Fort Bend Lifestyles and Homes Magazine Aug 2009: FBISD High School Seniors Named

Raelin Fontenot, a 2009 Kempner High graduate, believes there is a bossy side as well as a soft side to her personality that will come in handy someday while she ’s fulfilling her dream.

Raelin has plans for a career in the health care field—maybe as a pediatrician, maybe as a physical therapist or possibly even as a hospital administrator. Nevertheless, she has the personality, support and desire to make it. Her health science technology teacher knows it. Her parents also know it. Raelin said they are constantly encouraging her, reminding her to keep her mind set and stay focused on her goals.

In fact, Raelin knows it too. She was enrolled in Kempner High School’s Health Science Technology program, an intense two year, hospital-based program. In the first year, classes give students a glimpse of the basics, such as anatomy, physiology, pathology and physical diagnosis. Additionally, they touch on microbiology, pharmacology, dermatology, obstetrics, urology, oncology and others. They train in medical terminology, privacy laws, medical ethics, surgical techniques and sterility methods.

Students in the program’s second year spend 200 hours as externs, rotating at one of the area’s Memorial Hermann Hospitals. The goal is to gain experience and contact with doctors and nurses so students can decide if a particular field might motivate them enough to pursue a lengthy graduate education in medicine. Students individually shadow and assist each type of specialist, whether in a hospital or their own offices. They ask questions and learn by observing.

Beyond her externship, Raelin has a family member she’s been observing for quite awhile, too. Raelin’s cousin is both a pediatrician and her role model. When Raelin talks about the possibility of being a pediatrician one day, she is straightforward.

“I can be bossy, but it’s all out of love. I love kids,” she said.

Call it bossy or call it leadership, but when Raelin decided that the Medical Professionals of America student organization at her school wasn ’t run exactly the way she thought best, she took action. Raelin became the group’s president.

“I wanted to conduct it the way I wanted it to run,” she said.

Dr. Jeffrey Ricken, who is in his fourth year of teaching Kempner’s HST program, believes Raelin has everything necessary to succeed in the medical/health care field.

“She’s a natural leader with all of the right stuff. She doesn’t need to be prompted to do things; she gets them done with or without aid. Her humility is genuine and her ethics unquestionable.

She’ll be a success because she’s clear about setting her goals high and she’s flexible enough to adapt when they change,” said Dr. Ricken, a practicing podiatrist.

He tested this theory by assigning Raelin the massive task of organizing dozens of second year HST students, assigning their daily clinical hours at each of the many

hospital office sites.

“This was an enormous task that required diplomacy and tact. She handled it superbly, ” said Dr. Ricken.

It comes as no surprise then that Raelin also earned the medal for highest performing Health Science Technology second year student. The HST program alone is enough to keep any student active, but add to that being a member of the varsity track and field team, playing violin in the orchestra and working a part time job after school, you have a glimpse of Raelin ’s busy schedule.

Now, for Raelin’s soft side. After spending hundreds of hours in her externship shadowing doctors and nurses at the hospital, Raelin learned a very important skill, one in which often times gets overlooked in today ’s busy health care environment: how to talk to patients.

“I learned they are not just a patient… this is someone’s mom, or brother or friend. So you treat them that way.”

Raelin has six siblings. Four of them are older and live on their own. Raelin lives with her mother, Lina, father, Ray, brother, Ray, 14, who is a student at Kempner and her sister, Andrea, who is 30 and disabled.

In January, Raelin, a school leader, had a glimpse of the nation’s top leader. She, along with her parents and her brother, attended President Obama ’s inauguration. The trip was not without a few obstacles, none of which managed to dampen their spirits. The Fontenot family arrived in town the night before the inauguration. No vacancy was the norm of the busy city and, without a prior hotel reservation, they were left with little choice but to sleep in their rental car. At four in the morning the four Fontenots, hailing from Sugar Land, braved barely 30-degree weather to get up close to the gates. They stood among more than a million others who also wanted the experience live. The experience was historic. The energy of the crowd: electrifying. And the weather of the day, well, the temperature was pretty cold and standing outside for hours, not at all what a Houstonian is used to.

Yet, as one leader speaks of another. “But, being there was so worth it.”l