On September 13, ten seniors attended KU Medical Center’s Doctor for a Day program to help further their knowledge in careers in the medical field.
Students in Jane Rock’s Pre-Med had to write an essay for a chance to go visit KU Medical Center for a day to learn more about medical school admissions, different fields of medicine and to get an opportunity to work in labs.
“[Rock] had told us about it and it sounded like it would help me out because I want to be a doctor,” senior Amanda Moyer said. “In my essay I wrote about how Pre-Med has made me more interested in the medical field and how I want to further my education.”
Rock saw the program as a great opportunity for her students.
“It’s supposed to give [the students] an idea about what Medical school would be like,” Rock said. “It also informs them how they should prepare in an undergraduate education.”
The program started with lectures in the morning and moved on to labs in the afternoon.
“For the most part it was very beneficial,” senior Kara Mishler said. “We went and toured labs, talked to doctors, learned about things we had never heard of and talked a lot about admissions.”
In labs, the students were exposed to things they could not experience anywhere else.
“In one of our labs we looked at a cancerous liver and a regular liver under the microscope,” Moyer said.
For some students, the admissions information in particular proved to be m an eye-opening experience.
“I don’t know that I want to go to Medical school,” Mishler said. “They were going through the time line and it is a long time.”
Besides talking in detail about what medical school is like, the people at admissions the best ways to try and get in to medical school.
“In admissions I learned where to go and what to do if I want to get into Medical school, so that was really helpful,” senior Allison Arnold said.
The program also taught students about what path they would need to take after high school in order to become a doctor.
“I learned that you have to go through your undergraduate, medical school, fellowship and then residency,” Moyer said.
The Doctor for a
Day program was just one of many steps to launching these students’ medical careers.
“I will either go to Baker or KU for undergraduate school,” Arnold said. “If I go to Baker, I will go to their nursing school which is a really great program. After I graduate, I’ll try to get into medical school and if I don’t make it in, at least I will have my nursing degree.”