Fellow Bio:
I grew up in Delavan, WI, a small city south of Madison, but am quite familiar with Madison as I completed my undergraduate degree from the UW this past May with majors in Biology and Spanish. I threw shotput and discus competitively on the University's track team during my undergraduate career. Over the past few years I volunteered extensively at St. Mary's in the Emergency Room, was involved with the Latino Health Council of Dane County, and served as an undergraduate liaison on the MEDIC Council. Last summer I partnered with the American Cancer Society and their Latino Community Action Team and completed a thesis project that investigated the availability of health care resources for the Latino communities in Dane, Walworth, Rock, and Jefferson Counties. This project demonstrates where resources are falling short and assists the American Cancer Society in their efforts to effectively reach out to meet the needs of underserved populations. Currently, I enjoy volunteering weekly at the Ronald McDonald House of Madison.

Our project focuses on exposing rural high school students to potential careers in medicine. We conduct four seminars, "Medical Careers Behind the Scenes," each summer in coordination with the State 4-H Leadership Conference. This partnership allows youth from every county in the state access to our program. We provide general background information and resources pertaining to a variety of medical careers with a focus on fields with training programs at UW-Madison. Each session is a 2 hour long, up-beat, interactive hands-on experience. Thus far, the most popular components of the session have been the human organ-systems lab and training in basic physical exam skills and blood pressure measurement.

Through our project we hope to:

• increase awareness of opportunities in medical careers in rural areas
• encourage high school students to consider careers in medicine
• enable students to follow their career goals through mentorship
• provide educational resources and guidance to students interested in medical careers

Nearly 150 high school students from around the state have attended our seminar over the past two years and we are scheduled to participate in the 2005 WI State 4-H Leadership Conference as well. We have established a strong relationship with the Leadership Conference administration that will facilitate the continuation of our project into the future. We were excited to have two second year LOCUS fellows join our project last year and look forward to adding new members to our team.

We have had difficulty in continuing communication with session attendees to offer support and to reassess their interest in medical careers. We will focus on developing a mailing and e-mail list for attendees.

We have a small budget used to buy program supplies and to cover postage for continuing communication. We will also need the cooperation and willingness of clinicians in rural areas to participate in a mentoring program.

Last update:

February 27, 2005

A indicates the item has been completed.

Completed	When	What	On-line
	Year 1: Beginning of Semester 2	New Project Report	Submit Report
	Year 2: Beginning of Semester 1	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 2: Beginning of Semester 2	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 3: Beginning of third year	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 4: August of fourth year	2-3 page final summary of project that includes a reflective evaluation of the project process	N/A
	Ongoing	Participate in program evaluation (written and/or focus group)	View Options
	By the end of fourth year	Select poster, presentation, paper, creative option or your own idea	View Options

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(c) 2003 University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Family Medicine