A group of Ohio students will skip past high school for a two-day medical school experience at the 14th annual CampMed program at The University of Toledo.
The 39 students who will be freshmen in high school this fall will participate in hands-on lessons making wrist casts and suturing wounds, as well as taking tours of Life Flight helicopters and mobile ICU vehicles.
“While college may seem like it’s a long way off, this is the best time for these young people to start thinking about their futures and their career options,” said Kathy Vasquez, director of the UT and Ohio Area Health Education Center programs and UT associate vice president for government relations. “CampMed gives students the opportunity to learn firsthand what it’s like to be in the medical field and get advice from current students in the UT College of Medicine and Life Sciences.”
The two-day CampMed program will be held Thursday, June 14, and Friday, June 15, on UT’s Health Science Campus.
The camp is coordinated through the UT and Ohio Area Health Education Center programs, which along with other chapters throughout the country, strives to improve the health of individuals and communities by transforming health care through education. UT medical students serve as camp counselors, and the campers also will interact with physicians and professors.
The high school students will begin Thursday morning after welcoming ceremonies with a “tools of the trade” session where they learn to use medical instruments like blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes. Lessons continue for two days learning CSI-style forensic science, studying about and suiting up in surgical gear, touring the gross anatomy lab and more.
CampMed, which works to spark interest in the medical field for the students entering high school, began in 1998. The competitive program requires students to submit a letter of recommendation, a nomination from a science or math teacher or counselor, and a personal essay to be chosen to participate.
CampMed is a scholarship program at no cost to the students, most of whom are first-generation college, minority, rural and other underrepresented groups from northwest Ohio.
