This Saturday, Treasure Hills Elementary kicked off its unprecedented Future Health Professionals Academy for fifth grade students.
Board of Trustees member, Dr. Bobby Muñiz, shared his insight on pharmacy with students and provided them a hands-on experience in modeling chemical reactions.
“I had an excellent time with the fifth graders at Treasure Hills this past Saturday,” said Dr. Muñiz. “They were excited to learn, and I was excited to teach them. I hope that they had fun experimenting with chemical reactions, learning about the basics of pharmacy, and learning about the different types of pharmacy.”
Students participated in a flubber experiment, which helped them understand chemical reactions. They were also assigned a question regarding different states of matter, which they will address via group presentations at their following meeting.
“It’s wonderful to have the hands-on approach that Dr. Muñiz has,” said Roland Ingram, Principal at Treasure Hills. “He really stepped up and supported the initiative. He wanted to be the first to present and provided all the materials. That speaks highly of our school board and their active approach to educating our students.”
The academy is a partnership between Treasure Hills, the Harlingen Area Education Foundation (HAEF), and Harlingen School of Health Professions. Sixteen fifth grade students went through the application process and were accepted into the academy.
“All of the students that applied wanted to be in the program for various reasons, and the stories they told were very interesting on why they wanted to be doctors someday,” said Ingram. “These students are very driven. I’ve never seen a group of fifth grade students more focused. Their goal is to be accepted into the School of Health Professions.”
Ingram hopes that this program will help students really understand what it takes to be in their desired profession, give them the tools to be what it is they want to be, and to enhance their drive.
Students will be meeting two Saturdays each month with health professionals from the community to hear presentations, work on projects, and travel to different sites to get hands-on experiences, with a culminating event at HSHP.
Click here to view photos of the Future Health Professionals Academy’s first meeting.
