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On April 20, the second class of the Durham Early College of Health Sciences (DECHS), made up of 101 class members, came together at Duke’s Trent Semans Great Hall to celebrate Signing Day.
DECHS is the result of a Durham Tech, Duke Health and Durham Public Schools partnership that received a $29.5 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to create an early college program for high school students interested in going into health care careers after graduation.
Signing Day is one of the ways the three institutions show their commitment to growing educational and economic opportunities for Durham residents through partnerships.
The early college students will simultaneously earn their high school diplomas and an associate degree or workforce credential for fields such as nursing, allied health, surgical tech and clinical research. Upon graduation, the students have a direct gateway to a job at Duke Health.
Autumn Reynolds, one of the 101 soon to be DECHS students, attended the event with her mother and said the school made sense for her because of her desire to be a nurse.
“I want to be in the nursing field because I’ve been inspired by my grandmother and others in my family who are nurses,” Reynolds said.
The ceremony culminated with the students lining up and walking on stage to sign their names on a commemorative wooden board.
During the ceremony, DECHS Principal Joshua Brown talked about the program’s growth in its first year and how this second class will reap the benefits of the inaugural class’s experiences.
Durham Tech President J.B. Buxton told likened the early college and the partners that formed it to a bridge, providing the structure and groundwork of the program with a clear path to an outcome that leads to career opportunities. He stressed that to get across the bridge, one has to be brave and take the first step.
“You are all brave. You are stepping onto the bridge these three institutions have created and trusting it,” Buxton said. “Great things can come from the first step.”
The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Robert Turner, a former NFL defensive back who is now a medical sociologist at Duke University School of Medicine. Turner launched the Men’s Brain Health Research Directory in 2023 to connect Black men with neuroscience studies.
In his remarks, Turner spoke on the importance of kindness and thankfulness when working in the health sciences. He challenged the DECHS class to pick one teacher on the first day of school and say thank you to them. Then he asked the students to locate that same person when they are graduating from DECHS and thank them again.
As she listened to the speakers, Reynolds said it all became “really real.”
“I am nervous about meeting all the new people and trying new things,” she said. “But I’m going for it. I’m going to do it.”