Pope John Paul II launches ‘microsystem’ model

Pictured above: Sam Caruso Jr. and Kimberlie Kilroy are among the Pope John Paul II High School administrators leading efforts to create electives in health care and aerospace/engineering that match up with the employment requirements of local industry. (Photo by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald)

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

A fledgling collaboration between Pope John Paul II High School in Slidell and its four Catholic “feeder” elementary schools aims to spark career interest in the health care and aerospace/engineering professions by exposing students to those fields as early as kindergarten.

Once fully established, this “microsystem” of schools would enable graduating seventh graders to seamlessly enroll in advanced, elective offerings in the two fields at PJP and participate in school-day internships provided by the high school’s partners in local industry.

The hope is that the microsystem approach would put PJP graduates one to two years ahead of their peers should they pursue careers in health care or engineering – two of Louisiana’s main economic drivers.

“These are two industries that struggle to find trained workers, particularly in our region,” said Sam Caruso Jr., coordinator of the microsystem and PJP’s advancement director.

To get a feel for what local businesses looked for in future recruits – and craft elective offerings to pair with those needs – PJP administrators held more than 20 face-to-face meetings in 2022 alone with the CEOs of East St. Tammany area industries, including NASA and health care providers.

“We asked them. ‘What do kids need to know to enter your company? If I give you an 18-year-old today to work on your factory floor, what do you need them to know?’” Caruso said.

Proving ‘value’ to community

The microsystem consists of five schools: PJP and its four main feeder schools: Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Margaret Mary in Slidell; Annunciation in Bogalusa; and Our Lady of Prompt Succor in Chalmette.

The idea was hatched six years ago, when Caruso, then president of PJP’s advisory board, and others at PJP identified the need to replace or renovate the high school’s aging campus facilities. Sticker shock followed upon learning the cost would run between $25-30 million.

“The air went out of the room,” Caruso said. “You sit there and you think, ‘How in the world are we ever going to raise that kind of money in this community, and in the environment that we’re in right now?’”

They realized that to attract investment, PJP had to “get creative about providing measurable value” to the community.

“We knew we couldn’t just go out and ask people for money – we had to figure out how to give people value for that money, and the value to them isn’t going to be our new building,” Caruso said.

“So, we thought, here we are sitting in Slidell, Louisiana – we’re exactly between Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis and the Michoud assembly facility in New Orleans; we have a very vibrant economic development group in St. Tammany Corp.; we have a progressive government that is trying to bring in a lot of economic development; I was in health care, where we were in partnership with Ochsner and SMH – you could see that those were major economic drivers.”

Focus group-style meetings with the CEOs indicated that, yes, economic development leaders would be willing to invest in PJP if the high school added specialized curricular offerings that paired better with the skill sets expected of those businesses, with the payoff being more homegrown talent to recruit – and retain – down the road.

Health care immersion

After receiving the input of its partners in the health care arena, PJP added electives in anatomy, physiology and medical terminology. This school year, nearly 30 juniors and seniors are spending the last period of each school day as medical interns at area hospitals, dentistry offices and urgent care clinics.

“They go in scrubs like the other medical professionals, except their scrubs are red and have ‘PJP High School’ on them, so people know that they’re actually student interns,” said Kimberlie Kilroy, PJP’s head of school, noting that her interns undergo the same rigors of paid professionals, including obtaining a worker’s permit and receiving training on how to speak to patients and other protocols.

“We hope by the end of next school year to be sending out certified nursing assistants, phlebotomists and pharm techs – all who can roll straight into the health care community around us,” Caruso said. “If they decide that’s the career path they want to stick with, and the employers decide that’s who they want to have, almost all of them have tuition programs” to assist them after high school graduation.

Retooled engineering options

Information culled from engineering professionals led PJP to add Engineering II, an AP-level computer science course focusing on software used by area firms, and coding – the latter of which teaches students how to produce 3-D printed prototypes of rocket parts. PJP also added the Lean Six Sigma project management program to its existing business leadership course.

“When they graduate, they can put on their resumé that they have a yellow belt certification in Lean Six Sigma that places like Textron, Ocean Aero and Aerojet Rocketdyne – which are all right in our backyard – would want from a PJP graduate for a (potential) beginning-stage job in project management,” Kilroy said, noting that refining electives offerings to reflect real workplace needs would not detract from PJP’s commitment to preparing well-rounded students.

“Not only are you going to be college ready and ACT ready, but we’re also going to get you career ready in your electives,” she said. “We provide those options for you, recognizing that not all students are meant to go to a four-year university. Some would benefit from having this opportunity to be career ready, so that they can actualize and understand what God has in store for them much earlier. How many teenagers are being told all their lives, ‘You have to go to college.’ Then they go, and they crash and burn, because that’s not really what God had in store for them. It could be just as meaningful and purposeful to go to NASA and help build a rocket.”

Elementary schools on board

As PJP refines its elective offerings, so are the microsystem’s four feeder elementary schools. 

For example, St. Margaret Mary launched its first NASA Astro Camp this month in partnership with education specialists from Stennis Space Center. Teacher Lisa Ramirez was trained as camp facilitator and will use her weekly K-7 class time to tell the story of NASA, past and present, and lead grade-appropriate design, engineering, rocketry and coding projects. The school’s junior and senior coding and robotics teams will also be using Astro Camp resources and challenges.

In response to the microsystem’s mission to engage students in the aerospace and engineering fields, Our Lady of Lourdes established an on-campus Civil Air Patrol (CAP) opportunity that 20 sixth and seventh graders are taking as their “enrichment” elective this year. 

These “cadets,” using a curriculum provided by the Auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, receive the leadership portion of the program from their principal and squadron leader, Roy Delaney Sr., on Tuesdays. On Thursdays, they take aerospace science from middle school science teacher Nicole Beebe.

“Kids (interested in flying) can earn their private pilot’s license by the age of 16, being supported by this program,” Delaney said, noting that some of his cadets currently are eligible to take their first orientation flight – in the co-pilot’s seat of a Cessna.

Enthusiastic junior engineers

Delaney, who foresees additional squadrons being established at the microsystem’s three other elementary schools, said cadets who ultimately land at PJP would mean the campus would have dozens of eighth graders who were “already excited” about all aspects of aerospace technology.

“They are short(-staffed) in every aspect of that field – from flight attendants to pilots to engineers to people who design planes and rockets,” Delaney said.

Making CAP particularly attractive is that all materials, including books, online training and testing, STEM kits, drones, model airplanes and flight simulators, are provided free to member schools. Delaney’s cadets also take part in non-mandatory weekend activities, which have included physical fitness tests, a visit to the museum at Jackson Barracks and participation in the “Wreaths Across America” decoration effort that brightens veterans’ tombs at Christmas. A trip to Slidell Airport is in the offing, as is the option to attend a 10-day summer camp at Keesler Air Force Base.

“How many people know a jet engine mechanic?” Delaney said. “Or maybe they’ll talk to the security forces guy, or a para-rescue guy, or a pilot or ride in a helicopter. (CAP) gives them exposure, which means awareness, which makes them better informed people to make decisions.”

[email protected]

Pictured at left and right: Cadets from Our Lady of Lourdes’ Civil Air Patrol recently participated in the Wreaths Across America program by placing Christmas wreaths on tombs at Southeast Louisiana Veterans Cemetery in Slidell. Cadets take part in the program during their enrichment period at Our Lady of Lourdes. In addition to monthly service projects, students enrolled in the program take classes in leadership skills and aerospace science. The hope is that exposure to these fields will encourage them to pursue advanced engineering courses at Pope John Paul II High School and beyond. (Photos courtesy of Our Lady of Lourdes School)