This year’s White Coat Ceremony celebrating four-year biomedical science students at McHenry Community High School also included most of the 31 students who completed the school’s first year of the certified nursing assistant (CNA) program.
A total of 31 students completed the four courses in the Biomedical Science pathway to earn the ceremonial white coat. The April 30 ceremony also included 24 of those students receiving pins to mark completion of the CNA program, in addition to the white coats.
Also, 11 students were honored with the Scope of Excellence award for straight A’s in all biomedical science classes. CNA students who did not participate in the White Coat Ceremony will receive pins for completing the CNA program.
McHenry Community High School 2020 graduate Gracee Majkrzak, who now works as a nurse at Northwestern McHenry Hospital, was the keynote speaker for the event.
McHenry High School started the White Coat Ceremony in 2022 to recognize students who participated in all four years of the biomedical science pathway. It also marked four years since the school started offering the Project Lead the Way’s Principles of Biomedical Science, Human Body Systems, and Medical Interventions classes as well as a medical residency capstone course. Now, the certified nursing assistant program has been added to the growing program and the former medical residency course was reimagined to two separate courses.
For the new one-semester Certified Nursing Assistant program, space was renovated at the Freshman Campus to create the lab, thanks to a donation from Northwestern Medicine. Students can then take the competency exam to earn certification in Illinois as a nursing assistant. CNAs work with nurses to provide patient care in a variety of health care settings. In the program, they’re learning around 20 skills, such as taking vital signs, helping with feeding, escorting patients to tests, among other duties.
The former medical residency course evolved to a one-semester Biomedical Experiences and yearlong Biomedical Innovations course. Biomedical Experiences includes monthly hospital visits as a class and then individual shadowing experiences with over 40 different organizations. Biomedical Innovations allows students to independently study innovations and complete related projects, and is also a Project Lead the Way curriculum.
