By: Josue Garcia, Reporter
OMAHA, Neb. – Omaha Public Schools moves forward with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Methodist Hospital, and Project Harmony to add the districts’ first ever school-based clinic in Benson High School.
College and Career Specialist Angela Johanek says the $6 million facelift will be a shared space between medical professionals and members of the community.
Students have the biggest opportunity with the redevelopment, as the facilities will give aspiring health workers a chance to advance their CNA and medical practice before stepping a foot on a college campus.
“By the time they’re 11th graders, we want them off campus visiting some of those sites and becoming more kind of like a networking space and looking at all the things that they can do in the professional setting and how it relates to their classroom,” says Johanek. “So students are going to come in more prepared because they’ve taken medical terminology, which maybe is not until your sophomore in college, where we can say a 10th and 11th grader has been exposed to that.”
UNMC student and current CNA Savannah Short, says a program with this experience is something she wishes was available at this start of her career.
The new addition will be 10,000 square feet, two stories high and will be a shared between students, locals, and health workers from partnering organizations.
“If I would have known from the start of high school, I think I would have become a senior that early, because I think the more experience you have, the better,” says Short.
The project is expected to be completed by the 2024 fall semester, and will open giving the public mental, physical and dental services for the public.
