High School Students Visit Campus, Explore Health Care Careers

Today's guest blog comes from Jill Blair-Smith, who is a writer in the Office of Communications on the Downers Grove Campus of Midwestern University.

The Downers Grove Campus hosted 100 high school students during spring break as part of the 2009 Health Sciences Day. This popular program drew students from all over the Chicagoland area. Most students were juniors and seniors in high school who were taking advanced science classes. However, one school required its students to write an essay on a career in the health field in order to earn the right to attend the daylong event.

While on campus, the high school students interacted with MWU faculty and students while participating in hands-on activities and informational sessions about osteopathic manipulative medicine, pharmacy, the physician assistant program, physical therapy, occupational therapy, biomedical science, and clinical psychology. The students had the opportunity to work in the anatomy lab - which was among the most popular sessions. As one student wrote in an evaluation, "Gross Anatomy was awesome!" Another said, "The best part was going into the gross anatomy lab and getting to see and touch organs, skin, muscles, and other body parts."

Although it's been several years since our faculty and students have been in high school, they all worked hard to present topics in a way that was interesting and relevant. More than 40 MWU faculty and students donated their time to help with the program. The MWU volunteers were impressed by the level of interest of the participants. The high school students and their teachers also had high praise for the MWU faculty and students saying, "The students seem very well-educated and know what they are doing and talking about." And, "Everyone was very friendly and they were passionate about their topic."

By inviting high school students to our campus, introducing our faculty, and having them work side-by-side with our students, the Midwestern University community has shown these students the importance of being engaged, involved, and enthusiastic about the work you do. And that is probably one of the best lessons we can teach.

Photo: Students from local high schools examine cancer cells in the Biomedical Science Lab.

Photo: The Gross Anatomy Lab presentation was among the post popular sessions.

Photo: Hands-on learning was an important part of the day for high school students.