FAQs

West Virginia University has established a seamless approach to health sciences education which shepherds talented minority and underrepresented students through pre-college, college, and graduate training in health sciences programs. The Health Sciences and Technology Academy of West Virginia University (WVU) is a 9th-12th grade math and science program which encourages aspirations, opens doors, and empowers minority and underrepresented students and rural communities. This partnership among the numerous units of the state's land grant university and many Appalachian communities brings minority and underrepresented students and teachers to campus each summer for clinic, laboratory, and classroom training and activities. The partnership then provides the infrastructure and support for community-based science projects mentored by teachers, health professions, students and volunteer community leaders during the school year.

Located in 26 Counties of WV

For Teachers

• Faculty from the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center and cooperating university departments provide a teacher professional development component which includes state-of-the-art math and science material, techniques and projects appropriate for 9th through 12th grade students. In addition, the workshop covers multicultural sensitivity and diversity training, self-esteem building, motivation enhancement, leadership development skills, and study skills in a multidisciplinary context with an emphasis on how to incorporate these skills in teaching math and science. These ideas are the foundation for projects in the Student Enrichment Program as well as in the Community-Based Programming.

For Students

• The one to two-week campus-based program provides intensive academic enrichment emphasizing science and math for each grade from 9th through 12th as well as laboratory experiences where students work with scientists/clinical practitioners. The students work on projects emphasizing science in ways to develop their knowledge and skills to observe, hypothesize, and develop methods to answer questions which generate knowledge. The hands-on project experiences promote the concept of biology as an experimental science. The students learn to collect, analyze and interpret data as well as communicate their results. Self-esteem building, motivation enhancement, leadership development skills, and study skills are incorporated into the experience. More information about individual HSTA club projects can be found at the HSTA Club Home Pages.

Students matriculating from the summer programs progress into community-based programs which consist of academic enrichment projects further developing their cognitive skills emphasizing observation, hypothesis formation, experimentation, analysis and communication. These projects promote self-paced individualized learning. More information about individual HSTA club projects can be found at the HSTA Club Home Pages. As in the campus-based programs, the leaders of the community-based programs weave leadership skills training, goal identification, and self-esteem promotion into each student's project experience. These projects supplement each student's in-school learning. The goal is to bring knowledge and skills up to or beyond chronological grade level. The program is developed and carried out in partnership with other WVU units, higher education, West Virginia public schools, community leaders, parents, health care providers and students. The program relies heavily on WVU county extension faculty, and West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnerships faculty and staff to facilitate live instruction, organization and support. Both parents and teachers are involved in the process of teaching-learning as part of the development of a community based after school enrichment program. In the situation when a parent cannot assist with their child's learning experience, mentors such as physicians, pharmacists, dentists and nurses are recruited to be a project leader. Experts in fields of health and science are now available online as part of our Ask the Experts program to answer questions via email from the students. This process of utilizing adult volunteer leaders to support youth learning and experiences has been extremely successful in West Virginia and the United States. Biology, math and experimental science projects are developed in collaboration with the West Virginia State Department of Education to maintain congruency with the public school curriculum.

• Provide Teacher Development
• Improve science, math, leadership skills and knowledge of middle and high school students
• Increase the number of underrepresented, minority and rural community individuals, to successfully pursue careers in Health Sciences, Middle/Secondary Science and Math Teaching, Speech Pathology, and Audiology
• Improve collaboration to provide resources and expertise