LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Konocti Education Center is home to Konocti Health Occupations Medical Magnet School.

This new school, located between Yuba College and St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake, has the convenience of location while offering our high school students college classes, job shadow and internship experiences.

Konocti Health Occupations Medical Magnet School has the great opportunity of offering a project based learning approach to education, while integrating medically related classes into the Common Core Curriculum.

The opening of this school has given Konocti Unified School District the great fortune of building community partnerships with Sutter Lakeside Hospital, St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake and Yuba Community College.

There are three components to the program that offer opportunities for student success after high school.

In the first, students take a project-based educational approach to health occupations learning. Although students still have the required classes to graduate, they have the opportunity to do it in a project-based learning environment. Students take classes that are integrated cross curricular around health occupations.

The school currently offers classes such as medical terminology, anatomy and forensic science. This cross curricular approach to education lends itself to teacher collaboration and integration of projects in all subject areas.

In the second component, many of the classes offered are advanced placement and honors classes preparing students for general education and undergraduate in the medical field at a college level.

Students are required to take two college level classes while enrolled in our program. This not only gets students enrolled in Yuba College, but an experience in college classes and credits toward college graduation.

As part of the third component, students have the opportunity to participate in job shadows their junior year and internships their senior year.

The school currently has juniors set up to do a rotation of job shadows through Sutter Lakeside Hospital.

Allowing students to get an introduction to the departments at Sutter Lakeside Hospital gives students an idea of what field of study they would like to learn more about.

Senior year students have the opportunity to participate in internships. Internships are predominantly done through St. Helena Hospital, however, outside agencies such as Animal Hospital of Lake County have joined the partnership, taking senior interns to observe animal surgeries multiple days per week.

Students will spend 18 weeks interning in their department of choice. The internship experience allows students to learn more in depth in their area of interest.

The blending of the job shadow and internships allows students the opportunity to really explore their area of interest and have something significant to put on their college applications and resumes.

In creating the Konocti Health Occupations Medical Magnet School that prepares students for college and a career, the Konocti Unified School District has responded to the need for medical professionals throughout Lake County.