Medical program reaffirms Glacier View student’s desire

MAT-SU — When you think of Glacier View School near Mile 104 of the Glenn Highway, medicine is not the first thing that comes to mind. Stunning views of the Matanuska Glacier and a small student body are what a lot of people think of when they talk about Glacier View.

The school is K-12, has 43 students enrolled for the 2012-2013 school year and a staff of 14, including a principal who teaches half-time. By Mat-Su Borough School District standards, this school is small. But don’t be fooled by its size.

For senior Jennifer Lee, the small class size has helped. In fact, having that smaller student body gives her more one-on-one instruction with her teachers, which helped when she attended the Della Keats Health Sciences Summer Program at the University of Alaska Anchorage this past summer, she said.

“I thought I was going to be a little under prepared because we don’t have Advanced Placement class here,” Lee said. “But I knew if I worked hard I could do it. Having smaller classes has really helped.”

She said having fewer students in her classes gives her more time with her teachers, which works out on the academic end of things.

Lee is Chinese born and was adopted when she was 3 months old. She has lived in Glacier View her whole life. Her family logs and mines. She says her two brothers have made her tough, and like most of her peers at school, she has hunted, fished and camped a lot.

She started school at Glacier View in kindergarten and will graduate in 2013. According to principal and teacher Wendy Taylor, Lee’s academic record has been excellent the whole time. And she would know, because she was there for Lee’s first day.

“I’ve seen her go all the way through school,” Taylor said. “She has always been a great student.”

Taylor said she knew Lee could handle the Della Keats program.

“That is why I suggested it,” she said “I knew she has always been interested in science and the medical field. It seemed like such a great opportunity.”

Taylor said she never had any doubts about Lee being able to excel in the six-week intensive medical program.

The Della Keats Health Sciences Summer Program is a medical program offered through the University of Alaska WWAMI School of Medical Education. WWAMI is a collaborative medical school with universities in five northwestern states: Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho, and the University of Washington School of Medicine.

The goal of Della Keats is to further the interests of high school students in the medical professions by giving them an opportunity to explore health care careers. Students must meet one of five criteria to attend the program. They must come from an ethnic minority background, live in rural Alaska, be a first-generation American, be the first in his or her family to go to college, speak English as a second language and/or be economically disadvantaged.

The program only accepted 18 students. These high school students from all over the state live in dorms on campus, receive a small stipend and intense training in all different aspects of medicine. They also earn four college credits in the process.

For Lee, it was a real eye-opener to all the different careers within the medical field, and there wasn’t anything she didn’t like, she said.

“It was good to hear from people in the field of medicine,” Lee said. “It was good to hear why they went into medicine and what they like about it.”

Lee also said it really taught her time management, a life skill not easily learned and one she really needs.

Lee said besides the classroom studies, attendees had the privilege of doing several job shadows, working in respiratory and pediatrics and learning about adult primary care. They also listened to two guest speakers a day, visited the state health lab and, of course, the cadaver dissection, which Lee said was pretty cool.

“We also visited the blood bank and gave blood,” she said. “It was such a great experience. I made so many new friends and learned so much.”

Lee said the program also reaffirmed her desire to go into nursing.

For one thing, said Lee, nursing is a shorter program and the cost to complete the schooling is less. But she said she also likes the personal contact with patients.

“I think I would get to work more directly with the patients,” she said.

Either way, Lee came away from the summer program with a lot of new knowledge and a couple of awards to boot. The first was a well-rounded leader award and the second was for getting straight As in her studies. She was one of only four students from the class of 18 who achieved that mark.

Lee said she might attend UAA, but the waiting list for that school’s nursing program is long, so she’s considering somewhere in the northwest.

She gave a presentation to the staff at Glacier View a few days before the start of the school year, Taylor said.

“It was great,” she said. “We were all amazed and very proud of her and her accomplishments.”

Contact Robert DeBerry at robert.deberry@frontiersman.com or 352-2266.