Devanie Tovar landed a job at a plasma middle proper after graduating from Edison Excessive College in 2022. Now, she’s an X-ray technician for the U.S. Navy and hopes to be a surgeon sooner or later.
Tovar credit her phlebotomy certification, earned by means of San Antonio Unbiased College District’s medical observe program, for her profession path. With out it, Tovar mentioned she wouldn’t have been capable of get a job making $17 an hour proper after graduating highschool.
At the moment, the typical hourly wage for a well being care help place in San Antonio is $15.93, based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Greater than eager to study a worthwhile talent, SAISD’s phlebotomy program caught Tovar’s consideration due to its “hands-on” nature.
“It was simply one thing I’ve at all times needed … serving to different individuals,” Tovar, 22, mentioned.
SAISD has provided phlebotomy certifications for six years now, and thus far this yr, 50 college students have accomplished certifications. This program helps college students study expertise for drawing blood for medical testing, analysis or donation.
Piloted at Edison Excessive College and SAISD’s Grownup and Neighborhood Training Heart, the certificates is accessible to almost the entire district’s excessive faculties.
A phlebotomy certificates can take between six months and a yr and half to complete, together with necessary well being science lessons and the completion of 35 blood attracts in a single semester.
Many highschool college students who undergo the phlebotomy program typically full an authorized medical assistant (CMA) program too. Throughout the 2024-25 faculty yr, 123 college students throughout the college district enrolled in CMA applications.
Johnny Vahalik, assistant superintendent of faculty, profession and navy readiness at SAISD, labored on increasing well being profession and technical education schemes.
“Our mannequin was, ‘What do you want to get a job in a physician’s workplace proper out of highschool?’” Vahalik mentioned.
Well being care jobs are additionally in excessive demand within the San Antonio space. The native life sciences and well being {industry} was projected to develop 10% between 2023 and 2028, and there have been almost 5,000 well being care job openings in Bexar County in 2023.
Having each phlebotomy and CMA certifications makes a pupil “highly effective,” Vahalik mentioned.
Undocumented college students excluded
Regardless of latest development and enlargement of profession and technical education schemes in San Antonio, industry-based certifications will not be accessible to all college students.
To have legit licenses, college students typically have to use and register with the state of Texas, that means they have to be fingerprinted, have some type of legitimate identification and have a Social Safety quantity.
College students with out authorized standing can’t apply for state licensures to work in legislation enforcement, phlebotomy, as medical or licensed nursing aides or as a pharmacy technician.
Usually, Vahalik doesn’t know a pupil is undocumented till they’ve handed all their lessons and it’s time to register with the state. The district has been lobbying with {industry} companions to attempt to change state laws limiting certifications to documented residents and residents, Vahalik informed the Report.
“However this yr has been the other — we’re not seeing that help from the state in any respect,” he mentioned.
Greater than job placement
For college kids, having these certifications will be greater than a ticket into the well being workforce. Vahalik calls them “stepping stones” to high-paying and fulfilling careers.
Lilly Mora, a rising senior at Phoenix Center School, received her phlebotomy certification throughout her junior yr and can graduate highschool as an authorized nursing assistant (CNA). The 17-year-old is a part of the primary cohort of phlebotomy technicians and CNAs at her highschool.
Phoenix Center School and St. Philip’s Early School Excessive College — each situated on the St. Philip’s School campus — provide applications the place college students take school programs specializing in phlebotomy schooling and methods.
Mora in the end needs to affix the U.S. Air Pressure and practice to be a registered nurse. She could be the primary in her household to go to varsity.
She mentioned she felt motivated to pursue a well being observe after going by means of the lack of her godfather and grandmother about two years in the past.
“My mother may be very proud,” Mora mentioned. “My mother’s a teen mother, so at my age, she was already experiencing totally different life experiences, and he or she simply needs me to shoot for extra and higher in life.”
Each Mora and Tovar encourage college students to pursue phlebotomy certifications: it’s greater than studying the way to stick individuals with needles.
“I encourage individuals to begin as quickly as they’ll and as quickly as they get their arms on any sort of expertise like this,” Mora mentioned.
