100% College Acceptance For First Graduates Of CMSD-MetroHealth High School

Cleveland Metropolitan School Distrxt’s Lincoln-West School of Science and Health graduates its first class of students next week and every graduating senior has been accepted to college.

To mark the last day of school, MetroHealth staff lined the main campus atrium Monday to surprise the 20 graduating Lincoln-West seniors with a clap out. Since 2016, the kids have received hands-on experience learning from professionals at MetroHealth medical center.

Endia Reynolds, 18, will be the first in her family to attend college. She says the program allowed her to take advantage of mentoring opportunities and a support system when she was struggling.

Graduating seniors walk between two lines of MetroHealth staff performing a clap out. [Darrielle Snipes / ideastream]

“There were times I was like I am going to give up,” said Reynolds. “But I had people from Metro, my teachers, my family, telling me, ‘keep going it's going to be easier. Keep going.’ So, that helped a lot. I am getting emotional. They helped me a lot. I appreciate them.”

Reynolds plans to major in nursing at Cleveland State University. The science and health high school is a partnership with Cleveland public schools and MetroHealth. It currently has more than 230 students.

Alan Nevel, MetroHealth’s senior vice president, chief diversity and human resource officer, says these students have the potential to be the next generation of leaders from the West 25 ^th corridor, some of whom are at-risk students.

“We have some students who are homeless. We have some students who are actually heads of household,” Nevel said. “Imagine when you were 17 or 18 years old and having to be responsible not only for yourself but for younger siblings, for parents, for grandparents. That's a tremendous challenge. So, not only is it interesting and amazing that the students came to school but the fact that we do have a 100 percent graduation rate that in itself is a tremendous accomplishment.”

Students in the program take their science, math, social studies and English classes at the main campus but also have a chance to shadow health professionals from different departments.

“We've got a number of students who have interned in areas such as dental and radiology, in order to get a day-in-the-life experience as to what those roles really look like from a professional standpoint,” Nevel said.  “They can make sound decisions in terms of their educational pursuits as well as what career options are available to them.”

The graduating seniors will have paid internships this summer, and mentors they can call anytime while they're away at college. When the students graduate, Nevel says the hospital would love the opportunity to bring them back as full-time employees, keeping home-grown talent and passion close to home.