5/15/2023 Libby Knight
Students from the Carle Illinois College of Medicine are creating new opportunities to expose high school students to careers in health care. The CI MED students partnered with Champaign Community Unit School District 4 to host “Doctor for a Day.”
Written by Libby Knight
Students from the Carle Illinois College of Medicine are creating new opportunities to expose high school students to careers in health care. The CI MED students partnered with Champaign Community Unit School District 4 to host “Doctor for a Day.”
“We hope that this event was able to inspire students to pursue a career in medicine who may have not had exposure previously,” said Anders Gould, third-year medical student and lead organizer of the event.
CI MED students welcomed students in the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program from Centennial and Central High Schools. They led workshops in medical skills, including heart and lung sounds, intubation, ear exams and neurologic exams (reflexes).
“On a more personal note, I come from a biracial background and am the first person in my family to pursue a career in medicine. When I was in high school, there were very few role models in medicine that I identified with,” Gould said. “I hope I can use this event to help pay it forward and inspire students who will become future physicians.”
The event was organized by the CI MED chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), which is committed to supporting future and current medical students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Third-year student and current SNMA Chapter President Brittant Vill says she was moved as she watched students’ reactions to successfully intubating the mannequin during one of the workshops.
“I felt like I could see the glow of excitement that I felt for medicine as a young learner,” said Vill. “Talking to students, they were excited to see the information they learned from school and shows like Greys Anatomy show up in a medical setting, and their curiosity inspired insightful questions to the medical student volunteers who rotated and taught each station.”
Both CI MED’s Chapter of SNMA and Champaign Unit 4 Schools hope this is just the first of many similar events. “We aspire for this event to be a future staple of the SNMA's efforts to create a pathway for students who identify as underrepresented minorities in Urbana-Champaign to see themselves as physicians and to pave the road for their careers as doctors,” added Vill. “Doctors for a day to inspire doctors for a lifetime!”
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The event was held Friday, April 28, 2023 at the JUMP Simulation Center in Urbana, IL.