By all measures, Panther Valley High School junior Jordan Kulp is an outstanding student, consistently making the honors list, participating in band and sprinting in track.

On Thursday, Kulp was honored by the school board for being chosen to participate this summer in the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine in Boston, "a highly competitive program that chooses only the nation's highest achieving students," said Superintendent Rosemary Porembo.

The 6-day program "familiarizes students with professionals from some of the nation's top medical centers and faculty from renowned institutions of learning," according to the program's website.

Nominated by chemistry teacher Frank Karnish, Kulp "lived a doctor's life," Porembo said.

"She had the opportunity to visit Harvard University as well as spend time in the same classrooms with Harvard Medical students. On a field trip to Rhode Island, she had an opportunity to work with highly sophisticated simulation mannequins used in actual medical training."

Kulp learned about defibrillators, intravenous insertion, ventilation, neonatal delivery, blood pressure measurement and suturing. She also sat in on a conference to discuss medical ethics debates and how to handle pandemics, Porembo said.

"I believe that Jordan represents the caliber of students here at Panther Valley," she said.