Most young
adults do not experience their chosen profession until their latter college
years or even until they are on the job as college graduates. Very
few students have the opportunity to gain firsthand experience and insight
into their chosen profession, a valuable experience for youths deciding
on future careers. The founders of Medical Mentors saw the value in exposing
high schoolers to various occupations early in life, helping to inspire
them to continue in their chosen field or even determine that it might
not be the right profession for them. |
The idea
for this program came about through an idea based on unique experience
that Karen Fields, PA-C had during high school though a program called WINTERIM.
Winterim was offered during the month of January, allowing students to
take classes not offered during Fall and Spring semesters. Juniors
and Seniors had the opportunity to do three-week Internships with a professional
of their choice. |
| Karen participated
in the Internship program both her Junior and Senior years, doing her internships
with a local Orthopedic Surgeon,
Marc
Asselmeier, M.D., of Naperville, IL. After college, she went
on to obtain her Master's degree as a Physician Assistant and took a position
in Orthopedic Surgery. She has been practicing in the specialty since.
Karen attributes her love of Medicine and Orthopedics to her early exposure
to the field and to a great physician mentor in Marc Asselmeier. |
In 2005,
Karen joined Orthopedic Clinic of Appleton to practice with Dave Eggert,
M.D. Having had his own children shadow him throughout their college
years, Dave was excited about the idea to expand the same opportunity to
other students. In January 2006, he and Karen met with Appleton East
High School Prinicpal Ben Vogel and soon the partnership was forged. |
In July
of 2006, Medical Mentors accepted its first 13 students into the program. These students were paired with mentors in the profession of their choice
and spent 12-40 hours job shadowing. The students gave great reviews
of the program and for most, it confirmed their desire to go into a medical
profession. |
Currently,
the program is being offered in the summer as to not take students away
from their courses during the semester. The program was expanded in 2007 to Appleton North and Appleton West, and accepted 45 students into the program. In future years, we hope
to expand the program to students of other Fox Valley private and public
schools. |
For more
information please contact:
Karen
Fields, PA-C
KarenFields@MedicalMentors.net
(920) 540-5177
|
