Henrietta Lacks High launches 55 new healers

Lee spent his freshman year at Union High School, but when he learned that the Evergreen district was building HeLa High adjacent to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, he was determined to apply.

“I saw HeLa as a stepping stone to my plan,” Lee said about the niche school, one of only a handful of bioscience high schools in the nation.

He said he was influenced by family members working in the medical field. His grandfather is a pharmacist, his mom is a registered nurse and his dad is a medical assistant.

Lee has chosen to combine both medical work and the Army in his career aspirations. His great-grandfather was in the Army during World War II.

Lee plans to attend college and, eventually, medical school. Shortly after graduation, he will leave for nine weeks of basic training in Fort Benning, Ga. on June 27. Next, he’ll spend 18 weeks in Advanced Individual Training, learning to be a medic, at Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio, Texas.

“The Army should pay for all of my college and medical school,” Lee said.

“He’s a brilliant kid,” said Cindy Josephson, partnership coordinator at HeLa High, about Lee.

“He has a 10-year plan ready to go,” added Corey Van Brunt, coordinator of student internships at Evergreen Public Schools.

Josephson and Van Brunt worked together to place Lee and 54 other HeLa seniors in internships in the community — at medical facilities, assisted living centers and more. This year, about half of the school’s seniors participated in internships. Josephson and Van Brunt spent a couple of years working with the Veterans Administration to get clearance for HeLa student internships. Lee and two other students are completing internships at the VA.

Josephson emphasized the importance of interns’ doing hands-on work and not just watching a medical professional work.

“They need to be learning something,” she said.

In another wing at the VA, HeLa intern Savannah Rhinevault, 17, is learning from Clint Parham, a physical therapy assistant.

Rhinevault, 17, attended Evergreen High School her freshman year. Like Lee, she was enthusiastic to attend HeLa and saw it as a path toward pursuing some kind of medical career. She was influenced by her dad, who is a firefighter-paramedic. She applied to HeLa and was chosen in the school’s lottery admission system.

At HeLa, she’s been part of the nursing program as she reaches toward her dream of becoming an emergency room nurse.

Over the summer, she plans to take a four-week class to earn her certified nursing certificate. That will allow her to work while she attends college. In the fall, she’ll enter Clark College for her prerequisites and later will transfer to Washington State University Vancouver.

While Rhinevault observed, Parham helped a patient stand up from a wheelchair and grasp a walker.

“We’re just doing a couple of laps,” Parham told the patient.

A few minutes later, when he eased the patient into his wheelchair, intern Rhinevault knelt on the floor and wrapped cuff weights around the patient’s ankles. Then she instructed him to move his feet back and forth.

“She’s been really involved in learning about patient care,” Parham said. “She asks questions and learns about diagnoses some of the vets have.”

Van Brunt, from Evergreen Public Schools, watched the HeLa intern working closely with Parham.

“Some of the most important parts of the internship are having a one-to-one mentor and specific learning objectives,” Van Brunt said.

Next school year, Van Brunt and Josephson plan to place about 100 HeLa seniors in internships.

“You have to find an organization that’s willing to let their employees be mentors,” he said. “They must have that vision and commitment. Yes, it does take time away from normal operations, but consider the impact on the community.”