The Rutgers Allied Health Program in Nutley High School

Within Nutley High School, there are many courses and programs that help benefit the students.  One of these programs is the Rutgers Allied Health Program. Over the years, this program has been present and has taught many students about the medical field and also helped prepare them for college.  

The Rutgers Allied Health Program is a program designed to help students gain the experience of taking a college course while also gaining college credits in high school. The main goal of the program is to help the students learn and grow into college students. The program is split into three classes which are Health Dynamics, Human Physiology Honors, and Medical Terminology/Medical Math.  Each class is directed by Dr. Peter Smith who is also an NHS science teacher here at NHS. 

The whole program is directed by the District’s Science Coordinator, Mrs. Carly Johnson.  Dr. Smith is an approved Rutgers University professor and also a certified high school teacher, which is why he can run these courses.  According to NHS student, Jenny Gavazi, who is currently enrolled in the Medical Terminology/ Medical Math class, she believes that the class’ purpose is, “to expose students to what it means to be in healthcare and to be able to experience what it means to study the body and for students to learn about themselves and their interests too.”  

For students, the classes are something very interesting and something that most love to learn about.  When it comes to their perspective, they only have positive things to say about the program. They both helped explain the application process, some learning techniques they use, and the difficulty of the class.  The two both enjoy what they are learning so the workload didn’t come off as too stressful for them. For Khushi’s acceptance into the class, she states, “I was accepted into the program during January of my sophomore year. We were required to send a personal statement explaining our interests in medicine and interview with one of the academy advisors. Ms. Powell (former adviser of the program) did my interview after discussing my essay with me and that's how I got accepted into the program.”  

Jenny states, “When I was a freshman, during orientation, the science director mentioned about the program and that you can get up to 30 credits to Rutgers, so I decided from there that I wanted to join, but only sophomores can join. At the end of my freshman year, I wrote my essay for submission, and low and behold, after an interview with Mrs. Johnson and Ms. Powell, I was accepted into the program. I started my first class (Health Dyn) as a sophomore.”  

The two NHS students described the difficulty of the class manageable.  For students who are either athletes or take lots of harder courses, being able to have good time management and good organization skills are what will help the most in succeeding.  

Overall, the Rutgers Allied Health Program has been a huge success in NHS.  The positives that the courses have brought help to attract upcoming students to take the courses as well. With more and more students joining the program, it will continue to flourish and be beneficial to the students that attended NHS.