At Butler Med Ed signing, students embrace interest in healthcare careers
BUTLER TWP — With the 2026-27 school year freshly underway, a group of 19 juniors at Butler Area School District decided to try a different kind of educational opportunity.
At Butler Senior High School on Wednesday, Sept. 23, the group of juniors signed on to the Healthcare Pathways Career Readiness Program, a new initiative to give students real-world, workplace experience in one of the most important fields of work: healthcare.
“I’ve always been interested in being able to help people. This seems like a cool experience to allow me to experience what it’s like working with the hospital,” junior Austin Barbish said. “I know we’re doing certain things in radiology, like how X-rays and MRIs work. We’ll see how the call center works, phlebotomy, surgical services. It should be interesting.”
“Whenever I first heard about it, I was immediately like, ‘this is something I want to do.’ I signed up for it right away,” Austin added.
The program, developed in a partnership between BASD, Butler County Community College and Independence Health System, establishes a pipeline for Butler 11th graders who may want to go into the healthcare sector after high school, addressing a growing need for healthcare workers in Western Pennsylvania.
The program, which students will be in for two years, has been in the works since January, when the partnership was announced.
“I knew I wanted to join the medical field, but I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do,” junior Carlee Beck said. “It’s getting to save people, it feels so rewarding.”
In addition to traditional high school coursework, students in year one of the program will begin a series of state-approved preapprenticeship courses in conjunction with BC3.
Students will rotate through five hospital departments. Experience will include shadowing professionals while also providing hands-on experiences.
In year two, students in their senior year who have completed 120 hours of training will transition into “advanced work-based learning.”
“I really wanted to have a future in healthcare, and I don’t think there’s a lot of opportunities that we get to explore like this,” junior Payton Hodgkins said. “It seems like there’s a lot of everything. There’s monitor testing, there’s respiratory, there’s sleep lab, there’s a lot of options. I think it will be good to have experience with those.”
According to The Hospital + Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, hospitals in the state continue to see persistent staffing shortages. This includes shortages in licensed practical nurses, advanced practice providers, registered nurses and other health professionals.
“This is our first venture, with students in the workplace in a big and formal way,” superintendent Brian White told the students Wednesday afternoon. “This will be a learning curve. We’re putting a lot of trust in you, you’re putting a lot of trust in us, we’re putting a lot of trust in the hospital and we’ll have to work together.”
