Loudoun County Public Schools launched its HAMSci (Health and Medical Sciences) academies at Briar Woods and Tuscarora high schools with a special White Coat ceremony earlier this month.
The school system said 128 out of 148 students received their white coats on August 15, with the rest receiving them when the school year started.
The four-year HAMSci program, which is new to LCPS, will prepare students for health and medical careers, with goals of filling workforce needs and keeping up with the rapidly evolving fields of health and medical sciences.
The program will help students develop critical thinking skills and health science literacy.
During the White Coat ceremony, students recited a modified version of the Hippocratic Oath.
“This was a significant event for our students, our division and the community,” said LCPS Chief Academic Officer Ashley Ellis. “After more than a year of planning, HAMSci’s launch not only engages students with unique and challenging learning opportunities but also sets them up for potential future careers in health care.”
Training Paths
The program has two pathways for students. The first “is a purely Biomedical Sciences Pathway which will entail a rigorous, deeper learning-centered curriculum with four years of specialized classes in the Biomedical Sciences. The second pathway, also rooted in a rigorous, deeper learning-based curriculum, blends two years of Biomedical Sciences and two years of specialized Language of Medicine classes, which offers insight into administrative and management practices,” according to information on the school system’s website.
Each high school has 75 seats, 50 for the Biomedical Sciences Pathway and 25 for the Biomedical Sciences and the Language of Medicine pathway. More than 750 students applied for the rigorous HAMSci program, and 148 were selected through a lottery system.
LCPS developed the HAMSci program after surveying parents in 2022 about areas their children wanted to study. Forty-four percent indicated the greatest interest was in health and medical sciences. The Loudoun Education Foundation then hosted roundtable discussions with industry leaders to determine how to create the needed programming.
The Loudoun Education Foundation, the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation, Inova Health System, and Google contributed $400,000 to get the academies up and running.
Feature image courtesy Loudoun County Public Schools
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