AUSTIN, Texas — The Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin won’t open for nearly a year. But its first group of students — more than 50 Austin Independent School District (AISD) high schoolers — has already started with Monday’s launch of the Dell Medical School Health Sciences Summer Camp.
The camp is one of two that the Dell Medical School is hosting this summer — the second will be for more than 50 AISD middle school students Aug. 10-14. The camps are being generously underwritten by sponsors (listed below), so none of the students will be charged to participate.
Activities at the camp will include emergency medical services lectures and demonstrations, practice in Seton Healthcare Family’s cutting edge Clinical Skills Simulation Lab and talks from the medical school’s expert faculty. Students also will participate in a hands-on echo/ultrasound lab, a neuroscience lab and “Fun with Chemistry” demonstrations. High school students will receive CPR certification training, and middle school students will be trained in first aid.
“The Dell Medical School wants to help prepare students to succeed in medical school or in other health professions. That requires many students to begin preparing educationally well before they reach college,” said Dr. Reg Baptiste, a surgeon and the school’s director of pre-health professions. “These camps represent an early effort by the medical school to connect Travis County youths with the health ecosystem and prepare them to help their community get healthy and stay healthy. There are many more such projects to come.”
Students were chosen through a campus-by-campus process in which school counselors recommended potential camp participants. Applications were then reviewed by medical school staffers to compile the list of students in each camp. Eligibility was limited to Austin ISD for this first round of camps, but Baptiste said the medical school plans to expand the program in the future.
“This camp illustrates how innovation and collaboration can lead to benefits for the community,” said AISD Superintendent Paul Cruz. “In the years ahead, the Dell Medical School will bring thousands of jobs to the region, opening up new opportunities in a wide range of fields. It’s never too early for students to begin preparing themselves so they can take advantage of these opportunities.”
Sponsors of the Dell Medical School Health Sciences Summer Camps are:
- Austin Anesthesiology Group
- Austin Radiological Association
- Austin Sports Medicine
- Delbert & Janice Bray, M.D.
- Capitol Anesthesiology Association
- Central Texas Black Physicians Association/ Austin Chapter NMA
- Anwar Farhood, M.D.
- Harry L. Willett Foundation
- Hispanic Physicians Association
- MedtoMarket
- National Medical Association - Austin
- Seton Brain and Spine Institute
- Seton Spine & Scoliosis Center
- George Shashoua, M.D.
- Stryker Inc.
- Texas Fertility Center
- Texas Medical Liability Trust
- Texas Oncology
- Travis County Medical Society Foundation
- University of Texas at Austin Division of Diversity and Community Engagement
- Wellness Brain and Spine