Work experience

Usually school and work are separate things.  Children and teens of crew members attend school here on the ship.  There is an academy with grades from pre-school through high school.  During the sail, Claudia (my boss in the lab) and I taught a science class about blood and the students were intelligent and able to use the things they learned in the lab during the hospital open house.  They remembered things that we talked about in class weeks before and helped educate the crew on blood types.  Tonight was an open house and creative arts demonstration and I was amazed by the talent of all the students.  One of the reasons that I've always been impressed is with student work experience.  Each of the high school and middle school students applies for a job on the ship that they are interested in.  Nursing, dental, lab, engineering, photographer, media, or sales.  For a week the student works beside crew members to get an idea of what the job is and to see if they would be interested in that career.  I was able to have Lara as my student for the week.  My goal for the week was for Lara to draw blood from a crew member.  By the end of the first day we had to start an entire new set of goals. It was amazing.  By the end of the week she was drawing blood from crew, patients and also drew a pint of blood for a patient in the O.R needing a blood transfusion.  It isn't easy to focus on your work when you are drawing blood from a child (or a grown up that acts like a child) but Lara was professional and compassionate to everyone.  When she wasn't being the student vampire she was working in the lab running tests on the blood. During the week Lara joined me on the Emergency Medical Team for a fire drill and visited the O.R to observe a surgery.  I was impressed with the skill that Lara was able to show after only a few days training.  It was also a hilarious week of fun but hopefully noone will ever see the hour long video of us laughing while Linda tried to interview us.  I had a great time growing up and was able to experience many different things but never anything like work experience week.  One of the best things is that after her week Lara decided to pursue a career in medicine and is applying to University.  Whatever she decides to do, Lara will do great.