Grosse Pointe North Pilots Unique High School Pre-Medical Curriculum for Future Doctors

Grosse Pointe North High School will pilot next year a unique high school science program designed for students intending to pursue medical careers.

Beginning in the 2008-2009 school year, qualifying seniors will enroll in the district’s new “Applied Medical Research with Clinical Investigations” pilot course. The Grosse Pointe School Board of Education approved the pilot course on March 31.

Enrolled students will conduct laboratory research and clinical rounds by shadowing – on a rotation basis – doctors, researchers and other medical personnel at:

• Wayne State University, School of Medicine
• University of Michigan, Biomedical Engineering Department
• Beaumont Hospital, Grosse Pointe campus
• Henry Ford Hospital, Warren campus

In addition, staff from these prestigious medical institutions will travel to Grosse Pointe North to conduct class seminars and lectures. Successful students will receive high school science credit for the course. The course also will be open to qualifying students of Grosse Pointe South High School.

“This course is designed to open doors for students who are highly motivated to pursue a career in medicine,” said Susan Speirs, the program’s creator and co-chair of Grosse Pointe North’s Science Department. “The shadowing experiences coupled with in-class seminars, case study analysis and laboratory investigations designed with student questions will enrich learning beyond what we could ever offer in a conventional science classroom.”

Students will be required to complete multi-media research projects and present them to a panel of medical and academic professionals from the participating medical institutions.

“Students who complete this challenging course will be well prepared for science-focused study in their college careers,” said Tim Bearden, principal of Grosse Pointe North High School.

Area medical schools and hospitals agreed to participate in the high school program because they recognize the potential for its long-term success.

“By partnering with Grosse Pointe Schools in this new course, we believe we are providing invaluable opportunities and experiences to high school students that will translate into high caliber medical school applicants,” said David Pieper, assistant dean of Wayne State’s School of Medicine, Department of Continuing Medical Education. “Our ultimate goal is to educate better and better physicians for the future. This new course will help us do that.”

Said Kyle W. Hollman, assistant research scientist, U-M’s Biomedical Engineering Department: “With the steady advance of medicine and an aging population, it is important to recruit more people for careers in medicine as doctors, nurses and researchers.  Since these careers take more education then other fields, young people should be encouraged to consider this vocation as early as possible. This course helps them explore that option, and we look forward to participating." 

The unique course is the outgrowth of an extra-curricular program currently in operation at Grosse Pointe North called “Health Careers Investigations Club.” Here, students of all grades are offered shadowing opportunities and volunteer credit at Beaumont Hospital in Grosse Pointe and area doctors’ offices. The club was founded by Renee Seago, certified registered nurse anesthetist of Beaumont, who was also instrumental in developing the pilot science course.

“I have seen wonderful transformation in our health careers club students as they begin to understand the impact of serious medical care and treatment on our patients,” Seago said.

Grosse Pointe North High School sophomore, Shuaib Raza, is a member of the health careers club and an advocate of the pilot science course. He says the new science course will prepare him to compete as a medical school applicant. “This program will not only help me distinguish myself from the field, it will introduce me and my fellow students to cutting-edge research opportunities that will greatly further our health sciences education.”