Pursuing My Passion: Medicine

Summer is finally here! After a long school year full of loads of work and stress, we can finally get some time off to relax! 

For me, as I prepare for my transition into junior year, my summer is going to be packed with preparing to take the SAT, brainstorming ideas for my Extended Essay for IB, and traveling to a few states! Although this might sound hectic and may even involve a lot of studying, I am also trying to relax by starting with pursuing my passion towards the medical field.

You might ask, what opportunities are there that will allow one to further their interests in medicine during the summertime? There are so many different types of opportunities offered to teens like me, which is what this post is all about! So... let’s get started! I will be describing the activities I’ve participated in during my summers along with some programs I look forward to attending in the future.

If you are really invested into going into the medical field, volunteering at a local hospital is a great idea! Many hospitals have teen volunteering programs, so you should try and keep an eye on those types of programs!

Opportunities like these will help you acquire more knowledge about the medical field, as you will be able to observe the hospital environment and working conditions. You can also attain perspective and gain more in-depth insights on the work that the local doctors and nurses do. I believe that these experiences will also teach you skills such as communication, teamwork, and efficiency, which will help you in your day-to-day life. Lastly, it’s a great way to give back to your community!

For me, during the summer before my sophomore year, I volunteered at the main St. David's location in Downtown Austin, where I formed great relationships with other volunteers, patients, doctors, and nurses. I ended up volunteering for 8 weeks, working 2 shifts a week, and 53 hours in total! I totally recommend volunteering at a hospital if you are looking towards working in healthcare.

While volunteering at St. David's, I also attended a camp through Seton Hospital where we were given lessons on how to provide basic care to patients. They taught me how to take vitals, provide first aid, administer food to a patient, take blood, intubate patients, and they even helped me get certified to provide CPR through the American Heart Association! This camp was really helpful as I was able to learn how to perform medical procedures on high-tech mannequins - an opportunity that I would’ve never gotten otherwise. I was also taught by real nurses, which helped a lot as I was trained by people who worked as nurses full-time and at the same time, I could get all my questions answered. 

I recommend trying to find a camp like the one I attended but in your area, as it will be very beneficial to teaching you techniques and procedures you will need to know how to perform in the future.

At the moment, I am attending a summer camp through a program called Summer Discovery. This is a three week program where people from all around the world can stay at different college campuses and take college courses in the field of their liking. For me, I’m going to the University of Texas to take two courses in Medicine: Introduction to Medicine and Anatomy and Pathology. So far, I am really liking this program as it allows me to make friends from all around the world and bond with them through common career choices, take college level courses, and explore the college campus and environment!

If you get the opportunity to apply for this camp, you should give it a try! It is great for people who want to get a feel of what college is like and make new friends, while learning about their favorable area of study!

Some other programs you can look towards doing are research projects through programs offered through colleges (here's one that 5 Texas colleges participate in), volunteering at a blood bank (such as We Are Blood), working as a camp counselor if you’re looking into working with children and the pediatric aspect of medicine, finding an internship in a specialty you’re interested in (for me, it's Pediatric Oncology), or just shadow a doctor in your local area!

(P.S.: I've provided some hyperlinks to programs you might be interested in!)

⚡ To be continued in This Summer’s Discovery: My Pre-Collegiate Medical Program Experience!