High Tech Academy students explore medical careers in Ohio U. program

March 27, 2017

Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine is a medical school with a local and regional focus. It wants to recruit local students, educate them and encourage them to practice in the region after graduation.

In particular, the college wants to recruit students from minority and underrepresented populations, who will often graduate and return to their home communities to practice medicine.

It’s with that in mind that Heritage College established the Aspiring DOctors Precollege Pipeline Program – the intentional capital “O” evoking the D.O. degree conferred on doctors of osteopathic medicine upon graduation.

The program, based at Heritage College’s Cleveland campus, seeks to expose minority high school students to the opportunities available to them in the medical field by giving them hands-on experience – including periodic visits to the campus, embedded within Cleveland Clinic South Pointe Hospital in Warrensville Heights.

When Heritage College sought partners to help launch the Aspiring DOctors program, Cuyahoga Community College was among the first to step up – recognizing an opportunity to provide potential career paths for students at the Metropolitan Campus’ High Tech Academy.

Tri-C’s High Tech Academy is now one of three Cleveland-area high schools participating in the program, along with Warrensville Heights High School and John F. Kennedy PACT High School. The program has room for up to 200 students among the three schools.

With the partnership of Tri-C, WHHS, JFK PACT and community and charitable foundations, Heritage College Cleveland aims to have an enrollment comprised of 20 percent minorities and underrepresented communities by 2020.