UNMC is hosting 79 undergraduate students as part of the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program.
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Students taking part in this year’s Summer Medical and Dental Education Program. |
The six-week-long program provides undergraduate freshmen and sophomores who are underrepresented in the health care field with academic enrichment programs aimed to enhance clinical and skill development, said Kim Norman, program coordinator.
“The program affords scholars an inside look at the challenges and rewards of a career in the health care profession, self-evaluation of their own motivation and career goals, and clinical shadowing opportunities,” she said. “It lays the platform for networking and building lifelong relationships. The foundation and environment conducive to learning that SMDEP affords can be the key to scholars pursuing their career goals.”
Sean Tafuri, a junior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said she had friends attend the program in the past.
“They said it was a really rewarding experience, and they got a lot out of it,” she said. “I was excited just to have the chance to participate in this opportunity and learn as much as I can from it.”
Tafuri, who has been planning for a medical career, said the program gave her a look into what medical students go through once they get to medical school.
“A lot of what we’re doing in undergrad is just preparing to apply and get in,” she said. “But there’s a lot that happens after that that we don’t know about.”
For Marco Cuellar, a University of Iowa student from Wayne, Neb., the program was a chance to decide if medicine was the right career path for him.
“After a couple of weeks here I found out it is, through the various speakers, classes we’ve taken, clinical experiences we’ve had,” he said. “I found that very beneficial. I wanted to find answers and I found them.”
Amari Parham, from Georgia State University in Atlanta, is a pre-med student interested in deciding what branch of medicine she’s most interested in.
“It’s been amazing, a really great experience,” she said. “We have the opportunity to interact with some top-notch technology that’s pretty new — things like that and guest speakers coming in have been really influential.”
“I am thankful for SMDEP because it allowed me to form crucial connections at the dental school,” said Ben Petry, a pre-dental student at Hastings College.