Four Denver high schools will benefit from a Kaiser Permanente grant to provide new biomedical engineering classes beginning this fall.
on Tuesday at Manual High School, one of the schools to receive some of the funds.
Tom Boasberg, superintendent of DPS, said the new courses, are representative of “a shift in career and technical education.”
Rather than requiring students to decide if they want to go to college for a career or to get a job right after high school, the new course programs are designed to allow for both, officials said.
The courses are billed as enough to help some students get jobs right after high school, but will also be a head start for some on their way to medical school.
The goal is to reach more than 2,000 students in the life of the three-year grant.
Students from the Career Education Center Middle College of Denver where a biomedical program already started, were at Manual on Tuesday to provide a demonstration of fitting a cast, one of the things they are learning.
According to one student, Dejaneri Maestas, 14, the biomedical course includes sports medicine training to use a back board, and pharmacology where students “got to create their own sunscreen.”
of the district schools benefiting from .
The $650,000 grant from Kaiser will help DPS also offer the program at Florence Crittenton, and Compassion Road Academy — two schools not benefiting from the Department of Labor grant.
Joe Saboe, director of pathways for DPS, said the Kaiser grant will fund staff positions, supplies equipment and other items like a vehicle to help transport students to internship or job shadowing opportunities.
