The colloquial term “adulting” has gained popularity in recent years to encompass daily activities like cooking dinner or paying bills.
For high school students in Birmingham City Schools, however, these activities are mostly foreign concepts that they will need to become familiar with sooner rather than later after graduation.
To help familiarize students with these looming responsibilities, students from Parker, Carver, and Ramsay High Schools participated in the Reality Check Event, held at the Hill Student Center on UAB’s campus.
During the event, students will learn about real-life situations, including finding housing, transportation, childcare and more. Students will also attend breakout sessions led by UAB student ambassadors, Maternal Child Health (MCH) graduate students and adolescent faculty to discuss impressions from the simulation experience.
The event is made possible via partnership between BCS Health Science Academy programs at Carver, Jackson-Olin, and Parker High Schools, volunteers from UAB MCH network, UAB Department of Pediatrics, National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE), Forge AHEAD Center and UAB Medicine professionals, which comprise MCH Health Opportunities and Partnerships for Educational Success (H.O.P.E.S.).
In the spring of 2016 the United States Department of Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Division of Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) Workforce Development sponsored a Diversity and Health Equity Peer Collaborative for MCH training programs. As a result of this collaborative opportunity a diverse group of health professionals and graduate-level trainees associated with University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Maternal Child Health (MCH) network created a trainee- led collaborative pathway program, or MCH H.O.P.E.S.
The partnership’s curriculum is designed to work in concert with the Health Science Academy by providing students exposure to various health care fields, such as medicine, healthcare administration, nursing, dentistry, psychology, social work, nutrition, audiology, speech/language pathology, and public health. These careers are introduced through speed networking sessions, clinical and experiential simulations and mentoring opportunities.