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Healthcare professionals are an important part of any community but especially in rural towns where access is scarce. That’s why it’s important to encourage young people to pursue their passions in the field. 

David Paschal, a rising senior at Valley High School, recently returned home from a five-week program at the University of Alabama called Rural Health Scholars. 

The Rural Health Leaders Pipeline at the College of Community Health Sciences aims to address that shortage in rural Alabama. 

The Rural Health Scholars program is exclusively for current high school juniors from rural Alabama communities. It aims to provide these students with opportunities to explore careers in healthcare professions.

Paschal studies Health Science at the high school and is a member of HOSA. This year, he competed with a classmate in the CPR/First Aid category at the HOSA competitions and came in 6th in the state. 

Though he and his partner could have gone on to the International competition, Paschal was accepted into the Rural Health Scholars program. 

Paschal said he became interested in the healthcare field because of his mother who is a bariatric nurse. 

“Helping people is what I mostly want to do,” Pashal said. “But the most exposure I’ve gotten is with my mom.”

He hopes to pursue anesthesiology. 

According to the UACCHS website, the pipeline is a sequence of programs from high school through medical school geared toward recruiting students from rural Alabama who are interested in healthcare careers. 

The pipeline program was named the Outstanding Program of the Year by the National Rural Health Association in 2013.

For the five-week program, the students also get the chance to experience college life firsthand. Students live in dorms on campus and attend classes and labs Monday through Friday. 

Paschal got to attend a college-level Chemistry class and a Creative Writing class. He said though the chemistry class was challenging, that wasn’t the biggest hurdle during his time. 

The students also attended seminars, field trips to other medical schools and practiced hands-on medical techniques. The most challenging of those for Paschal, he said, was learning to do sutures. Other lessons Paschal attended were learning how to ventilate and perform CPR. 

“It was a really cool experience,” he said

The students also visited different medical schools like the University of Alabama, Samford and others.

The program was a great experience for Paschal who said it helped him narrow down what he hoped to study which is Health Science and Biochemistry. 

Another benefit of the program is the networking opportunities, said Jennifer Williams, VHS health science teacher.  Paschal made a lot of friends at UA who came from rural towns all around the state. 

“I think it’s important that just gives them a glimpse of what college life is going to be like,” Williams said. “And it also just gives them a perspective outside of where you are [and] the possibilities out there.”