Schools’ doors open wide through HPREP

By Lin Lofley

The 22nd annual Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program (HPREP) ended on Feb. 6 for nearly 200 area high-school students. With many parents in attendance on closing day, a single message was shared and reinforced: The health care professions need their talent, and while it might not be easy, it’s achievable.

HPREP is UT Southwestern Medical Center’s “academically challenging enrichment program that offers minority and underrepresented high school students a glimpse of education and career opportunities in health care professions.”

In addition to workshops, the students took part in a panel discussion of UT Southwestern students answering submitted questions. Parents heard from student coordinators about what the high schoolers had been learning, and campus leaders answered questions, many of which were similar to what the kids had asked.

HPREP - Students
High School students participating in taking blood pressure at the 2016 Health Professions Recruitment Exposure program

Dr. Shawna Nesbitt, Associate Dean for Minority Student Affairs, and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, and Director of HPREP spoke to a gathering of both groups and also introduced keynote speaker Dr. Curtiss Moore, a cardiology fellow at UT Southwestern, and subject of a Black Men in White Coats video.

The student panel handled several questions, including the lifestyle choices of students who have goals and accompanying academic pressures. One question directed to the panelists dealt with how much sleep they hope to get.

“I’ve never been a big sleeper, so I get about five hours a night,” said first-year medical student Tochi Ajiwe. “Sleep is the enemy.”

Degian Ghebermicael, MS2, admitted that “I get about 11 hours a night.”

That brought laughter from the gathering, and Dr. Nesbitt quipped: “I told you we believe in diversity at UT Southwestern.”

Essences Ewing, an 11th-grader at Cedar Hill Collegiate High School, came to HPREP with a budding interest in becoming a pediatric nephrologist. After five weeks, she admitted to a newfound interest in emergency medicine.

“I learned a lot in just a short time,” said Ms. Ewing, the daughter of insurance agents John and Dede Ewing. “I already felt motivated, but this has really lit a fire under me, and I’m surer about what I want to do in life. The mentors also helped me understand a lot more.

“She’s just always had a love for science and math,” Mrs. Ewing said. “She’s in an accelerated program now, and I believe these five weeks have helped her see a clear path to what she wants to accomplish. UT Southwestern is really where she wants to be.”

Mr. Ewing said, “Essences got an understanding of structuring and order for what she needs to do, and the program was invaluable for her mother and me because it paints a picture for us on how she can get into medical school.”

Carter High School senior Lauryn King has hopes of being a neonatal nurse, but the workshop on prosthetics and orthotics was a revelation to her. “I never know how intricate that field is, but we took apart a prosthetic leg, and with the help of the mentors we rebuilt it ourselves. It was very interesting.”

“She came home excited every week,” Lauryn’s mother, Kim, said. “One week it was the dissection of a cow’s eye, and the next it was learning how to do suturing. I think she’s always been interested in health care. I know she’s always wanted to help people.”

“HPREP is such a great program,” said MS1 Hillary Evans, who led a group of students that included Ms. Ewing. A graduate of St. Edward’s University in Austin, and a product of the West Texas town of Bangs, she enjoyed herself. “I really wish they had had something like this when I was in high school.”

Teams of students from across the UT Southwestern campus showed the HPREP participants what’s available and what’s attractive about a life in health care.

Second-year medical student Claire Mauvais, a Rice University graduate, guided the students in dissecting the eyes of cattle.

“This is interesting to the kids, but we’re also teaching safety first,” Ms. Mauvais said. “We’re using scalpels here, and we’re cutting into the bovine ocular tissue, so surgical gloves and masks are really important. You have to pay attention to what you’re doing, but these kids are pretty serious about the program.”

In turn, Keri Kaviani and Sarah Zannoni, students in the Physician Assistant Studies program of the School of Health Professions, were part of a team teaching the basics of reading blood pressure, and of drawing blood. (HPREP students used straws covered in gauze to simulate human blood vessels and the skin.)

Graduate students ran the DNA and Genetics Workshop that the entire HPREP group got a chance to experience.

HPREP - Dissecting
High School students participating in dissection in hands-on workshops at the 2016 Health Professions Recruitment Exposure program.

“Students participating in this workshop learned about DNA and genetics by isolating DNA from their own cheek cells,” said Dr. Stuart Ravnik, Associate Dean of the Graduate School. “Using simple household products, they did a simple molecular biology experiment to isolate their own DNA, which they were able to take home as their own pendant necklace.

“Students also did a simple genetics experiment using the sense of taste to explore the genetics and evolution of taste perception. The secret component of this experiment is chocolate, which thankfully is not in short supply in the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day.”

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Photos from this event can be found on our Facebook page.