PHSRC Hosts Emerge Students
On Friday, July 28th, students in the 2023 Emerge Summer STEM program spent a day with the Pre-Health Student Resource Center learning about health sciences programs at the University of Minnesota, and what their journey could look like as a pre-health student.
The Emerge Summer STEM Program
The 2023 Emerge Summer STEM program ran for four weeks between July 15th and August 11th, 2023. Emerge is open only to incoming first-year students accepted to the UMN President's Emerging Scholars (PES) program, a program that accepts high achieving students who are from historically underserved backgrounds. Around 90 of the approximately 600 incoming PES students enrolled for summer 2023.
The Health Profession Pathways Program
The Pre-Health Student Resource Center partners with PES to run the Health Profession Pathways Program, designed to support students from backgrounds underrepresented in the health professions on their journey to a health career. The PHSRC currently only recruits and accepts students from PES to be in Pathways, and one of the requirements of the Pathways program is that students participate in the Emerge Summer STEM program.
During the four weeks of Emerge, Pathways students broke away from the larger group to engage in several Pathways-exclusive experiences, designed to prepare them for their pre-health journey at the U of M. Some of these included visiting the Human Performance Teaching Laboratory, learning about HIPAA, and going to the Visible Heart Lab.
A Morning of Pre-Health: The PHSRC Hosts All Emerge Students
In planning Emerge, PES leadership recognized that there can be a strong crossover with students interested in STEM fields broadly and health career interests, and invited the PHSRC to host the entire group of Emerge students on July 28th for a morning of learning about health careers, and what it could look like to be pre-health at the U of M.
The Emerge students started by listening to a presentation about the PHSRC and the ways we support pre-health students, from health exploration credit courses and global seminars, to appointments and drop-ins, to workshops and events like the Health Careers Fair.
One of the PHSRC career counselors, Fred Williams, then facilitated a panel made up of health sciences students all of whom majored in STEM during their undergraduate years. Panelists Austin Leikvoll (2nd Year MD/PhD candidate), Frances Abanonu (2nd Year PharmD student),Caylin Crawford (3rd Year MS in Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health ), Kandeija Bagurusi (2nd Year Doctor of Physical Therapy student), Dannah Nephew (2rd Year MD candidate), and Kaylee Lammers (2nd Year Public Health Admin & Policy MPH, School of Public Health) spoke about their backgrounds and paths to their health profession, and offered words of wisdom for others considering pursuing a health career.
Then, the Emerge group split up into four groups for the remainder of the morning. Groups rotated between the University of Minnesota’s Clinics & Surgery Center, Virtual Reality Studio and Maker Space, School of Dentistry, College of Pharmacy, and M Simulation Center.
The morning gave the students in the Emerge program a taste of what it’s like to be pre-health at the U, the different paths pre-health students can go, and some of the offices and spaces that health sciences students interact in as a part of their health program. Panelists and PHSRC staff communicated that any of them could be pre-health, that the pre-health journey looks different for everyone, and that the University of Minnesota is brimming with resources for students pursuing health careers.