Jennifer Rye: Hi Stacy.
My name's Jennifer, and I'm going to do your vital signs today.
Jessica: Jennifer Rye is only seventeen years old.
Rye: We're going to do them on this arm.
Jessica: She's a recent Davenport high school graduate with more than
just a diploma.
Rye: This is going to do your blood pressure and your pulse.
Jessica: She has six health career certifications which is
why she is working as a certified nursing assistant at Cushing
Regional Hospital.
Rye: My junior year in high school, I went to CareerTech in Drumright,
and I went to a class called, Health Careers Certification.
The first part of the day, I went to CareerTech for four hours, and then the
next half of the day, I did regular school.
Jessica: Academic and career pursuits that Jennifer is extremely
passionate about.
Rye: I've dedicated a lot of my time to studying and volunteering at blood
drives, and going to school and everything, instead of going out on
the weekends; I had homework to do.
Jessica: And she credits her success to the Health Careers Certification
program at Central Technology Center in Drumright.
Rye: The training I received at CareerTech, when I first got there, we
did medical terminology.
I did some lessons in that just to learn basic terminology.
After that, I got my CPR license.
We went through, I think it was about a week, or two-week class where we
did CPR on adults and babies.
It was on mannequins.
Jessica: Lori Todd is Jennifer's former Health Careers instructor, and
says that this program is opening many professional doors.
Lori Todd: It gives the students a jump-start on a career.
And, it's so important today, because the healthcare industry is
getting so competitive.
It's very important for them to kind of have a little bit of advantage
over people that maybe haven't had some background training.
Jessica: An asset that Jennifer appreciates in more ways than one.
Rye: The good thing for me is, I like the health field.
And, the good thing about the job is that I know, anywhere I go they are
going to be needing CNAs, or nurses, or doctors; or anything that's health
related, they're always going to need.