Alpert Medical School students mentor high schoolers

Teens are chosen in the fall and assisted in planning a future that involves medicine or a related field.
Teens are chosen in the fall and assisted in planning a future that involves medicine or a related field.
Brown University's Alpert Medical School students spend part of their falls mentoring disadvantaged teens as they guide them through research projects.

Teens are chosen in the fall and assisted in planning a future that involves medicine or a related field. In January, the mentees present the guided research, which helps to introduce them to the possibilities for careers in the field of medicine.

Students from Rhode Island high schools gather for the presentations, along with medical professors, students, teachers and family members. Each mentee has displays, such as posters and PowerPoint presentations, that are professionally organized with the help of their mentors.

Often, the program inspires teens in high school to pursue a career they would otherwise have not considered or not even known about. It helps to awaken passions a student might not have realized existed prior to the specialized, personal attention shown throughout the process.

The program curriculum includes four three-hour meetings, held monthly during the fall. Lessons and demonstrations occur at each session, with topics including anatomy, surgical and emergency cases, and typical procedures such as intubation. Often, the teens are so greatly affected by the experience that they join the program later in their collegiate careers as mentors.