‘What will you pursue when you grow up?’ This is a daunting question for young minds who most of the time are uncertain about their interests and future opportunities.
Gulf Medical University recognizes this need among the students and young adults of the region and initiated the course ‘Introduction to Health Professional Careers for High School Students’. This course offers the high school students explorative learning experience in the medical and healthcare specialties over five days in Gulf Medical University with the aim to help high school students to find their interest in healthcare professionals.
As part of the program, students from the College of Medicine, Bachelor of Biomedical Science (BBMS) and Doctor of Medicine (MD) collaborated and mentored the students in the Gross Anatomy Lab at GMU.
Aisha Anees, Aiswariya Pradeep, Alicia William, Syeda Eram and Zakira Hanin from BBMS program and Anish Mathew from MD program with Dr.Liju Susan Mathew mentored the students through the laboratory and introduced the normal working of the human body and introduced microscopic, development and common diseases presentations within the sessions.
Multiple batches of enthusiastic students participate in the course organized in July. Participants put forward their questions and learned the various systems of the human body using cadavers, prosected specimens, and models. One of the central highlights of this session was “unraveling and compile of the human body.” The students were enthralled by the specimens and cadavers and a participant commented, ‘It is like seeing our textbooks come to life!”
Besides the participants, this event also gave a novel learning experience for the facilitators. ‘It was a nostalgic experience for me since I too had come to this lab for a similar session when I was in school. It felt nice to be on the teaching side of the table this time!’ said Zakira Hanin.
Dr. Liju Susan Mathew trained the facilitators with the essential skills for mentoring to competently facilitate each session. We would like to thank Vice Chancellor Prof. Manda Venkatramana and Dr. Preetha Shetty, Program Director of Bachelor of Biomedical Science (BBMS) program and Associate Professor of Cytogenetics & Molecular Biology, for the opportunity and the unwavering support in introducing collaborative and innovative learning experiences for the community.
