VIDALIA &8212; This time next week there will be seven Concordia Parish high school seniors qualified to work as nursing assistants in any hospital or nursing home around.

Most of the first graduates of Vidalia High School&8217;s curriculum redesign program say they&8217;ve just begun to wet their feet in the medical field pool though.

Next they&8217;ll become registered nurses, physical therapists, psychologists and doctors.

But first, there&8217;s graduation Tuesday night from the Certified Nurse Assistant program right alongside the college students at Ferriday&8217;s Louisiana Technical College Shelby M. Jackson campus.

The CNA program, only a semester-long course, is one of several new offerings at VHS this year. Students also had the opportunity to take welding classes at the technical college or earn college credit from online classes.

The new programs and a new six-period day (instead of seven) at the school

were funded entirely by more than $130,000 in grants.

VHS was chosen as one of eight state schools to pilot the redesign program that offers more choices to college bound and non-college bound students.

VHS students got free tuition for the college classes, free books and free equipment. The nursing and welding students leave the Vidalia campus from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day for their classes.

The six girls and one boy in the nursing program got everything they&8217;d hoped for, plus a lesson in bed baths, they said.

&8220;We learned to take vital signs and make beds really well,&8221; Destiny McFall said. &8220;We went to the nursing home and spent time with them. That&8217;s what it&8217;s about, spending time, because we (nurses) are the ones that get to know them the best.&8221;

McFall comes from a family of nurses, and said she&8217;s always wanted to follow in their footsteps.

&8220;The time when I learn is hands-on,&8221; she said. &8220;This has shown me what I do want to do, and what I do not want to do.&8221;

And that&8217;s the goal of the course, teacher Lana Morgan said.

&8220;It&8217;s a good way for them to find out if the medicine field is what they want to go into,&8221; said Morgan, a nurse of 20 years with several years of nursing teaching experience.

If the high school seniors stick with medicine, they&8217;ve got a leg up on other graduates, she said.

The classes started with about six weeks of book learning and experiences at the technical college&8217;s lab. The last few weeks have been hands-on experience taking vital signs in hospitals and nursing homes around the Miss-Lou.

Student LaDonna Bell said she&8217;s learned how important it is to pay attention to the patients, not just the charts and equipment.

&8220;You have to think about the patient,&8221; she said. &8220;Rely on them.&8221;

Monterey High School senior Samantha Baker is also taking the class, though she had to pay for her own supplies.

&8220;The stuff you see on TV, it looks pretty easy, but actually going to do it yourself, it&8217;s not that easy,&8221; she said.

All seven students will have the opportunity to take another nursing course next semester in medical terminology or to learn how to read heart monitors. Morgan said the details of the class funding were still being worked out.

The welding program will last throughout the spring semester. Three VHS students are enrolled in it. When they complete the course they will have two and half college credits.

The other components of redesign were online courses, which are ongoing through spring, and a class through the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Nine students have completed the ULM course and have earned three hours credit. The school is working to find an instructor to offer another ULM course starting in Jan uary.