Learning doesn’t always end when the final school bell rings for the school year. For many students, the summer is an opportunity to continue exploring their interests and expand their horizons for the future. At Wake Forest University School of Medicine, the summer means our educators are able to open the doors for students of all ages to learn from the best and get hands-on experience in science, technology, innovation and simulation training.
Best SELF Summer Camp – Middle School Students
The Best SELF (Supportive Enrichment and Learning for Families) program, part of the School of Medicine’s Center of Excellence for Research, Teaching and Learning (CERTL), harnesses the strengths of our academic learning health system to increase high school graduation rates, enhance college preparedness and advance student interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. In addition to tutoring programs during the school year, the program supports employees and their families by offering a one-week summer enrichment program for experiential learning about STEM career paths at the Bowman Gray Center for Medical Education.
Best SELF partnered with the school’s medical experts to develop fun and unique camp experiences such as squid dissection, DNA extraction, circuit building and orthopaedic casting, as well as behind-the-scenes field trips to exclusive school labs like Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. A team from the Center for Experiential and Applied Learning provided educational experience in the simulation labs, including hands-on tasks in ultrasound, labor and delivery and the trauma bay. Basic Life Support brought training mannequins and students practiced CPR and AED use and discussed best practices for how to move into action appropriately in an emergency. An intern from Counseling and Wellbeing facilitated a group exercise focused on managing anxiety and feelings of sadness and mindfulness tools.
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“The Best SELF program is comprehensive and includes year around student and parent support plus academic mentoring,” - Stan Hill, PhD, Director of Best SELF |
In total, CERTL collaborated to hold a total of three Best SELF camps, providing various STEM experiences and pipeline programming to 35 middle-school participants.
“This year, for the first time, we have expanded the summer camp program to the Concord and Charlotte areas to reflect our growing footprint,” said Hill. “With the partnership of Cabarrus College of Health Science and Carolinas College of Health Sciences, we are now offering the program to 30 additional students. We look forward to growing these partnerships and continued expansion.”
Health Care Explorers and Medical Scholars Summer Program – High School Students
Student Inclusion and Diversity provided by The Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion hosted two in-person summer programs in June. A total of 30 local high school students interested in the medical and health profession participated in our two summer programs, Wake Forest Medical Scholars and Health Care Explorers, at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Bowman Gray Center for Medical Education. The programs provided the summer scholars with fun educational and hands-on experiences in the health care field, from meeting medical professionals to observing state-of-the-art technology to touring the School of Medicine building and other health care facilities.
Participating students were able to experience a learning environment while interacting with medical professionals and current medical students in a variety of settings. The summer scholars learned CPR and basic life support training the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Life Support Education team. They got to hear from nursing professionals and participated in taking physical exams of their peers gathering vital signs, blood pressure and heart rate. They had a Graduate School Biomedical Sciences presentation and Brain Awareness Council program overview, and learned about basic neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and neuroscience in health care and participated in a hands-on activity with brains. They performed cardiac dissection with pig hearts and squid dissection led by our medical student summer counselors and Brenda Latham-Sadler, MD, Vice Chief Academic Officer for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Wilderness Medicine students lead a session on creating splints and slings, treating anaphylaxis and the use of Epipens and putting a neck brace on injured patients. They learned how to suture open wounds on artificial skin-like silicone suture pads, the Suturing Session was led by the PA Program.
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"Our summer camp experiences provide students with not just exposure to careers in medical professions, but also provides skills and knowledge that they can build upon. It is amazing to see their excitement the first time they get to try something new, or watching them learn CPR, which may help them to save a life even now as a teenager." - Brenda Latham-Sadler, MD, FAAFP, Vice Dean of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion |
Scholars were taught airway management skills and how to intubate using Airway Manikin and Task Trainers from our Academic Nursing department. They also learned how to do an arthroscopy knee extraction and create robotic hands out of card board, drinking straws and strings, as well as learn about sports medicine and athletic training at the Sports Medicine RISE Indoor Sports Complex in Bermuda Run. Scholars learned about Occupational Therapy at the Winston-Salem State University Simulation Virtual Hospital facility. The Center for Experiential and Applied Learning (CEAL) provided educational and interactive experiences in the simulation labs where they conducted simulations with realistic manikins for labor and delivery, adult airway training, ultrasounds and learned how to place an IV. On the last day of the program, the scholars got to make their own lunch and learned basic cooking and kitchen skills at the Brenner FIT cooking class, culminating project presentations from each scholar about how the program influenced their future career decisions.
What Our Scholars Learned
| "It was extremely informative, touching and I am extremely sad to be leaving but happy for the experience!” -Kaid Muhammad Myers | “This program opened my eyes to other health care careers and helped me see what it may be like to actually work in them.” -Katherine Giron | “It has gotten me more insight on what the process for college and the different pathways you can take to get into med school.” -Gabby Holt |
CampMed - High School Students
Northwest Area Health Education Center (NWAHEC) held another fun and informative Camp Med this summer. Camp Med teaches life-saving skills to future health care professionals. The Camp Med 2023 Virtual Summer Program provides more than 20 hours of on-line content designed to give students a fun and rewarding experience while gaining the knowledge and skills to help them make informed decisions about future careers in health. Camp Med engages students in grades 8 through 12 with health care career related activities.
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“NWAHEC’s Camp Med Program is a great way for high school students to discover the world of health career possibilities. Now, more than ever, the need for talented health care professionals is a necessity. Students will be exposed to the stimulating world of working in health care and will reflect on social determinants of health.” - Michael P. Lischke, Director of Northwest Area Health Education Center |
NWAHEC also hosted 24 in-person Camp Med programs across its 17-county region, providing educational summer programming to 338 students. The virtual camp hosted 58 participants from North Carolina and beyond. Learn more about Camp Med, including how one former student saved his friend’s life thanks to what he learned at camp.
“Camp Med offers amazing opportunities for its participants to learn through activities,” said Ashton Rierson, Camp Med graduate. “During my time at Camp Med I was able to connect with health care professionals, explore different medical career pathways and observe medical procedures. The experiences Camp Med offered helped to mold my future and inspired my career goal of becoming an anesthesiologist as I enter UNC-Chapel Hill this fall.”
These programs are made possible through a collaboration that includes the Center of Excellence for Research, Teaching and Learning, Wake Forest Baptist’s Family Medicine, and the School of Medicine’s Office of Student Inclusion and Diversity.