By Alisa Boswell
Managing editor
aboswell@pntonline.com
High school and college students interested in a medical field career will have the opportunity to find out what it takes to get there later this month.
The Eastern New Mexico University Caduceus Health Society will be holding an Allied Health Symposium Nov. 21 to let high school and undergraduate college students talk to a variety of medical field professionals about working in those fields and how to get there.
ENMU student and Caduceus Healthy Society Member Kyle Stephens said after the 9 a.m. introduction ceremony, the event will entail three block periods with five simultaneous 40-minute breakout sessions.
He said the five sessions will be physical therapy, pharmacy, medicine, nursing, office of diversity, and students can choose their sessions.
“The reason we set it up in this manner is so it would be smaller groups and be more interactive,” Stephens said. “The goal is to have these students leave the symposium more informed than what they were beforehand.”
The three time periods for these sessions will be 10-10:40 a.m., 10:50-11:30 a.m., 11:40 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Stephens said the office of diversity is an area that helps students get into medical internships and programs that will get them the experience they need to be able to put on their applications for medical school.
“That’s actually the most diverse for high school students and undergraduates,” he said. “Those kinds of programs will offer students scholarships to research over the summer, and it makes you more competitive when you are applying at these schools.”
He said, for example, $5,000 is offered to students to do research work for the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque over the summer, and the students are required to write a report on their research at the end of the summer.
He said in each of the sessions, students will gain an understanding of the application process.
“It basically helps students prepare for that next phase in their health care career,” Stephens said. “I am going through the application process now with schools. I have been offered an interview at UNM, but I have not been offered an acceptance yet.”
The application process for medical school is more complicated and in-depth than it used to be, according to Dr. James McKinnell, a pediatric hematology-oncologist, who runs the Pre-health Profession Student Development program at UNM.
“People get into the ‘I want to help people’ routine, but that’s not really what people (in the field) want to see,” McKinnell said of medical school applicants. “They want to see what a person’s strengths will bring to the field. I think they are looking for people who understand the field and what it is to be a doctor, and that’s fairly complicated. Sometimes, learning communication skills is a big part of it. We live in a state that has a variety of cultures, so it’s important to be sensitive to that as well.”
Then there is the emotional resilience aspect of the medical field, said McKinnell.
He said being more sensitive to the emotional aspects of dealing with people or just not being a people person does not mean someone should not go into any kind of medical field, just perhaps a medical field that deals with less people.
“What we also want them to understand that there are a lot more career opportunities than just nursing or physical therapy or another select field. I’m really excited to be going out to Portales. It’s not all that often that you get an opportunity to talk to a few hundred students out of Eastern New Mexico about the training opportunities here at the university.”
Stephens, 22, who graduates in December with his biology degree with an emphasis in pre-med, said he originally came to ENMU to play football, but he discovered early on in his college education that he had an interest in science.
Stephens said his mother’s diagnosis of breast cancer a couple of years ago only drove him further in his passion for the field with his main interest being oncology, the study and treatment of tumors.
Stephens’ mother, Stephanie, died in May.
“I think she was thrilled about it,” Stephens said of his mother’s pride over his career choice. “Nov. 21 is my mom and dad’s anniversary, so it’s kind of neat this (event) is happening on their anniversary.”
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