Learner Profile
Briah Barksdale

School

Glen Burnie High School, Glen Burnie, Maryland

HMX Courses

Physiology, Immunology

Some aspiring doctors come from a family full of physicians, or draw on some pivotal event in their past to motivate them through years of study. Others just have a fascination with the human body and a desire to help people.

“I just love pregnant people,” says Briah Barksdale, a 17-year-old who plans to become an obstetrician-gynecologist when she gets older. “The idea of having something developing and growing to become a human being inside your body is just amazing. I want to help those pregnant mothers if they have any trouble. I want to be that person they can go to if they feel stressed or whenever they need any help.”

That goal brought Barksdale to the BioMedical Allied Health Program at Glen Burnie High School in Glen Burnie, Maryland. She’s been studying science and health care-related topics since the 9th grade, and jumped at the chance to further that study through HMX Fundamentals courses in physiology and immunology.

Hear how Briah has continued learning in college on the Learning Paths podcast.

I’ve been taught physiology and what different microorganisms do. I think these classes were about bringing those ideas back up and then applying them to real-life situations. Knowing when you cut yourself, how the inflammation works, or when you have a salami sandwich, why your legs may swell up.

I liked the quizzes after every lesson, because it made sure that you correctly understood what was being taught. If you didn’t, and you got a question wrong, there would be an explanation of why you got it wrong. And if you still didn’t understand that, there were always people there that you could message that could help you.

Now when I learn something in class, I’m focused on knowing it and understanding it, but then trying to see if I can apply it. Since I have this extra knowledge from taking the course, I can say, well, let’s see what will happen if this happens, and how it correlates to what I just learned. Now I like applying it because it helps me to remember the concepts.

Definitely. I liked how the courses were structured, how all the lessons weren’t thrown out at once, but came in on a regular schedule, and how there were tests at the end of every lesson. I would definitely take it again.