in the health care industry.

Credit for the medical courses would be similar to other high school courses.

For the coming year, 13 students were accepted into this inaugural program, and all 13 attend Parkway South High School—officials said that may have come about because one counselor at South was more familiar with the new program.

But all high school seniors in the Parkway district would be eligible, should the program continue, and expand.