The Medical Sciences Magnet Program
A group of students follows the attending physician through the hospital’s hallways on clinical rotations. This isn’t a group of medical residents as one might expect. It is students from the Medical Sciences Magnet Program receiving real-life learning experiences during their senior externship program at CentraState Medical Center.
Students in the Medical Sciences Magnet Program, housed at Freehold High School, are supplied unique learning opportunities thanks to partnerships like those with the local community hospital. The Medical Sciences program opened in 1986 and for more than 30 years has offered students a rigorous program of mathematics and science within a comprehensive high school setting. During junior year, students design and conduct independent research projects, including statistical analyses, that culminate in a formal research paper presented to the school and community. These research projects, which cover a wide variety of topics, are conducted within the classrooms at Freehold High School. In 2019, one student’s research landed her a spot at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium where she won second place in the Biomedical Science category.
Seniors participate in a unique externship at CentraState Medical Center. Twice a month, they attend a lecture series and then shadow physicians and health care providers throughout the facility. These experiences inside the hospital have helped shape students’ futures. Students have credited the first-hand knowledge these trips provide as the reason for selecting a particular area of medicine to pursue as a career. At the conclusion of their externship, the CentraState Foundation offers multiple scholarships to the graduating seniors. In addition to this experience, many students also participate in summer internships at institutions such as the National Institutes of Health, Sloan Kettering, the University of Pennsylvania Research Program, and the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
Medical Sciences Magnet Program students are regularly admitted to prestigious colleges and universities such as Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, MIT, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth University, University of Chicago, Rutgers University Honors Program, and many others. Students are often accepted into undergraduate/medical combined programs at institutions such as Northwestern University's HPME, Washington University of St. Louis, Drexel University BA/MD, George Washington BA/MD, Penn State University BA/MD, TCNJ's BA/MD, and others. After graduation, our alumni have gone on to become physicians, surgeons, pharmacists, veterinarians, physician assistants, and physical therapists. Others have chosen industry or research careers in biomedical engineering or technology.
For any student who may have an interest in the wide-ranging field of medical science, the Medical Sciences Magnet Program provides an excellent start to their future career.