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Twenty high school science, engineering, technology and math teachers spent a recent summer morning learning about medical imaging, respiratory care and speech-language pathology from School of Health Professions faculty and students.

The Voelcker Bio Bootcamp for Educators (VBio) included sessions with ��������’s medical, dental, nursing and graduate schools and was designed and implemented by the  (ORSO), in response to an initial teacher interest survey, said Executive Director Irene Chapa, PhD. The program is funded by the Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Fund, and includes teacher stipends and continuing education credit. 

“This outreach provided the teacher attendees enhanced clarity of the pathways into the health professions, brought a renewed sense of excitement about science and provided a connection between the science content they teach in the classroom and how that content can be applied in a biomedical profession,” Chapa said.

Chapa’s office organizes many other outreach programs, to include single-day campus visits, weeklong workshops and longitudinal programs such as the Voelcker Academy and the South Texas Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (STUROP).

School of Health Professions Director of Admissions Melina Dauto Benavidez said the visits by teachers create another avenue to educate students about health professions careers before they even start college — something she said is important to ensure access for a range of students to the many career options in allied health.

“The feedback we’ve gotten from our current students is that they didn’t find out about these professions until their sophomore or junior year in college,” she said. “Teachers told us they liked seeing students do the activities and interacting with them because they are so passionate about their professions. You can see their heart is in it and they enjoy telling others what they are going to be doing after they graduate.”

The visiting teachers attended presentations by graduate speech-language pathology students and respiratory care students and participated in hands-on activities. Master of Science in Respiratory Care student Kaylan Forest was one of the student presenters. She demonstrated intubation to the teachers —one of whom happened to be her own high school science teacher and the faculty sponsor of her high school’s health occupations student group. 

“’Wait! I know you!’” she recalled saying when she spotted him in the group.

Forest, vice president of the Respiratory Care Class of 2026, said it was important to her to share her passion for her future profession and exciting to be able to guide the teachers through the process of intubation while reinforcing the need for respiratory therapists to be able to think on their feet.

“I’m a firm believer in everything happens for a reason,” she said. “I like how they really appreciated our presentation.”

Jamie S. Tucker, EdD, RT(R)(CT)(ARRT), assistant professor and program director of the Master of Science in Medical Imaging Sciences program, showed the visiting teachers one of the school’s virtual dissection tables. She described the profession in general, the qualities that imaging students typically possess and the type of learning style that the profession tends to attract.

“It’s classified as an art and a science,” she said of medical imaging, describing it as a field that brings together science and creativity to create images whose quality is essential to patient care. 

The Voelcker Bio Bootcamp for Educators (VBio) uses a “train the trainer” model to reach a much larger number of students, as the teachers each have hundreds of students in their classes, Chapa said. She explained that the mission of her office is to increase awareness of health professions opportunities and to educate students regarding the pathways leading to a successful health care career.

“We strive to increase awareness of specific opportunities at �������� to build and strengthen collaborative partnerships with community organizations and educational institutions and to increase community awareness of scientific endeavors and accomplishments at ��������,” she said. “Our goal is to motivate and educate the youth of our community to encourage them to pursue health professions. Equally important, however, is to help equip the students with tools they can utilize to become competitive applicants to professional programs – and to succeed once they are accepted.”

This summer, the School of Health Professions hosted high school students participating in an ORSO program, with presentations from students and faculty from the occupational therapy, respiratory care, medical laboratory sciences, physical therapy, imaging sciences and physician assistant studies programs, Benavidez said.