NEOUCOM Teens have brains -- and get to hold them

This camp wasn't about s'mores and campfires.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
ROOTSTOWN -- The teens were trying to focus on Dr. Barb Puder's presentation, but it was tough for them to ignore the human brains lying on tables in the back of the classroom, waiting for them.
It was day three of the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine's MEDCAMP. For Dr. Puder's group, that meant it was time to learn about brains -- as in touching them, she explained.
That prompted a squirming Ambyr Danage, 14, of Warren to anxiously ask, "If you want to be a physician do you have to take anatomy?"
Ambyr was among 49 other northeast Ohio teens, including 24 from the Mahoning Valley, who recently donned baggy green scrubs and spent an intensive three days being introduced to the medical field.
NEOUCOM's camp, now in its 14th year, is designed to persuade upcoming high school freshmen to pursue a career field that needs fresh talent.
Who's recruited
The camp focuses on smart students with an aptitude for science and an interest in medicine. Preference is given to minorities, females and rural residents because those groups are under-represented in medicine.
During the experience, campers participate in laboratory exercises in anatomy, microbiology, physiology, neurobiology and physical diagnosis.
NEOUCOM instructors and medical students conduct the camp.
"When a student goes through this, they learn that it's exciting and interesting" to be involved in medicine, said Dr. Ken Rosenthal, a camp creator and one of its instructors.
After being exposed to medicine, "they say, 'Wow, I can do that,' and they're not afraid to go into it," added Dr. Rosenthal, whose white lab coat was accented with an Albert Einstein-themed neck tie.
The "wow factor" figures prominently in the camp.
Reactions
"I love it. I like touching everything," declared Jessica Hall, 14, who attends Lisbon schools.
She was still wearing surgical gloves after having poked and probed a human heart and lungs.
Lewis Shingleton, 13, of Beaver Local schools in Columbiana County, brightened as he told about the cadaver he examined.
"It was scary at first, but then it wasn't as bad as you think it would be," Shingleton said.
Deanna Dailey, 14, who will be attending Chaney High School in Youngstown this fall, said she is considering being a surgeon.
She giggled as she and another camper tapped each other's arms and knees with a tiny rubber hammer as part of a lesson on testing reflexes.
Back in the brain lab, the students gathered before a fluorescent light panel as Dr. Puder slapped up an image of a skull to reveal the carotid artery's crooked pathway.
"Whoa," the impressed teens murmured.
Later, Ambyr, who will be a Warren G. Harding freshman this fall, pressed her scrubs to her nose as classmates wearing plastic gloves handled the brains, which smelled of formaldehyde. The youngsters marveled at the texture, weight and size of the organs.
A fellow camper teased the reluctant Ambyr, who, despite her squeamishness, said she was having fun.
She especially liked meeting other teens and "finding out I wasn't the smartest person in the world," she said.
Whether she'll be a doctor one day, she doesn't know, Ambyr reflected, expressing doubt about anatomy.
Nearly 60 percent of the campers go on to medical careers, a NEOUCOM staffer said.
But the figure's only one measure of success, organizers say. Another lies in providing a climate for promising young people to learn more about themselves.