By Dana Williams
Learning the ins-and-outs of the profession this year, she said, has allowed her to realize that a career in pharmacy is the right one for her.
"I love working at the hospital, and I don't want to go home whenever I go there," she said. "If it wasn't for our school's program, I probably wouldn't have known that I wanted to be a pharmacist, so being a part of it has been great."
Singh said she plans to continue to work at the hospital while studying pharmacy at St. John's University in the fall, and her positive internship experience - along with those of many other students who participate at Mercy's Shadow Day - are due to the district's renowned School-to-Career Program.
In April, school officials learned that the Baldwin School District was one of the six winners from across the country to be awarded $10,000 by the Council for Corporate & School Partnerships to help sponsor its future school-to-business partnership efforts.
"We were the only school from New York State to win, which is great," said Gregg Kelley, a business teacher at the high school and a member of the school's School-to-Career Committee. "Our program is excellent, and we are helping our students build a future from themselves."
The district's partnership with Mercy Medical Center aims to introduce and promote a student's interest in a healthcare career, but school officials all agree that it goes above and beyond that goal. The program is believed by many to be an essential part in building a positive future for Baldwin students.
"The experiences that our students get from Shadow Day and internships motivates them into picking a career path," said Pat Banhazl, the School-to-Career program's coordinator. "Our students get experiences that prepare them for college and the real world, and it opens so many doors for them."
Banhazl started the Shadow Day program 12-years-ago along with Michael Roccoforte, the district's assistant superintendent for instruction. Since the first Shadow Day with Mercy in 1995, students have been able to accompany hospital employees, who volunteer to serve as their mentors, for one day in fields ranging from physical therapy to radiology, and experience first-hand the Mercy Medical Center staff's every day routines, Banhazl said. This year students were able to see doctors perform a number of medical procedures, said Linda Kellner, the assistant principal at Baldwin High and a member of the School-to-Career Committee.
The achievements made by students this year have allowed the school district to be recognized on a national level, Banhazl and others said. For the past three years, the district has been an applicant for the Council for Corporate & School Partnership's annual National School and Business Partnerships Award. Each year the council selects six schools with school-business partnerships "that have a positive impact on student achievements, school improvements and/or the overall education experience," with only six receiving a cash award, according to the council's Web site.
The Baldwin School District received honorable mention in the contest last year, and although they were happy about the honor, they each said that they knew the district's program with Mercy Medical Center could win the top honor. This year, the district did just that.
Kelley also noted that the district's program sometimes works the other way around, and students may realize that a particular career may not necessarily be right for them. Baldwin High School senior Jenny Fabricant best fits that description.
By interning at South Nassau Communities Hospital, Fabricant said she realized that a career in nursing is not an occupation that she wants to pursue in the future. "I was so set to go into the nursing or maybe pre-med, but by working at the hospital, I realized that the medical field was just not the right career for me," she said.
As a member of the Baldwin School District's Medical Explorers Club, Fabricant, 17, said she received the opportunity to work with South Nassau Communities Hospital's emergency room nursing staff. The experience, however, allowed Fabricant to realize that a career as a nurse was not right for her.
Through another internship called "9/11 Forward," a program that provides support services to help children, adolescents and families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks, Fabricant said she was able to realize that a career working with children is her calling. She plans to study psychology and criminology as a double major this fall at Ohio State University.
"This program is excellent because our students have the opportunity to determine whether they do or don't want to go into the health field at 16 and 17-years-old," added Kellner. "We knew that we deserved this award and everyone involved worked very hard to show that giving our students these kinds of opportunities is what we are about."
The partnership also extends beyond the high school to the younger students in the district. Baldwin Middle School students have the opportunity to participate in the district's Nursing Exploration Program, which is a week-long summer program where students spend half days learning at Mercy Medical Center and Molloy College.
"To be recognized nationally for positively impacting our kids lives is really an incredible achievement considering this program is all volunteerism," Roccoforte said. "Our program provides our kids with the real-life skills, so they can be successful, and I am very proud of it."
Comments about this story? Dwilliams@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 282.
