H.E.R.O. High (Health, Education, and Research Occupations High School)

At Health, Education, and Research Occupations (HERO) High School students may earn up to two years' worth of college credit in addition to a high school diploma. The goal is to get graduates ready to begin careers in community health work.

The school serves a diverse group of students that range from high-achievers who have taken more than one Regents course before entering high school to children performing poorly on state exams in middle school.

Most children graduate on time but only 20 percent graduate with test scores high enough to enroll at City University of New York without extra help. Attendance is a challenge; almost half the students miss 18 or more days of school.

A unique feature of the school are the Friday trips to Montefiore Hospital, St. Mary’s Park, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and many other destinations. Students travel with their small advisory groups. At the hospital, they don glasses that blur vision to experience greater empathy for senior citizens, visit the pediatric emergency room or practice CPR.

Students relate these visits to health care problems that may be rocking their own families, such as diabetes or asthma, and to their classroom studies. Ninth-graders write a research report about a chronic disease and propose an action plan for how to reduce incidence of the disease. Tenth-graders work in groups as "consultants" for one of the school's partner organizations, conducting a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of a community program.

As early as 10th grade, students may take classes at nearby Hostos College or from a professor who joins them on the Gompers campus. To encourage teens to live out the healthy message the school promotes, they attend physical education classes three times a week.

Founding principal Kristin Cahill, a native New Yorker, who started her career as an English teacher, in Oakland, California, set out to offer South Bronx teens a promising opportunity in health professions. The average registered nurse in New York City makes about $70,000 a year but only a handful of top students take the chemistry and physics needed to pursue this dream. Students are more prepared to become certified nursing assistants, a job which doesn’t require a college education and pays about $24,000 a year. 

While most children feel safe in school, some teachers are concerned about order and discipline. On surveys, many teens report that some students do not follow directions and rules in class. The school provides Restorative Justice training for teachers, which encourages children to work through problems together to find solutions. Trust, leadership and family ties are strong, according to surveys.

Housed in the Samuel Gompers Educational Campus, HERO shares the building with Mott Haven Community and New Visions Charter High School for the Humanities II. The building is architecturally beautiful but students must pass through a metal detector.

ADMISSIONS: Educational Option. The school seeks a range of low-, middle- and high-achievers. (Lydie Raschka, DOE data and surveys, August 2018)