You may think that its normal to go to all seven class periods within the halls of West, but for senior Grace Yialouris, typical school days are a little different. Grace is a part-time student at Shawnee Mission North and commutes daily for the Biomedical Health Science program that is taught there.

“At North we go to different hospitals every day to shadow [doctors] to gain experience for our future. I attend West during blocks one through four, then I go to hospitals and shadow from noon to two,” Yialouris said.

Most of the students in the program aspire to become doctors and enter the medical field. The program has two levels. In the first level, Medical Science 1, students learn medical terminology and explore health careers. Then, after completing the first level, students applying to the second level go through an essay and interview process. 

Grace is the only student at West who is in the second level of Biomedical Health Science.

“I want to become a nurse practitioner specializing in anesthesiology. This program gave me a head start  because I am earning college credit for the time spent shadowing and learning more about Biomedical Health,” Yialouris said.