The Capistrano Dispatch reports on the new partnership between the JSerra Medical Magnet MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center, which will allow students to rotate through a wide variety of departments at the medical facility beginning this fall. Medical Magnet students will pair up with professionals in such departments as Emergency, ICU, Operating Room, Imaging, and more.

With just 9 miles separating the school and the medical center, students in the Medical Magnet Program are at an advantage with regard to time, given the ease of access to the center. The students will meet and be paired with professionals at least 15 times during the school year, for four hours each time.

MemorialCare is a nationally acclaimed leader in value-based care. The nonprofit health system includes one of the west's two largest hospital campuses: MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center and Miller Children's & Women's Hospital Long Beach, the biggest children's hospital in the two-county area. MemorialCare includes top-rated community hospitals, centers for teaching future physicians, nurses and other clinicians, and the region's largest network of health centers and community-based urgent care, imaging, surgery and dialysis centers stretching from San Clemente through Long Beach and the South Bay.

"We are grateful to MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center, which has graciously opened their doors to our students for the upcoming school year," said JSerra Medical Magnet Program Dr. Betty Cappelletti. "The center's proximity to JSerra allows an additional 45 minutes for our students to work with these talented professionals. That extra time is invaluable!"

Students typically partake in the program beginning their freshman year but sophomores may also be accepted if they meet the rigorous freshman criteria. Demanding and arduous, the program averages 15 students per class. Upon graduation, many students continue their studies in the medical and health fields. Alumni include a recipient of the David Geffen Medical Scholarship at UCLA, nearly ten who are currently in medical school, and multiple nurses, physician assistants, pharmacologists, and bio medical engineers.