A group gathers to break ground last week for the $7.4 million Health Sciences Pathway building at Sunnyside High School in Fresno. Photo by Alex Scott

Sunnyside High School broke ground last week on its new medical pathway building that will be the new home of its Health Sciences Pathway.

The 12,900-square-foot building will house Health Sciences Pathway classrooms and labs to accommodate more participants and industry-standard equipment to help students be career-ready, competitive in the job market and better prepared for health-related college study.

The new building will house classrooms for applied medical sciences, medical careers, medical terminology/sports medicine and athletic training courses, as well as labs and space for rehabilitation therapy and human performance classes.

According to Fresno Unified School District Career Technical Education (CTE) Coordinator Emily Phelps, the push for the Health Sciences Pathway is aimed at building a robust health care worker population to help the underserved community of Fresno. The program will also give students the opportunity to better understand if they want to pursue an education and career in the medical field.

 “We live in southeast Fresno, which is one of the most underserved portions of our community, and Fresno in general has a severe lack of health care professionals that come and stay in the Valley,” said Phelps. “So it can be quite a challenge to get students the education and the skills that they need to be successful in those programs. Our hope is by giving those opportunities to students earlier, that they’re able to have access to the equipment and the technical training that they need to make decisions about whether or not they want to stay in that career path.” 

 

The new Health Sciences Pathway building will also house Sunnyside High School’s Doctors Academy. In partnership with UCSF, the academy provides students with services and opportunities that help them explore health careers and become competitive applicants to health professional schools down the road.  

The academy is a 4-year, school-within-school program designed for high school students interested in a health care profession, according to the UCSF Doctors Academy official website. While participating, students will take rigorous accelerated classes that put emphasis on math, science and writing, personal and professional development workshops, academic counseling and support services, lectures from medical or health practitioners, observership placements in medical or health settings and summer enrichment programs. 

An additional reason to push for a new building was the lack of space for the growing pathway. 

“We noticed that there’s a need to enhance those technical skills to get them in with the industry equipment and see what the work looks like on a daily basis,” said Phelps. “We wanted to enhance the overall experience for those students and make sure that they had access to state of the art equipment that they’re going to be familiar with.”

Superintendent Bob Nelson says that by expanding the space for the Health Sciences Pathway and being able to provide more services, staff will foster an environment where students will not only learn the valuable skills they need to enter medical school but to become successful health care practitioners and apply those skills to the real world.\

“The goal is to help kids better practice the required skills they need to simulate the work environment so that they can take care of you and me when they get out of school,” said Nelson. “For them, that means more money and better jobs right out of high school, more commitment to being in school every day because they are learning about things that really matter and that they care about every day.”

According to Nelson, construction of the new Health Sciences Pathway building is projected to be a $7.3 million project. Expected to be finished in August 2024, design and construction of the new building will be a collaborative effort with PBK Architecture Firm, BSC Leaf Engineers, Harley Davidson Engineering and Davidson Rental Construction.