Eight Germantown High School students participated in the Healthcare Academy program offered by Community Memorial Hospital over a three week period this summer, and several of them spoke about their experience during a presentation at the Germantown School Board Sept. 8. “I was lucky enough to be part of this program this year, which was wonderful,” said Riley Hohl. “One thing that I really enjoyed about it was the chance to get to work closely with professionals in the field and to feel how the environment is and not just imagine it.” Hohl, Morgan Brummer, Arianna Fischer, Becky Claas, Brandon Garvey, Ellie Huettel, Anna Lawniczak and Cassidy Radomski were the students who participated in the program. According to information from Diane Seramur, who serves as the district liaison for the program, Germantown has been involved in the Healthcare Academy for six years. Applications are sent out to Germantown and the Menomonee Falls and Hamilton districts. According to Seramur, applications include student essays, grade and attendance reports as well as teacher evaluations. Essays are read and students are selected to move to the second stage of the process which is an interview in front of a panel of two to three Germantown staff and two to three Community Memorial Hospital staff members.
From there the top eight are selected, along with one or two alternates. All three school districts joined for two days of orientation, and then each school had its own three-week rotation. During the three weeks, students involved in the academy got a glimpse of several areas of hospital operations. Students then created posters and make presentations at a recognition ceremony. The posters were on display during the School Board meeting Fischer said that going into the program she wanted to pursue a career as a pediatrician, but is now interested in other aspects of health care. “This program has helped me discover who I am and who I want to be in the future. It’s very cool to have the experience,” Fischer said. Garvey noted that during his observation in the respiratory therapy area he saw an emergency caesarean section. Huettel said she was excited to see the interaction between physician and patients. “I enjoyed working with the patients and meeting them,” she said. Brummer said her highlight included seeing an abdominal surgery. She said that people don’t realize the many job areas within healthcare. She said the program helped her “isolate my career path better.”
Claas witnessed a shoulder surgery. She said she entered the program with an interest in being a nurse and said the program confirmed her interest. “I really want to thank you for helping me basically figure out that nursing is what I want to get into,” Brummer said. Lawniczak said “there is no other way I would have wanted the beginning of summer break than getting up every morning and being able to see the way doctors interact with patients — all the different units of the hospital and how they blended together to make it run smoothly.” Lawniczak said she intends to pursue are career in nursing after high school. Superintendent Jeff Holmes attended the July 11 recognition program and said the presentations were “awesome.” “You represent Germantown School District extremely well. The way you articulated the things you saw in three weeks were spot on, it was quite genuine, ” Holmes said. “You could tell from the excitement, you had learned a lot.” In later comments, Seramur noted she has contacted past participants in the Healthcare Academy program, many of whom have continued to pursue careers in healthcare. -By Thomas J. McKillen, Managing Editor
