While most high school students are working on their tans and hanging out with friends this summer, Mehlville Senior High School student Kaitlin Bliss will work with human cadavers to learn how the cardiovascular and nervous systems function.

She’ll also cut open a sheep’s brain and sit in a darkened auditorium wearing 3-D glasses as a lecturer dissects a human heart on the screen in front of her.

Bliss has been selected to attend a unique program for teenagers at St. Louis University. The Adventures in Medicine and Science program is designed to give middle and high school students an opportunity to participate in hands-on anatomy courses using human specimens.

She is one of only 64 high school students chosen to take part in the outreach program at St. Louis University.

Bliss, 17, will be a senior at Mehlville High this fall. She plans on pursuing an anatomy career after high school, and ap-plied to the AIMS program as a way to obtain a real-life introduction to the world of science.

Besides completing a lengthy application packet, she also was required to have two letters of recommendation and write an essay. Bliss is both nervous and excited about attending the two-week camp.

“I’m excited to have the opportunity to do more anatomy work, which I really enjoy,” Bliss stated in a district news release. “But, at the same time, I’m a little nervous about making a mistake in front of the doctors and professors at St. Louis University.”

She is the daughter of Malcolm and Donna Bliss.