Seniors Mikayla Bowman and Lanni Guffey received the St. Charles County STEM award for their accomplishments in healthcare.

Both students are a part of the CAPS program, which is how they got nominated for the award in the first place. Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) programs are nationally recognized, innovative high school programs. Students fast forward into their future and are fully immersed in a professional culture, solving real world problems, using industry standard tools and are mentored by actual employers, all while receiving high school and college credit.

Their instructor, Crystal Green, nominated them above everyone else.

“I believed that both students were successful in their projects and deserved to be given this award,” Green said. “Mikayla’s success on her blue wrap repurposing project for this semester was worthy enough for an award such as this one.”

Bowman’s project was to find ways to recycle or reduce the amount of blue wrap in the operating room she shadowed at.

Since the healthcare strand is twice as big as the other strands, two people received the award in the healthcare field.

They were both awarded alongside a technology solution student and a global business student from the CAPS Program.

“When my teacher, Mr. Sacre, informed me that he was recommending me for the award I very surprised and excited to be recognized along with the other students in the area,” senior Lanni Guffey.

Both students didn’t know about the award until the day before. They were informed that they would be attending a STEM Conference and they would be receiving an award but they were both unaware how important the conference and award was up until the day of.

“I was very honored that my teacher thought so highly of me. I was surprised to receive this award because there are so many other well-deserving associates in the CAPS Program,” Bowman said.

Bowman will be attending BYU (Brigham Young University) of Idaho in the fall and will be majoring in public health.  Once she finishes the necessary general classes, she will apply for the nursing program, and she hopes to become an OR nurse in her future.

Guffey will be attending Saint Louis University, majoring in Biology, Pre-Med. After college, she hopes to go through medical school and become a cardiologist.

The CAPS Program has given many students a number of different opportunities such as this one, and it has also given them a look into what the healthcare field will look like if they chose it as their career.

“It has given me the tools to network with professionals as a high school student and it has also raised my standards for a future career. It has sharpened my soft skills which anyone needs for any job. It also gives great insight to hospital life,” Bowman said.

For anyone interested in healthcare, CAPS would definitely show what a possible career in medicine would look like, and it gives many opportunities like this one.