OSHS Ambulance

Old Saybrook High School Kicks Off New Pathways Initiative with Redesigned Classrooms

Trent Gerbers

August 21, 2026

By: Luke Hajdasz

OLD SAYBROOK, Conn. (WFSB) - Old Saybrook High School students got a preview of new classroom additions as the summer break winds down, including an ambulance integrated into a medical science classroom.

“It’s insane. I did not know there would be a huge ambulance bay inside my school,” said Sylvie Webber, an Old Saybrook High School senior.

Finishing touches are still being added to the ambulance integrated into the classroom. New equipment accompanies new patient bed stations as part of the high school’s medical science pathway.

The medical science pathway is one of six offered at the school: business, fine arts, health sciences, humanities, medical science and STEM. The classes are geared toward certain fields so students can graduate with what they need to go directly into work or have an advantage heading into college.

Amber Scherber, Old Saybrook medical science pathway coordinator, teaches medical science.

“What we are really trying to do is give kids micro-credentials that they can graduate with and get a job immediately after graduation,” Scherber said. “24 years ago, it was a little different; I didn’t have an ambulance parked in my classroom.”

Students select the pathway they’re interested in and are exposed to it early on in Old Saybrook schools. Nico Sokolowski, an Old Saybrook High School senior, chose business.

“A big part of business is the human-to-human interaction. It’s not just reading charts and analyzing money,” Sokolowski said.

A new working stock ticker was added for students to track stocks in class. That classroom was also renovated. The renovations are designed for less traditional learning.

Webber said that style of learning is something she wants.

“Hands-on experience, learning how to be an EMT, learning with peers, collaborating,” Webber said.

Webber wants to be a doctor. Her mother, Tina Rupp, an Old Saybrook parent, said she is happy about the medical science pathway her daughter is on. Rupp said she remembers school differently.

“It was all sitting behind desks in a straight row, not very exciting,” Rupp said.

More than half of Old Saybrook High School students are enrolled in one pathway or another, as this hands-on style of learning becomes more popular statewide.

To see the full video, please go to Channel 3 WFSB