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Session orients students to medical careers

Colleges of Health Professions, Medicine, Dental Medicine, Nursing and the Office of Diversity sponsored for the first time a cooperative event providing high school information on health careers. The event attracted about 320 juniors and seniors from the tri-county area and around the state.

Working as a team, coordinators helped draft letters that were sent in October to high school guidance and Area Health Education Center counselors to invite S.C. students interested in medicine and other health-related professions to participate in the Dec. 9 event.

Following a welcome and gathering in the Harper Student Center gymnasium, the students separated into break-out sessions where admissions and student services coordinators from each of the four colleges presented descriptions of the health careers open to them. MUSC students played a special role, offering their experiences and insight, and the staff advised the students how to prepare academically for the careers that interested them.

“We were really surprised at the response,” said Karen Eippert, CHP director of student development. “With more than 300 students attending, the Harper Center gym was the only place that would accommodate them.”

Junior Christine Giguere of the Academy of Arts, Sciences and Technology in North Myrtle Beach said she had planned to apply to medical school following college. Before Tuesday, she was unaware of the college’s cardiovascular perfusion program or the role of a perfusionist in medicine. She thanked Eippert for the health careers presentation and said that she appreciated hearing from CHP students as they described the wide variety of health professions programs available. She was with a group of students from her high school who made the visit to MUSC as part of a field trip related to their studies.

The event ended with a campus tour led by participating medicine, dental medicine, nursing and health professions students.

Eippert said that the encouraging response from high schools around the state demonstrates a high level of interest in health careers that MUSC should continue to take advantage of in its recruiting efforts. 

“If every student can walk away from this event with something that can stimulate them to consider a potential career in health care, then all of our efforts are certainly worth doing,” Eippert said. “By making this a joint effort of the four colleges, we were able to attract more students and give them a more comprehensive vision of the careers open to them.”
 

Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.