Students explore health careers at summer workshop

Students add flavor and coloring to their soon-to-be gummies.

John Loschen carefully lifted the sticky gelatin ball out of the mold and placed it on his tongue.

“Not bad,” said the high school junior from Wilcox, Neb.

“So who are you going to feed those to?” asked Charles Krobot, Pharm.D., associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Pharmacy, pointing to two more gelatin balls in a Ziploc baggie.

“My little sister,” Loschen replies to a chorus of laughter.

Loschen was one of 20 high school juniors and seniors from throughout Nebraska who participated in the Summer Health Professions Career Workshop last week at UNMC.

“It is always a pleasure having the Summer Health Professions Career Workshop students on campus,” said Lisa Jewell, director of the UNMC Youth Learning Center. “All of the students are on the honor roll and eager to learn.”

Of the 60 students that apply to attend the four-day workshop only 20 students are accepted. Applicants are chosen based on their grade point average, outside interests and an essay expressing why they want to attend the workshop.

“Some of the students wrote that they have known since they were 5 years old that they want to be a physician,” Jewell said. “Others have medical issues that have peaked their interest in a health career.”

Kids sample their finished mock-medicine gummies.

While at UNMC, students participated in a variety of hands-on activities including: mixing soft gelatin lozenges in a lab at the College of Pharmacy, drilling and filling a simulated tooth at the College of Dentistry and examining the hearts of a rat, dog and cow in the gross anatomy lab at the College of Medicine.

“This has been a great learning experience,” said Katie Schueths, a junior at the science magnet school at Lincoln Southwest High School. “I’ve probably learned more in the past two days than I have from speakers who have come to our school.”

At the end of the workshop, students were required to research a health career-related topic and then compose a short paper. Students presented their findings to their peers and UNMC staff on the final day of the program.

“It’s really shown me the wide variety of medical careers available than what I came here wanting to be,” said Jacob Zitterkopf, a junior at the Scottsbluff (Neb.) High School. “I would like to be an anesthesiologist but coming to UNMC is making me think.”