{"id":11571,"date":"2019-04-09T15:42:28","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T19:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=11571"},"modified":"2019-04-10T11:36:39","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T15:36:39","slug":"stem-program-helps-high-schoolers-make-connections-see-whats-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2019\/stem-program-helps-high-schoolers-make-connections-see-whats-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"STEM Program Helps High Schoolers Make Connections, See What\u2019s Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Shuaibu \"Sha\" Ali '21 (left) and Kenny Williams '21 (right). (Photo by Rob Strong)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sunny winter\u2019s morning on the campus of Dartmouth\u2019s Geisel School of Medicine, and two groups of students from nearby Lebanon and Hartford High Schools fill a classroom in Geisel\u2019s Remsen Hall.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by Ryan Gambero, a science teacher from Hartford H.S., and Will Connell, an English and social studies teacher from Lebanon H.S., each group is there to take advantage of an experiential learning opportunity called Upper Valley STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Scholars.<\/p>\n

The collaborative project is led by Geisel students and Schweitzer Fellows<\/a> Shuaibu Ali \u201921 and Kenny Williams \u201921, in partnership with the teachers and their Geisel classmates Laura Herrera Gomez \u201921 and Carlos Aramayo \u201921.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our main goals is to engage you, through some different STEM activities and through mentorship, so that you\u2019ll see some of the career options that are available to you in STEM fields like medicine,\u201d Ali tells the students.<\/p>\n

A recent community needs assessment has shown that in the Upper Valley\u2014with employers like Dartmouth College, Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Hypertherm, and the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in close proximity\u2014demand for workers in STEM-related fields is on the rise.<\/p>\n

On this day, the groups are visiting Geisel\u2019s anatomy lab to learn first-hand about different aspects of human anatomy and disease processes by viewing the bodies of program donors. The high school students start with an \u201cice-breaker\u201d exercise before hearing about another important goal of the project.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Lebanon High School students (left to right) Klaleh Punni, Weati Punni, and Lorraine Zaki interact with Carlos Aramayo '21 in Geisel's anatomy lab, as part of the Upper Valley STEM Scholars program.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe also plan to have some discussions about equity and societal issues, like social determinants of health,\u201d says Williams. \u201cBy working to bridge the gap between different worlds and different perspectives, we hope that we can all learn some new skills that will help us empower ourselves and each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

A series of racially charged events have recently occurred at Lebanon High\u00a0School, which has prompted students, teachers, and school administrators to\u00a0ask for help from the community. People of color from across the Dartmouth campuses have responded\u2014by making regular visits to the school to offer their support to those who feel victimized, and by expanding the scope of projects like Upper Valley STEM Scholars.<\/p>\n

During their visit to the anatomy lab\u2014guided by the medical students and James Reed, who runs the lab and directs Geisel\u2019s anatomic gifts program\u2014the students are fully engaged, interacting easily with one another and asking questions as they rotate through four different anatomical stations.<\/p>\n

At the conclusion of the visit, Gambero says, \u201cGiving the kids this kind of exposure, which shows them, \u2018If you\u2019re interested in this field, here are some of the things you can do,\u2019 has been great for them. It\u2019s not the type of learning experience they can get in the normal classroom settings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connell adds, \u201cThe word that really comes to mind for me is \u2018access,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cBeing invited in by the medical students and seeing what their days are like, and then more broadly, getting our students of color connected with a future where they can see themselves in a STEM-related career has been really powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, the medical students\u2014who share similar backgrounds as people of color and those who were raised in lower income households\u2014offer some thoughts about their project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think mentoring is one of the most important things we can do,\u201d says Gomez, who along with Aramayo serves as co-president of the Dartmouth Chapter of the Latino Medical Students Association. \u201cWhen I was younger, having someone who believed in me was really important, so I\u2019ve always wanted to be there for other kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy exposing the students to different facets of medicine, listening to them and sharing some of our own experiences, we hope that they\u2019ll feel validated and more empowered about their future, whether that ends up being in medicine or another field,\u201d says Aramayo.<\/p>\n

This spring, the four are offering workshops at both Geisel and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center that show the students examples of human physiology and disease, clinical interventions and treatments, and how societal issues, such as poverty and racial status, impact the health of communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been very rewarding to see the kids get so engaged with the project\u2014I know somebody sparked my interest in STEM, so even the possibility of being that flint that starts the fire in someone else is humbling,\u201d says Williams. \u201cAnd to see students really starting to think critically about how they can bring positive change to their school and to their community is impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali agrees. \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed getting to work with two schools that have such great stakeholders, in Will and Ryan,\u201d he says. \u201cSeeing how passionate they are about empowering their students and giving them outside-the-classroom experiences that will likely help shape their career choices and their impact on society someday\u2014is not only refreshing to see, it\u2019s inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geisel first-year students and Sweitzer Fellows Shuaibu Ali \u201921 and Kenny Williams \u201921 are partnering with classmates and local high schools to offer Upper Valley STEM Scholars. The program allows students to gain exposure and mentorship in STEM fields like medicine, while learning how societal issues impact the health of communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":11573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,14,1],"tags":[517,847,536,213,935],"class_list":["post-11571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-improving-lives","category-news","tag-education","tag-home-feature","tag-medical-students","tag-schweitzer-fellowship","tag-stem","author-26"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/04\/sha-kenny-nc1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4r3h1-30D","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11571"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11582,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11571\/revisions\/11582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}