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The stadium-style lecture hall was filled with students Monday, the first day of winter term in instructor Mark Bolke's anatomy and physiology class at Clark College.

The class a prerequisite for entrance into several popular health care programs, including nursing, dental hygiene and medical radiography remains as in-demand as ever, even as the college's overall enrollment for winter term has dropped.

The college has enrolled 12,578 students this term, a drop from the 13,477 students enrolled this time last year.

"We haven't dropped off within our department, at least," said Bolke, who's taught anatomy and physiology for the past 15 years. "We're sort of the exception here. We're still holding strong."

This winter, there are roughly 120 anatomy and physiology students spread across three classes, on par with previous years. Bolke teaches the class in one of the campus' two large lecture halls to accommodate all the students.

He has no trouble filling the seats.

"Anatomy and physiology classes are generally full," he said, adding there are currently about 10 students waiting for someone to drop the course so they can get in.

The reason for its popularity is simple, Bolke said: His students hope to enter a lucrative health care occupation.

Margie Baron, 17, said she's taking the class so she can successfully apply to nursing school. The large number of classmates, many of whom want to do the same thing, is an incentive for her to work hard and achieve high grades.

Read more from the original source:
Clark College's enrollment down from a year ago