The foundation has awarded Health Occupations Teacher Kiley O’Leary a $60,000 grant, one of its biggest grant requests ever, to purchase an Anatomage Table and UnityPoint has pledged a $30,000 donation as well.

But the table itself costs $120,000, and the two groups — along with O’Leary — are hoping to find additional donors to complete the purchase. They’re hoping individuals or businesses in the community are willing to help.

The Anatomage Table is the most technologically advanced 3D anatomy visualization and virtual dissection tool for anatomy and physiology education, according to the company’s website. It would allow Fort Dodge Senior High to have the most advanced technology in the state.

“Kiley submitted the grant request and it’s a dollar amount we don’t typically award,” said School Foundation President Nik Moser. “It went to our board and they were all really in favor of it. They said they’d approve 50 percent of it and I needed to raise the other 50 percent through donors. (UnityPoint) was an obvious choice.”

-Messenger photo by John McBride
The Fort Dodge School Foundation and UnityPoint Health Fort Dodge have teamed up to award a grant for an Anatomage Table for Fort Dodge Senior High. The table costs $120,000. The foundation has awarded the school $60,000 and UnityPoint has pledged $30,000. The hope is community members of businesses will help the remaining funds to purchase the table. Pictured are Health Occupations Teacher Kiley O’Learn, Superintendent Josh Porter, Leah Glasgo from UnityPoint, Foundation President Nik Moser and Shannon McQuillen from UnityPoint.

Moser shared the grant request with Shannon McQuillen, vice president of ancillary services for UnityPoint Health – Fort Dodge, and explained how the table would benefit students going into the medical field and how it could be used to impact other classes in the high school.

“When Nik reached out to me I was familiar with the grant,” said McQuillen. “Through our office of medical education, we do a lot of work with the health care students so I knew Kiley was doing the grant. We look forward to seeing the technology in the school and look forward to being a part of the project.”

McQuillen then reached out to Leah Glasgo, the Fort Dodge market president for UnityPoint Health..

“We were really excited to be a part of the project,” said Glasgo. “This gift will hopefully encourage others to support the state of the art materials for the school. The reason we got involved is we knew how important it is to encourage and inspire students to come into the health care profession.”

When the table is finally purchased, Senior High would be just one of three schools in the state to have one. However, the particular table that will be purchased will be the most advanced in the state for high school classes.

-Messenger photo by John McBride
Students in Kiley O’Leary’ class listen to Jake Cain from Fort Dodge Physical Therapy during a presentation on dry needling techniques. O’Leary has been awarded a grant from the Fort Dodge Schools Foundation and UnityPoint Health Fort Dodge for an Anatomage Table for her classes.

“I believe Iowa Central has something very familiar,” said Glasgo. “So as students transition from our high school to Iowa Central, they’ll have some familiarity with the technology.”

“It’s a huge feather in the cap for Fort Dodge,” added Moser. “It’s great that the foundation is in support of it and one of our biggest employers.”

The $60,000 grant is the second biggest award for one project in the foundation’s history, and the biggest one given to one school.. The foundation also granted $120,000 for the Leader in Me curriculum used by the entire district.

“But our board looked at it and realized it’s going to impact a lot of high school kids now and then middle school kids once they get to the high school. And it’s something that will make our high school stand out from others in the state. It will have a huge impact on our district,” Moser said.

O’Leary said the table will be an immeasurable benefit to her health occupations classes and will allow her to create additional classes for her program that are not yet offered.

The table can also be used in animal science classes, other high school science classes and even in an EMT class O’Leary would like to start.

“It’s a 7-foot touch screen tablet, essentially, that comes with five human cadavers and we can show whatever part of the body we want for my current class,” said O’Leary. “We can take it back layer by layer. If we’re teaching neuroscience, we can dissect the brain. When I am teaching cardiac, we can show them different parts of the heart and they can physically touch the heart, move it around and dissect it.

“The hope is, I can expand my classes because we can do so much more with this table. We can do X-rays and CT scans, MRIs and ultrasounds. We can use it for criminology classes and learn why someone died. If the cadaver has died from cancer, we can trace it all the way back to the initial cell and see how the cancer grows,” O’Leary added.

O’Leary said that an animal science class can use the table because it comes with animal cadavers as well. She also said it can be used for experiments in biology, physics and chemistry.

“The table comes with pre-set labs so teachers can have students doing labs even if they are gone,” said O’Leary.

She said it also allows students to save their work so they can leave the table and return to the same spot.

“Our partnership with the schools is important,” said McQuillen. “We know there is interest in health care careers in our schools”

Moser said he’s hoping to have the matching funds in place by the time the foundation meets again in May. The hope is to have the table purchased for use in the 2024-2025 school year.

He also said if he’s able to raise more than the $30,000 in matching funds that any additional funds would then be returned to the board from its $60,000 pledge for other requests.

“Nik has been really great working so hard for this,” said O’Leary. “He’s been keeping me updated, asking me questions and always following up on progress with me. I think I jumped out of my chair a little bit when he said the foundation approved it and UnityPoint was on board.”

Anyone wishing to help with the project can contact Moser via his email, nmoser@fdcsfoundation.org or contact him on his cell, 515-574-9578.

“Our hope is that the rest of the community buys in and supports this so that our students can benefit from this technology and learn about the different health sciences and get excited,” said McQuillen. “And not just health care, but the sciences in general.”