Two dozen students in Cherokee County are learning more about health care careers at Northside Hospital through partnerships between the school district and hospital.
Work-Based Learning through the Cherokee County School District gives students the chance to get inside Northside Hospital Cherokee for exposure to — and in some cases hands-on experience with — careers in health care.
The program is open to high school students 16 and older.
The Youth Apprenticeship Program lets students experience real-life work in their chosen career field for up to two hours during the school day. Students from Creekview, Cherokee, River Ridge, Sequoyah and Woodstock high schools are rotating through areas including the laboratory, pharmacy, radiology, respiratory care, the catheterization lab, security, food and nutrition, environmental services, sterile processing, biomedical engineering and more.
“Going through all the rotations seeing what each area does to make the hospital move fluidly is so cool and getting an inside look that few people get to see opened my eyes to many other areas I may be interested in,” said Izabela Pechi, who graduated from River Ridge High School in 2024 and now is studying biology at Kennesaw State University.
“Many nurses and doctors have been nothing short of kind in helping me understand what their day-to-day is and explaining what they do, how they got to where they are, and sometimes making me feel included or letting me do some hands-on work.”
Jessica Thomas, a 2020 Woodstock High graduate, completed the YAP in fall 2019. She attended the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing at Mercer University and now is a registered nurse in the Northside Cherokee Emergency Department.
“The opportunity that Northside students is invaluable,” she said.
The Northside Hospital Cherokee Auxiliary also hosts a six-week summer program, VolunTeens, for students aged 15-17 who will be assigned to a specific department in a volunteer capacity.
Another program is Northside Observers, in which students 16 and older get a chance to observe a variety of disciplines in the hospital for up to 10 hours. Observer requests may be sent to maria.townsend@northside.com.
Pictured above are members of the spring 2025 class of Youth Apprentice Program students at Northside Hospital Cherokee.
