NEWS

Louisiana Tech College of Applied and Natural Sciences hosted 21 high schools students for the Northeast Louisiana Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Day Feb. 24.

The dean of the College of Applied and Natural Sciences, James Liberatos, gave the students an overview of the nursing and allied health programs offered.

“The students then began their day with nursing faculty and student presentations and a hands-on skills lab practice session,” said program coordinator Tanya Sims, an assistant professor of nursing.

Students toured campus and heard faculty presentations on medical technology, health information management, nutrition and dietetics, and child life.

AHECs are special cooperative efforts among health career educators, community hospitals, health professionals, and local citizens that seek to address shortages of health professionals in underserved and rural areas. AHECs encourage students, especially minorities or under-represented groups, to pursue health professions, especially in rural areas.

Students who attended said they learned a lot from the experience, according to Ashley Frazier, AHEC director of youth programming for the North Louisiana.

Feb. 24 was a busy day for Applied and Natural Sciences as the nursing division also hosted 19 Bossier Parish high school seniors concurrently enrolled in an Emergency Medical Technician course through Bossier Parish Technical College.

These students toured the campus and listened to a presentation on nursing, Sims said.

“Their instructor, Valerie Liles, is the mother of a Division of Nursing graduate and values our program enough to bring her group over by bus to interact with our faculty and students,” Sims said. “We hosted these students in the afternoon, after AHEC rotated to other Allied Health areas; we just had a full day of recruitment for nursing.”

Written by Beth Christian