Catholic High School of Baltimore offers STEM opportunities to students

BALTIMORE - A Baltimore high school is empowering young women to get a head start on a future in STEM. 

The Catholic High School of Baltimore is the first Catholic high school for young women to offer a STEM program. Now, that program is taking students out of the classroom and into the real world. 

"I've always thought about being a nurse since I was 10 actually, and seeing my grandmother getting care," said Maggie Toscheff, a rising senior at The Catholic High School of Baltimore. 

Toscheff's childhood dream is on a fast track to becoming a reality thanks to a new partnership between The Catholic High School of Baltimore and LifeBridge Health Expresscare Urgent Care centers.  

It's a two-week internship that allows rising high school seniors in the STEM biomed concentration to shadow nurse practitioners, physicians' assistants and radiographers across the area. 

"I mainly just wanted to see what the healthcare field is, with real people instead of mannequins in the classroom," Toscheff said.

The program means Toscheff is getting the hands-on experience most students don't usually get until they're well into college. 

"They'll see what it's like to evaluate a patient, what it's like to do tests on patients, maybe do procedures, sew lacerations, x-rays," Dr. Jonathan Thierman, with Expresscare, said. "They'll kind of get the full gambit and urgent care is a great place to do that because we see a variety of things here." 

Dr. Thierman said students like Toscheff will also get familiar with the latest in medicine such as telehealth. 

Dr. Thierman said most importantly, she's learning how to interact with real people and provide the best possible care. 

"I think the overall human experience is the most valuable experience she'll get out of this," said Dr. Thierman.

"You have to have a different bedside manner for every patient, you have to be prepared for whatever is going to come in because you never know what's going to come in," Toscheff said.

In addition to Lifebridge health, the program also offers internships with the Whiting-Turner contracting company and University of Maryland Medical Center