Students in the Warren County Career Center Health and Medical Assisting program have that opportunity on a daily basis.

It’s another to be able to hold a real heart, see the parts and interconnections, feel the density and thickness of the muscles, and pick out things like the relative sizes of the pulmonary and atrial valves.

The students didn’t get their hands on any human hearts, but, on Thursday, they were able to dissect cow and pig hearts donated by Coffaro’s Custom Butchering.

The first-year students identified parts and took deeper looks into the hearts.

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Kevin Walls and Jayden Slack work on a cow heart in the Warren County Career Center Health and Medical Assisting class.

“These are extras,” teacher Kylie Harris said. “These are gifts. This is what makes the learning real.”

“The Warren County Career Center as a whole is so well supported by the community,” Harris said. “We couldn’t do many of the things we do without that support.”

The students, already on pathways to medical-related fields, are not squeamish. They dug right in and got their hands dirty — with disposable gloves, of course,

“It comes to real-life when you do it like this,” student Jaelyn Mohney said. “You’re into it more.”

“Compared to the plastic models, it’s a lot harder to find the valves” in a real heart, Kaleb Salerno said. “But, it’s a lot more helpful to actually cut into the heart and find the valves.”

The health and medical assisting students weren’t the only ones benefiting from the hearts. With the career center under renovation, the HMA class is one of several temporarily housed at Warren Area High School. That arrangement, far from being problematic, has opened up new opportunities, according to Harris.

“We’re blessed to be here,” Harris said. “This room is so functional.”

“Now that we’re at the high school, we’ve invited a lot of visitors,” she said. “It’s so nice to be here so they can see what we do.”

Anatomy students were among the visitors on Thursday.

Another visitor was third-year health and medical assisting student Jayden Gonzalez. She spoke highly of the opportunities and education she has received as a career center student.

“A lot of the opportunities we’ve had wouldn’t have been available to us if it hadn’t been for the career center,” she said. “Without the career center, a lot of students would be conflicted with what they would do after school.”

As a third-year student, Gonzalez has more scheduling flexibility. “We have the opportunity to get real-life work experience through co-ops,” she said. Some students in the program work at local nursing homes. “We have real-life opportunities instead of sitting in a classroom all day.”

The first-year students share an interest in hands-on work with their third-year counterparts.

“This is more hands-on than a regular classroom would be,” Salerno said. “It’s very good. It’s also really fun and gives you very good experience.”

“There’s a lot of work in the class, but it’s fun, and you learn so much,” Mohney said. “It’s a great opportunity. I would definitely encourage others to take it.”