Lantana Community Middle School is attempting to help groom students toward a career in child development.
The school’s career academy is one of the first schools in Florida to have the pilot program for the Pre-Teacher Education Career Academy.
Ian Adair, program coordinator at the middle school, said 61 students from sixth, seventh and eighth grades are enrolled in the program that teaches students how a child develops and what careers are available in that field.
The middle school program complements a similar high school program.
“The idea is to get the student interested in any career in teaching, child development, day care and others,” Adair said.
Adair said it can help students who graduate high school and don’t go to college get a job in day care or can also help students going to college to focus on what type of child development they want to study.
The students study with state-of-the-art equipment, including life-like dolls that teach them about fetal alcohol syndrome and what drug use by a mother can do to the baby.
Heather Baptiste, an eighth-grader at Lantana Middle, said she has been interested in children since she was 5.
“I have always wanted to be around children,” she said. “I used to ask if I could change diapers.”
Baptiste is living with her niece, Ja’liyah, an infant and she said with the use of the program, she has learned when and why her niece cries.
“It means she either wants food, to be changed or just needs attention,” the 13-year- old said. “I want to be a doctor one day and maybe a pediatrician. This program helps me make that choice”
Krystal Jimenez, another eighth-grader in the program, wants to be a teacher one day, maybe kindergarten.
“I joined the program because I wanted to learn what opportunities there were in this field,” she said. “I just like kids and like being around them.”
Adair said the students go in-depth on brain development and physical development of infants and children through the program. The program even has a room set up to teach students about infant toys and games.
In addition to class work, the students have done off-campus work.
By dressing up as superheroes and collecting money during lunch time the Pre-Teacher Education Career Academy raised more than $200 to purchase toys for the charitable group Kids In Distress, which operates out of Fort Lauderdale.
The Pre-Teacher Education Career Academy also participated in a holiday letter writing campaign and a toys/clothes drive to a needy family in partnership with Transplant Buddies and Donate Life Endeavors a charitable group that works with families who are undergoing or waiting for organ transplants.
Adair said the idea is to simply test the waters and see that there are many options for a career with child development.
With this new program, students can be choosing their future career at the ripe young age of 13.

Mike Rothman can be reached at mkrothman@tribune.com.