DeSales Hosts High School Students in Emerging Health Program

Dozens of high school students interested in a career in health care got a special sneak peek inside the Gambet Center’s simulation labs. 

The students are part of the Emerging Health Program at Lehigh Career & Technical Institute. The dual enrollment program allows seniors to complete college courses while learning about different health care professions. 

“We love doing this program; the students love it,” says Wendi Hontz, an assistant professor in the PA program who spearheaded the initiative at DeSales. “We always have students that enroll as a result. They are so motivated and really bright—they’re the students that we want to recruit.”

This is the third year that DeSales has hosted the program. Representatives from the PA, nursing, DPT, and sport and exercise physiology programs provided an overview of their fields before students hit the sim labs to learn about everything from bleeding control to listening to lung sounds. 

“The fact that the manikins are able to change at such an instant—their breath sounds, their heart rate—it’s almost like a real-life person,” says Aidan Johnson, a senior at Southern Lehigh High School. “I think that’s fascinating to see how technology makes such advancements throughout the education of the health field.”