FACES San Diego, home to three distinct school sites, has been very busy and has a lot in the works for the remainder of the school year. We welcomed a new coordinator for our Hoover High School site in January. Nikki Lopez has been learning the program and getting oriented to both her new school site and the hospital. There’s a lot going on with the program as well, starting with all three sites engaging in the work of the Public Health Youth Corps (PHYC) by becoming advocates for good public health and COVID-19 prevention. Through PHYC, students facilitated conversations and presentations aimed at educating their friends, family and fellow community members. Further, each site will participate in a special skills clinic at the Association for Surgical Education Conference held in San Diego this year. Students are very excited to practice relevant skills and interact with surgeons who are in the top of their field. There are many more field trips planned, including to colleges in San Diego and Los Angeles. See below for additional school highlights.
FACES seniors at Crawford are currently involved in clinical rotations at Rady Children’s Hospital, where students are shadowing healthcare professionals in the Physical Therapy, NICU, and Integrative Medicine departments, as well as many more! And just recently, FACES students had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Stephanie Constantino with Family Health Center of San Diego during her Lunch with a Doctor series at school. They will have the opportunity to visit her clinic later this spring. Students were also treated to a visit from Ruby Dircio, class of 2018 alumni, who is now a registered nurse working in the oncology department at a nearby hospital. She was excited to reconnect with the FACES program and share a bit about her health career journey.
The Hoover FACES students are participating in various educational and hands on activities at school, Rady Children’s Hospital, and in their community. Some workshops held on campus include CPR and Basic Life Saving Skills, Stop the Bleed, and Narcan training. Additionally, there have been wellness workshops, holiday events, and educational workshops on topics such as HIPPA, professionalism, and healthy relationships. We’ve also had the opportunity to take our students to visit industry partners at Janssen. We are partnered with Planned Parenthood, Center for Community Solutions, ProKids, County of San Diego HIV Services, City Heights Farmers Market and Mid-City CAN to provide the juniors internship experiences doing meaningful work for their community and peers. In these internships, our students have created health campaigns, social media outreach, and advocated for their community needs. Lastly, for the first time since Covid-19 we have been able to take our seniors to Rady Children’s Hospital for clinical rotations. They have been able to shadow many departments, including NICU, Pain Management, OT/PT, Internal Medicine, Hematology/Oncology, and Neuroscience.
FACES seniors at Kearny recently completed their high school requirements and graduated from their program in January. In addition to engaging in FACES and Public Health Youth Corp work, students completed capstone projects detailing experiences in their Academy and are preparing to support a student conference taking place at their school this spring.
We salute all of our students as they continue on their path to fulfilling careers in health.