Every morning, Senior Chloe Horrell puts on a pair of scrubs and heads to St. Clair Hospital before coming to school. She goes to a medical program called CAPS in the morning until about 10 am and then goes to her core classes throughout the day. Chloe is the only student at HHS in the CAPS program. Through CAPS, she is fortunate enough to be getting a headstart on her medical career, while still experiencing senior year.
Getting to fast forward into your career before even graduating high school is a rare and valuable opportunity for any student. Alongside her great academics in school, CAPS has already helped Chloe get into multiple colleges. She got into this program by successfully completing the PLTW program here at school, taught by Mr. May and previously by Mrs. Branch.
“CAPS is a program for young adults that gives them experience in a hospital setting while still being in school,” Horrell said. “I’m learning about all branches of the medical field, helping me decide on what I want to do after high school,” she added.
While being led by her instructors, Horrell can get a variety of unique hands-on medical experiences through St. Clair Hospital. Such as viewing surgeries and shadowing doctors.
“Some days I’ll shadow nurses, sometimes we’re in the classrooms learning material, we tour emergency departments, and attend professional skills boot camps,” Horrell said. “My favorite thing I’ve done is when I shadowed a nurse during a procedure called cardioversion, and I got to help shock a patient’s heart,” she added.
It’s not all medical business though, so far during her time at CAPS, according to Horrell, “I’ve made a lot of new friendships and opened up networks with professionals at college.”
Being the only student at your school to experience something like this would make anyone feel accomplished, and Chloe feels just that.
“I feel accomplished because I was the only person accepted into the program from our school,” Horrell said. “I also feel very proud of myself because I have gone out of my comfort zone with new things.”
