By Ryan Otteson | Reporter
Midland ISD recently announced a partnership with Baylor College of Medicine, a STEM + M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math + Medicine) program. The goal of this partnership and initiative is to encourage interests in medical careers in middle school age children. The Baylor College of Medicine is no longer associated with Baylor University, becoming an independent institution since 1969.
According to a Midland ISD news release, students will be able to start the “pre-pre-med program” in seventh grade. Jeff Horner is an executive director at Midland ISD and explains why it is beneficial to introduce medical topics as early as seventh grade.
“We introduce students in ninth grade to blood, so they don’t get all the way through to be a senior in nursing and decide, ‘I can’t stick somebody with a needle,’” Horner said. “So we introduce them to those things at an early age, so they can make a good decision.”
According to the Midland ISD news release, they partnered with Scharbauer Foundation Inc., which strives to affect education, health care, public and civic benefit and human services in Midland to better serve the community.
“We want to definitely recognize the Scharbauer Foundation for making this possible,” Horner said. “Both between Baylor and Midland ISD, we couldn’t have done it without the Scharbauer Foundation.”
Amanda Melchor, executive director of teaching and learning in Midland ISD, also expressed her gratitude for the Scharbauer Foundation. She said that instead of calling the new program competitive, she considers it to be unique because it is meant for students that are truly interested in medical work. In seventh grade, the students take a neuroscience elective.
“It really is a pathway,” she said. “It is the first course in a long pathway that takes them all the way to high school graduation and beyond.”
Baylor College of Medicine is heavily involved with the new STEM + M program. According to Horner, they will also provide Midland with the curriculum for the courses the students are taking.
“We’ll actually have a STEM + M specialist that is employed by Baylor College of Medicine that will be in Midland working just with us,” he said.
Lori Mosley, career technology education coordinator for Midland, said students taking this program can become a doctor, but there are also other careers under the biotechnology umbrella that STEM + M can lead to. The program is already in high demand, targeting 25 to 30 students per class across four middle schools.
“We’re planning on adding some more classes for next year in our health science program because it is so popular, and we love to see our kiddos come in to school in scrubs,” Mosley said.
