First NEISD student on track to earn three certifications at CTEC
Being hauled away on a stretcher is a situation no one ever hopes to find themselves in but it’s something students at the Career and Technical Education Center are prepared for.
Walter Pearson is the Emergency Medical Technical Instructor at CTEC’s Medical Professions Academy.
“What you see on TV is not what you are going to see in real life,” Pearson said.
He said he wished a program like this one existed when he was in school.
“It gives them an opportunity to get a career started before they actually get out of the program or actually graduate high school,” Pearson added.
Seventeen-year-old MacArthur High School Senior Angelina Schnabel is in the EMT program.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity because I can get ahead in my career pathway and it’s more money in the future because they are higher paying jobs,” Schnabel said.
She’s also balancing being a student in the Pharmacy Technician Program. Just last year, Angelina was in the Certified Nurse’s Aid program.
She’s setting the bar very high for anyone that’s going to follow in her footsteps,” Pearson said.
This makes Angelina the first student in NEISD on track to earn not just one, but three certifications at CTEC.
“I just wanted to take them to get ahead in the medical career because that is what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. I thought having these licenses would give me really good opportunities for college jobs so I don’t have to work as a waitress or in retail; I can work behind a counter or out in the field actually helping society,” she added.
Students like Angelina come from all District high schools to learn through classroom instruction and real-world scenarios.
“In CNA, we focus a lot of patient welfare and making sure the patient was comfortable. In Pharmacy Tech, we do compounding; we do drug interactions; we do classifications because we need to know how each drug works, what it works with and what it’s for. In EMS, it’s a lot of skills because it’s like first line of everything we need to be extremely confident in what we are doing,” Schnabel said.
Mr. Pearson said he loves to see his students learn. He even drives 85 miles every day from his home in Marble Falls to teach them!
“I love it! I love the classroom, the location and I love everyone I work with. The way I look at it, I am teaching my replacements.”
Angelina hopes to be a neurosurgeon one day.
You can learn more about the Medical Professions Academy here.
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