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Immokalee high schoolers behind the scenes at NCH
April 10, 2006
For many of the 11 students from Immokalee High School, it was the first time they had ever stepped foot inside a hospital building.
The group of teenagers had the opportunity to explore the pharmacy, operating facilities, radiology lab and several other aspects of Naples Community Hospital's (NCH) south campus, April 5. Led through the halls of the hospital by members of NCH's department of education, the students got to take an up-close-and-personal look at a variety of professions in the fields of medicine and hospital administration.
The trip was organized by several members of the Ave Maria University Outreach Immokalee Committee. The group, comprising friends of the university and members of the AMU Naples Founders Club, has been working with a group of 18 ninth- and tenth-graders from Immokalee High in a special mentoring program for the last several months, helping them to set personal goals and to hone some of the skills necessary to achieve them.
The group has benefited from the help of Immokalee High advisor Richard Kent in establishing personal relationships between the students and their mentors, according to Dave Buckel, a member of the Outreach Immokalee Committee.
"We work with students who have great promise, but who can use some guidance," Buckel said. "We've worked on introducing some basic public speaking skills, and we try to help come up with a personal mission statement and identify goals."
The committee members who attended the NCH trip hope that the experience of the hospital's daily activities will teach the students about the medical world in a way a textbook never could.
"We try to expose the students to different professions, and challenge them to ask what they want to do with their lives," said Richard Hailer, another member of the committee. "It has been fun for us, and we're giving them a chance to really see their potential futures."