Sitting in the classroom and learning about real world jobs is one experience that students are offered in a multitude of pathways here at Hoover. In our Biomedical Sciences program, learning is being taken outside the walls of HHS and our students are being put in real world situations where they can get a new level of hands-on learning. Starting next fall, our students in the third level of the Biomedical Career Tech Pathway will be able to travel to Aultman hospital to learn and watch real world healthcare workers.
Before any student would have the chance to learn in a hospital, someone had to be the one to get the ball rolling on the project. That someone was Mr. Robert White, our career tech principal here at Hoover.
Mrs. Sarah Covington teaches the third level biomed course Medical Interventions [MI] and Biomedical Innovations [BI]. She discusses her experience in the beginning of the process of trying to partner with Aultman.
“We, in the fall, Mr. [Ben] Janchar, Mrs. [Melissa] Roahrig and I went down with Mr. White to Pickerington High School and they have the Project Lead The Way Biomed,” she said. “They are right down the road from a hospital that they partnered with and this is how they run their program. So we were just trying to see how that worked for them so we could design our own program.”
A team of professionals at Aultman [Brittani Gresko, Talent Acquisition Coordinator; Brock Reiman, Vice President of Academic Affairs; Stephanie Boyd, Assistant Director of Marketing; and Sue Shepherd, Dean of Student Success] collaborated and described how this program idea came to fruition.
“In the fall 2025, Rob White, Associate Principal for Career Tech at Hoover High School, contacted Aultman College to explore a partnership,” they said. “Rob described his vision to provide students in Hoover’s Medical Technology program with the opportunity to take a class through College Credit Plus [CCP] at Aultman College combined with shadowing experiences at Aultman Hospital starting in spring 2027.”
While the program is just starting out, there is a solid plan in place for the day-to-day schedule of the students that blends classroom learning with hands-on experience. The Aultman team has seen the benefits of this style of teaching on students.
“Students attend one to three classes throughout the day, which may include lectures, interactive discussions and skills labs or simulation experiences, depending on their program,” they said. “Many students, especially in nursing and other health science programs, also participate in clinical rotations at Aultman Hospital or other healthcare sites, gaining real-world experience alongside classroom learning.”
Taking the classroom outside the walls of Hoover wasn’t easy, but Mrs. Covington has worked with others to find a way for the students to be able to experience both in class and out of class learning together.
“The kids will have a choice, they can do it just like we’ve always done it and same periods period two MI, period three BI,” Covington said. “Then, the aultman option changes it up a bit. It will be six, seven and eight, MI, MI, BI. So we finish MI in semester one. That frees us up to do the same three periods but at Aultman the second semester. They’ll have to have period five as a travel period, six, seven, and eight will be finishing BI, doing the CCP class, and doing rounds. Then, ninth will be travel.”
With this new option available to biomed students, there comes an added opportunity of taking a CCP class and Covington is very excited for the kids to be able to take more college level courses.
“And then the other thing that is nice is that it adds a CCP component,” Covington said. “They will get CCP Medical Ethics. Normally, Aultman College runs it as an online [course] but they do a hybrid version for high school students.”
The CCP aspect of this new project isn’t the only positive thing that will happen for people who participate. Students will also set themselves apart from others when it comes time for college because they will have done something out of their comfort zone.
“You will not only get a head start on your college education, potentially saving time and money, but you will also gain valuable insight into different healthcare careers before you even graduate,” the Aultman team said. “It is a supportive way to explore your interests, build confidence and see if a future in healthcare is right for you, all while standing out as someone who took initiative and challenged themselves early.”
There are many different jobs available in a hospital setting such as “…nursing, medical assisting, laboratory sciences, biomedical research…” and many more. The Aultman team outlines the things that students will be encountering during their time.
“Students attending our college classes gain firsthand exposure to a small, healthcare-focused learning environment,” they said. “During their time on campus, students will be introduced to our full Student Success team, including the Student Success Center, the library and its resources, the registrar’s office and our dedicated student success advisors.”
Covington is very excited about the students being able to see how a real hospital runs and operates and that includes the variety of jobs that are available for students to observe.
“Everything from transport, to the ICU, to surgical center,” Covington said. “They’re trying to get us linked up with a few surgeons…they would pipe [their surgeries] in so we could watch live on screens at Aultman College and then the surgeon could be talking to us.”
The students who participate in this new program will be treated like real employees so they can get the full, immersive experience and get a real feel for what it is like to work in a fast paced hospital.
“A couple of the things I’m excited for the students for is, they’re onboarding them almost like employees,” Covington said. “They have to do all of the HIPPA training and the little online training that you have to do for a job, they get their little badges, we’ll probably be in scrubs.”
Junior Grace Russell has been involved with the biomed program for the last two years and she will be one of the first students to go through this new program. Many new skills await her at the hospital and she is excited to see how it could play a part in her future.
“I look forward to being able to rotate between all the different areas of the hospital,” Russell said. “This will give me exposure to all sorts of different paths I could take with medicine and give me lots of shadowing experience.”
Russell would like to eventually move on to college with the intention of continuing in her biomedical career. The current program of the biomedical pathway along with the new feature being added next year will serve as a great starting point for her college career.
“As of now, I would like to get my undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and then go to PA (physicians assistant) school to become a surgical PA,” Russel said. “This year I have gone in depth with each organ system which will prepare me for the start of PA school.”
The ultimate goal of this new partnership is for students to get a head start and really discern what they want to do later in life. The Aultman team believes that this program will allow for students to see all angles of the healthcare field before they make the ultimate decision of college and life beyond.
“The hope is this experience will assist participating students to decide as to what their career choice may be and where they may want to attend college and/or work,” the Aultman team said.
This new partnership is causing a stir of excitement in not only the students but the teachers as well and Covington is one of the most excited for this new plan.
“I’m just really excited to give another option to the biomed kids,” Covington said. “I love the program already, but to have a group of them be able to go to the hospital and get some hands-on field work will be good. [And] I think it will just be something new and exciting for my own career.”
More than just learning what future path a student may want to take, the new addition to the biomed program would have the potential to stretch students academically and this is something that the team at Aultman would love to see.
“The long-term plan for this program is to provide students with an opportunity to expand their academic growth with college credit plus options and partner it with meaningful and real-world experiences within the Aultman Health System,” the Aultman team said. “We look forward to an established and meaningful partnership between the Aultman Health System and Hoover High School.”
