Katie Fagot, student at the Eustis-Farnam High School, she wasn’t sure what career in health care she was interested in. But after a week at UNMC, she is closer to deciding. “I’ve learned some things here and don’t think it would be so intimidating. It’s helping me decide. I’m leaning towards pharmacy. We got a tour in the college and that helped.”
She was one of 10 honor students from the Holdrege area participated in the 2008 Holdrege Summer Honors Program in Omaha June 9-13 to learn about health science careers at UNMC.
The goal of the workshop is to encourage high school students to pursue careers in the health sciences with the hope that they may someday practice health care in rural Nebraska where critical shortages of health care professionals remains a major concern.
The students learned about UNMC’s academic programs, attended lectures, and did research in their area of interest. At the end of the workshop, students researched and developed papers about their findings.
“It’s always a pleasure hosting the program for the students attending the Holdrege program,” said Lisa Jewell, director of the UNMC Youth Learning Center. “We schedule learning experiences they will benefit from and may not otherwise receive.”
Sara Chavez of Minden High School said she’s always been interested in the medical field and came to UNMC to make sure she was doing the right thing. “I think I’m interested in some aspect of surgery or psychiatry. The program’s been really good. We get a feel for what we do or don’t like.”
Julia Klinkebiel of Cambridge High School, is the second in her family to attend the program. She said her brother participated in the program and loved it. “He said it really helped him decide what to do in college. I know I want to do something medical.”
For Adam Christie of Holdrege High School, the choice of what medical career to pursue was easier. “I think I want to be an endocrinologist. I have diabetes and I want to work with people who have that too.”
After the students attended their first week at UNMC, they went back to their home towns and had an opportunity to job shadow medical professionals working in the area of their interest.
Below is a list of schools and names of the students and their high schools of the participants.
Bertrand — Laura Hock, Bertrand High School
Cambridge — Julia Klinkebiel and Thomas McHale , Cambridge High School
Holdrege — Adam Christie, Holdrege High School
Eustis-Farnam — Katie Fagot and Allie Keller, Eustis-Farnam High School
Minden — Sara Chavez, Kylie Olson, William Raun and Jennifer White, Minden High School
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