Mini medical School a big hit with participants
ETHAN HENDRICKS
Staff Writer
staffwriter3@occc.edu
Fifty-six OCCC students participated in the University of Oklahoma’s Mini Medical School sponsored by the Health Sciences Center Nov. 10, said Kimberly Kyker, OCCC academic coordinator of Clinical Research.
Kyker said the Mini Medical School is offered once a year at the University of Oklahoma to undergraduate and high school students.
The students listened to lectures given by various OU professors on neurology and the brain, then were given quizzes on the material.
Kyker said the students enjoyed the program.
“I spent 18 years with the Health Sciences Center doing research on cancer,” Kyker said, “so for me, this was everyday stuff, but for the students it was exciting.
“I mean, how many times do community college students get to sit in the seat of a medical student?”
Kyker said medical and grad students fielded questions asked by the visiting students and gave a guided tour of the medical school.
There also were human brains for the students to examine along with some of the salamanders used by the researchers.
Gordon Holaday, an OCCC nursing major, said the school was fun and interesting.
“The three professors presented the information very well,” Holaday said. “Neuroscience is my favorite science to study.
“The professors didn’t field a lot of questions during their lectures but they made up for it afterwards,” he said.
“The professors and the medical students at OU answered a lot of questions in the little labs they had after the lectures and in the tour.”
Holaday said he was reminded of OCCC’s labs as they took the tour.
“[The labs there] were very much like the excellent labs here at OCCC.
“I would highly recommend the Mini Medical School to any nursing majors or anyone interested in medical research.”
Kyker said OCCC faculty and sponsors were sent an e-mail from the coordinators of the Mini Medical School containing the information about the school.
“We advertised the information to students in the Health Professions Club,” Kyker said.
“Two of the sponsors — Steve Cash and Carl Hirtzel — teach physiology sections and they announced the school to the students in their class.”
Kyker said the purpose of OCCC’s Clinical Research Program is to train people to go into an entry-level position working with nurses and doctors on human subject research.
“The program prepares you for a broad base of research fields, whether it’s pharmaceuticals, social science interactions or behavioral studies,” she said.
“The goal is to have students who, upon graduation, will be prepared to enter a field of research.”
For more information about Mini Medical School, call Kyker at 405-682-1611, ext. 7120, or e-mail kkyker@occc.edu.
