Local high school students got a sneak peek of what it’s like to train for a medical career during VGCC’s “Mini-Medical School” camp this July.
Mini-Med School was offered at the College’s South Campus in conjunction with Wake Area Health Education Center (AHEC). The intensive, weeklong day camp used computer simulation and hands-on activities like dissection to study key aspects of medicine. The camp covered a range of topics: health career pathways, anatomy & physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, neurology, cardiology, mental health, epidemiology, medical genetics, and genomics. At the end of the week, participants received their own lab coats and stethoscopes to celebrate their “graduation.”
Wake AHEC’s Becky Brady, a registered nurse and chemical engineer, served as the course’s primary instructor. VGCC Health Sciences faculty also shared information about academic pathways and employment prospects.
Camp organizers were excited to conduct VGCC’s Mini-Med School in person for the first time since summer 2019, after social distancing guidelines forced the camp to go virtual in 2020. Keep an eye out for expanded in-person offerings next summer!
Vance-Granville Community College began its Mini-Med School partnership with Wake AHEC in 2014.
About Wake Area Health Education Center
The North Carolina Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program provides and supports educational activities and services with a focus on primary care in rural communities and those with less access to resources to recruit, train, and retain the workforce needed to create a healthy North Carolina. Wake AHEC is one of nine centers in the NC AHEC Program. The center serves Durham, Franklin, Granville, Johnston, Lee, Person, Vance, Wake and Warren counties.
Learn more about Wake AHEC at the organization’s official Facebook page.
