PA students spark interest in healthcare careers during visits at area high schools

Campbell PA students recently visited area high schools and share about their experience:

Visiting high schools in our surrounding community and being able to expose students to the field of medicine and the Physician Assistant career while they are still in the process of paving their own path was an extremely rewarding and impactful event for all of us. Each member of our group left the school that day buzzing off of the energy we felt from the students’ own excitement. It allowed each of us to relive some of our own high school memories and to see not only how far we have each come but also how much potential each of the students have.

Particular incidents that made a mark were hearing how the students expressed their various interests in the medical field. One student expressed her interest in becoming a travel nurse so that she can have the opportunity to see the world. Another student discussed his interest in majoring in computer science, but our session sparked his interest in how he could combine the field of medicine and computer science. He left us that day stating he planned to join the pre-med club once starting college in the fall.

The impact of Project Access was also felt with us as we not only saw the effect of the information on the students but also the faculty in the room. We were originally only scheduled for one class consisting of roughly 30 students but, due to word of mouth across the health science faculty in the high school, we ended up engaging with multiple classes totaling more than 100 students. We even sparked interest in one faculty member who collected some of the information we had to show his wife, who he thought might find it interesting. The appreciation that was so clearly shown gave us all a sense of accomplishment that we were given the opportunity to share this wonderful profession with the upcoming generation.

Kelsey Schwarz, Peyton Strickland, Rachel Dubbink, Paige Keen and faculty facilitator, Nathalie Ortiz Pate, PA-C, MPH, MHPE