West Anchorage High School is known for its diversity in the curriculum down to Sports. Once again West added another feature to the many options it already has. The Medical Academy is the newest added feature to west.

The academy will make its debut at the beginning of January 2016. Vernon Lindo, Kirsten Davis, and Rick Stone were interviewed to further the information about the Academy.

Mr. Vernon Lindo our curriculum principal for the past four years, says, “I’m always willing to add something that you can learn from.” He believes the Academy will be a great experience for the kids that are involved. It is said that the Medical Academy is focused on providing high school students with the right preparation in healthcare. In the program there will be interactions with professionals and patients through hands-on experiences and real life situations.

Lindo makes it clear that students will build their employment skills in the healthcare fields by learning the specific terminology, gaining college credit while in high school and getting first aid and CPR certification. Lindo also says that there’s a number of classes that’ll be added from fire rescue, veterinary science, to just the regular emergency medical technician (EMT). “Just wait and see what comes out of it.”

Rick Stone, principal, for the past nine years states, “The medical field always interested me.” Mr. Stone said that he’s all for the idea because it brings the interest of the students to school. He believes the Medical Academy is most interesting to students because we have many athletes and athletes take great interest in their bodies. He most definitely recommends it to the athletes because there is a course that specifically talks about athlete injuries and how to prevent and cater towards them.

“It’s like that one science class where you mostly did projects,” said Mr. Stone describing the Academy. Stone says there will be new teachers there to teach the course but Kirsten Davis, a now familiar medical teacher for West, will also be teaching.

Davis is our current Medical Terminology and Anatomy teacher for about the past 2-3 years. She believes “The program is everything that I can’t do right now in my classes because I don’t have the time.” Davis is not quite sure if she’ll be gaining any new classes from the program but she knows for a fact she wants to be involved somehow. She also said that quite a few people from her current classes are interested in the program because they get to be more hands-on.

“I believe the program is a great idea,” she said. She thinks it’ll teach the students all the things they should know about their bodies in a fun, easy way. Davis says if she could add one thing it’d probably be more teachers so the load can be easier to carry and so that the classes can go into even greater detail.

Being a medical teacher she explains that there are places the Medical Academy won’t cover. Her goal for the Academy is to teach the students without boring them.