This past Friday, during the 1:20 p.m. bell in Grabel’s eighth grade class, students learned what the labor and delivery team does at Kettering Health Hamilton. They learned that scrub techs, who work in the operating room assisting surgeons, are only required to have a high school diploma.
Hamilton Associate Superintendent Andrea Blevins said she and other school leaders were introduced to the program last spring through the Butler County United Way. After a meeting with the Adopt A Class chief executive and seeing it in action, her “yes” to pilot the program in the district this school year was one of the easiest decisions she has made.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“We learned about the program’s inspiring mission to provide students with meaningful exposure, mentorship, and hands-on learning opportunities,” she said. “United Way expressed their hope that this initiative would be a powerful way to enrich the experiences of students in Hamilton City Schools — and we wholeheartedly agreed."
Hamilton introduced the Adopt A Class, where once a month, a business visits one of the classes in grades three to six at Linden Elementary, and the eighth-grade classrooms at Wilson Middle School. Kettering Health, which is next door to Wilson Elementary on Eaton Avenue, has two cohorts in the schools, including Grabel’s class, which they visit monthly with a different aspect of health care work.
Blevins said the benefits “have been outstanding,” including:
- expanding students’ awareness of local industries and potential career paths;
- providing strong mentorship as the school and businesses have built positive relationships;
- encouraging critical thinking through hands-on, real-world problem-solving activities;
- offering students opportunities to visit local businesses and cultural institutions; and
- creating a connection between the schools, community and the work happening in the district.
Kettering Health Director of Nursing Kyla Dierker said the hospital will be back next year to teach students about nursing, physical and occupational therapy, respiratory, surgery, and even those who work on the mechanics of the building.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Their goal is to submerse students into what health care is and what it means, she said.
“A lot of times when you think of health care, you think of nurses and doctors, but we’re so much bigger than that,” Deirker said. “It’s really just understanding what’s out there for these students so when they leave (middle school), and they’re getting to high school, they can start thinking about what that means to them.”
The hospital can be a scary place for many kids, said Grabel, “It’s really cool to meet the people behind the scenes and the jobs that they could possibly do some day.”
And exposing them to new opportunities is a key goal for the program, she said.
“They walk past Kettering every single day but most have never been inside, and the same thing with the other companies working with the program” she said. “It’s opportunity and exposure, and it’s allowing them to meet professionals in fields they didn’t even know existed. I’m hoping that we can spread this and have more businesses locally that the kids can even see themselves working at in the future.”
Blevins said the pilot has proven to be a success and they hope to continue to bring local industries into the classroom.
“We are excited about the possibility of expanding (the program) so that every student in grades three through eight across our district can benefit from this transformative experience,” she said.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
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