Emma Eddy is one of the Washington County Career Center’s Student Ambassadors. (Photo provided)

NEWPORT – Emma Eddy’s visit to the Washington County Career Center as a middle school student and attending the center’s Career Camp helped her narrow down her future career choices.

The Frontier High School junior is a daughter of Kenny and Libby Eddy of Newport and a student in the patient health care program at the Career Center. After graduation, she is considering the radiology program at Washington State College of Ohio.

Eddy’s path toward a career started with the career center’s week-long summer Career Camp in 2022.

“In the camp, we apply for three to four career areas we want to see,” she said. “Along with those, we got to see other programs; we saw two each day.”

Eddy said there were several hands-on activities for each program, as they were told what they had to offer and got to ask questions.

“I looked at patient health care as well as the medical college prep program, and I also looked at welding one year,” she said. “That was kind of out there, but my dad Kenny is a welder, and I thought maybe I would be interested in that, but I was not.”

In her second year in the career camp, she kept her focus on patient health care and medical college prep.

“I liked them so much, so I kept on going back to them,” she said. ” I looked at heavy equipment one year just to see what it was. But mostly I did the same things.”

Eddy said she combined the patient health care and medical college prep.

“In that we covered phlebotomy, where we could stick a fake arm,” she said. “The teacher said I had a good technique. I really liked it.”

While most students begin their Career Center studies in the junior year, Eddy was able to start as a sophomore.

After the juniors and seniors make their applications there are a few open spots in some programs and selected sophomores are allowed to apply for those spots .

“Our counselor at Frontier called several of us into the media office and said we had the opportunity to go to the Career Center and tour and even apply if we wanted to ,” she said. “We were told the only thing we needed was an Algebra I credit.”

Eddy said three students from Frontier High School took the tour that year.

“I was the only one from Frontier to apply, and I was accepted,” she said. “I was one of 20 sophomores at the Washington County Career Center.”

Now as a junior, she is taking her first courses in the patient care area.

“In my first semester, I did medical terminology and human anatomy and physiology,” she said. “This semester we are still taking medical terminology, but we are more focused on phlebotomy right now and trying to get that certificate.”

Eddy said as the semester progresses she and the other students in her class will learn how to draw blood. By the time they graduate, they will be able to work as phlebotomists.

Eddy said she completed a week-long internship at Marietta Memorial Hospital last summer. She added she plans to apply for the internship for this summer as well.

“I didn’t see them draw any blood, but I was able to go down to the lab and see what they do with the blood. I saw how they tested it and how they cultured it,” she said. “That really helped make me understand more about what I was going to get into with my program.”

Eddy said she has received some perspective on the field from her mother Libby, who works in the health care industry as a certified medical assistant.

“She has given me an idea of what to expect and how it is to work in the health care field,” she said.

Eddy said she would prefer to work with the patients and draw the blood rather than working in the lab.

“I like seeing people and talking to people and helping them,” she said. “The lab does a lot to help other people, but I like being involved, more hands on.”

For her senior year, Eddy said she has decided to transfer into a different medical program.

“I’m going to medical college prep to get more CCP (College Credit Plus) courses done,” she said. “So by the time I graduate from high school, I will be able to go into the nursing program or radiology program without taking more classes than I need.”

In addition to the Career Center classes, she is still taking classes from Frontier to get her math, English and science credits for graduation.

“I’m also taking some online classes so by this time next year I’ll be in class for my one credit at the Career Center,” she said.

Her online classes are from Washington State College of Ohio. She will take an anatomy and physiology class since she will need it for college.

When she graduates with the class of 2027, she said she might have enough college credit hours to be the equivalent of a second semester freshman.

Her post-graduation plans are to be accepted into the Washington State College of Ohio radiology program and work in the hospital. She earned her CNA certification as a sophomore.

If she changes her mind or is not accepted into the radiology program, she plans to work as a phlebotomist.

Eddy is a student ambassador for the Career Center and is active in the National Technical Honor Society.

She is a member of the Frontier High School basketball team and the school’s FFA program and honor society.