Alliance Piera Barbaglia Shaheen Health Services Academy (PBS-HSA) High School's Work-Based Learning (WBL) Program is a key part of the educational experience at HSA, supporting the school’s mission of providing inner-city minority students with a health professions career program that will enable them to successfully transition into higher education and health care related majors and careers.  The WBL Program targets ethnic minority groups defined by the Association of American Medical Colleges as “underrepresented in the medical professions relative to their numbers in the general population”- primarily African-Americans and Latinos.

 

 

The WBL Program has been designed to act as an education pipeline; providing minority high school students in South Los Angeles with academic and experiential education opportunities focused on motivating and preparing them to move from secondary education into college and careers in healthcare.  

 

Program objectives include the following:

• Contextualized learning within the WBL Program will measurably improve overall student achievement.
• Students will demonstrate a wider and clearer understanding of the health care field and its required skills.
• Students will exhibit increased proficiency in career and technical skills.
• Students will show an increase in their motivation to pursue tertiary education and health care career opportunities.

 

The WBL Program follows a progressive path from Grade 9 through Grade 12.  Click here to view the program timeline.

 

 

The various components of the WBL program have been developed to provide students with hands-on opportunities to advance their knowledge and skills through exposure, practical experience, research and service related to health services.  These include:

 

• Medical Science Class 
• Medical Training 
• Career Readiness Training 
• Mobile Clinic
• Speaker Series 
• Internships 
• Field Trips 
• Clubs and Extra-Curricular Activities 

 

 

All aspects of the WBL Program are provided in collaboration with key partners throughout the medical, health care, academic and business communities.  For information on the incredible opportunities provided by our partners, and a list of current partners, please click here.

 

 

Research has shown health care workers from underrepresented minority groups are more likely to care for minority patients and come back to serve in their surrounding communities.  Based in South Los Angeles, HSA is located in Los Angeles County’s Service Planning Area (SPA) 6.  Evidence shows that SPA 6 ranks as one of the most under-resourced communities in the nation, particularly in medical services.  HSA’s curriculum and programs will work to promote diversity in the health professions and help reduce health care disparities evident in SPA 6.