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When the 2024-25 school year began at the University of ��һ�Թ��� Medical Center, the college of medicine’s incoming class included seven students who were graduates of UNMC’s own High School Alliance Program.

The High School Alliance is UNMC’s pre-health science program, which offers high school juniors and seniors a chance to learn from experts and practice hands-on skills. Former students often appear at White Coat ceremonies – approximately 30 of the program’s more than 900 graduates have come to UNMC for medical school alone. Other alliance graduates have gravitated to nursing, pharmacy, public health, allied health or research.

The high number of incoming medical students this fall, though, was a stunning success for the program, which provides an inside look at what it’s like to be a health care provider or researcher.

Program director Heidi Kaschke, who shepherds the students through the two-year program, was excited to have so many alums joining the UNMC medical school.

“I’ve known these students since they were in high school,” she said. “To see them finally reach their goal is a full circle moment, and I was excited for all of them—and can’t wait to see what they’re going to do when they earn their medical degrees.”

Providing an Immersive Experience

High School Alliance is held during the school year, with selected juniors and seniors taking health- and science-related classes as part of their high school coursework. Alliance classes cover health care topics such as infectious diseases, anatomy and medical decision-making, and the classes are taught by UNMC faculty on the university’s Omaha campus.

The program began in the 2010-11 school year with the goal to offer high school juniors and seniors an immersive experience in the health science professions by providing hands-on, college-level classes. The program currently partners with the public schools in the Omaha metro area.

“Our mission is to introduce the students to everything that UNMC and ��һ�Թ��� Medicine have to offer,” Kaschke said. “The students often think they're going to be an orthopedic surgeon or a NICU nurse -- which is fantastic, we need those. But we also need researchers, epidemiologists, biostatisticians.”

All UNMC colleges participate in the program, she said, whether it’s leading a class, hosting a student in their lab or providing a shadowing opportunity.

“This allows us to introduce students to medical and health care opportunities beyond what they've seen on television,” Kaschke said.

Kaschke joined the program as coordinator in 2012, and she’s been leading it ever since.

“Our mission is to introduce the students to everything that UNMC and ��һ�Թ��� Medicine have to offer.”

“What I love the most is watching the students find their people,” she said. “These students are highly motivated, intrinsically curious and know what they want to do. When they come here to the UNMC campus, they bond and make lifelong friendships.” (Three pairs of High School Alliance grads are married.)

Motivated Students, Successful Outcomes

Geoffrey Talmon, MD, a professor in the UNMC Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, has been teaching High School Alliance classes for more than a decade.

“Working with the High School Alliance students is among one of the most rewarding things that I get to do as a faculty member,” said Dr. Talmon, the 2021 winner of UNMC’s Varner Educator Laureate Award, making him one of the university’s most accomplished and respected educators. “They are so excited to experience everything, which makes them a fun group to teach.”

Dr. Talmon teaches “Pathology 101: From Cells to Clinic.”

“My time with the program teaching high school students has made me a better teacher at the university level, as it helped me learn how to effectively reach a group with a wide variety of backgrounds,” he said.

Kaschke said the High School Alliance has grown in size, popularity and effectiveness during its 15 years.

“We started with 32 students and had two classes,” she said. “Now we have almost 100 students a year and 12 classes.”

Kaschke said that there is a 95% completion rate for the two-year alliance program, with 75% of the students going on to college, with 75% of those staying with a health care, science or STEM-related field of study.

About 35% of graduating High School Alliance students end up in a health science or medical profession, she said, with many of them staying in ��һ�Թ���.

Creating "Eureka" Moments

Before last fall’s White Coat ceremony, an annual event held to welcome new medical students and give them the “white coat” that symbolizes the medical profession, Mohamad Hazim, a first-year medical student and High School Alliance graduate, reflected on the program’s impact.

“The High School Alliance was the first time that I’d stepped into the world of health care,” he said. “It opened my eyes to the different avenues I could take. I took a gross anatomy course, and that’s when I realized my love for biomedical science and the human body. I credit the High School Alliance to putting me on the path to medicine.”

That is exactly the kind of “eureka” moment the program is designed to elicit, Kaschke said.

“For many students, the anatomy class does that for them,” she said with a laugh. “All of the exams in the anatomy class are practicals; they have to know the structures on the cadaver. They have to memorize the vocabulary. How the content is presented in the anatomy class is unlike anything they’ve ever done before. It can be a transformative experience for a high school student.”

The other key class in the curriculum? Intro to Public Health, Kaschke said.

“We introduce them to the University of ��һ�Թ��� System and UNMC. We follow them and cheer them on in their college career, and we try to convince them to come back to UNMC—and then stay with us to become part of the ��һ�Թ���’s medical and health care workforce.”

“For many students, that is the class that really opens their mind about ‘what is public health?’ and all of its different components — education, epidemiology, biostatistics. We cover the gamut of environmental to farm safety in that class, to epidemiology and virology and biostatistics.” She likes to think of the High School Alliance as the first stone in the pathway to medical and health careers, Kaschke said.

“We introduce the students to health care,” she said. “We introduce them to the University of ��һ�Թ��� System and UNMC. We follow them and cheer them on in their college career, and we try to convince them to come back to UNMC – and then stay with us to become part of ��һ�Թ���’s medical and health care workforce.”