Fostering meaningful connections

Sharing their enthusiasm for medicine connected Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine students with elementary school-age youths from Oakland County through Reach Out To Youth (ROTY), a mentorship program designed to support Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine (STEMM).

Inside the Oakland University Oakland Center, 30 OUWB students organized interactive stations for the children to learn about hand hygiene, clinical skills, and anatomy and the five senses. The children rotated to a new station every 20 minutes where they listened to each other’s hearts with a stethoscope, ate sour foods to learn about their tastebuds, and even saw a sheep’s brain close up.

“We wanted the kids to experience what that brain looked like, and see it without being too scared or nervous about it,” said Josh Thomas, M2, who co-organized this year’s event with classmates Sophie Fisher and Noora Neiroukh.

A sheep brain is very similar to a human brain and was introduced this year to teach the correlation between the five senses and the anatomy. Once seated at this station, the children listened to Olivia McNelly, M1, as she held the sheep brain and pointed to different parts of it to show how the brain controls the body.

“Our brain is a complex organ,” she said. “The brain stem is very important because it helps with communication, the optic nerve in the brain helps the sheep see, and the medulla helps with heart rate and heart function.”

Rose Wedemeyer, Ph.D., Director, Education Training, Community Integration and Outreach, has worked on the program since it was introduced to OUWB three-years ago to further expand participants' interest in the sciences while fostering meaningful connections with medical students.

“I hope the medical student volunteers recognize the impact they can have on future medical students (youth) by inspiring them to consider careers they may not have otherwise considered,” she said. “Participants are also able to see firsthand that doctors were once students just like they are.”

Wanees Hannah, M2, (right) was among the OUWB student volunteers at the Reach Out To Youth event.

The medical students at every station engaged their young audiences with interesting facts about the human body hoping to fan the flame of their interest in medicine.

“They (the children) inspire us as much as we hope to inspire them. And we hope they get as much out of this experience as we do,” said Fisher, M2.

She credits OUWB’s commitment to community that strengthens not only the value of compassion and service but the sharing of knowledge as well.

“Something that's a big part of OUWB is community service in general, but I also think a big part of that is education. Being in a position where we have the opportunity to learn so much about the human body, it's really nice to be able to give back and teach others what we know,” said Fisher.

While ROTY aims to inspire young children about medicine, it provides medical students the chance to work on their teaching and clinical skills.

“We're going to have to educate our patients, whether they're older or they're younger, and this (event) gives us exposure to be able to do that,” said Thomas. “We're explaining … and giving correlations to their own health. It is what we're going to be doing in the future, so this gives us an opportunity to practice that as well.”

Though the medical students may have been doing the teaching, Wanees Hannan, M1, and Maram Oloko, M2, learned a few things that day as well.

“I get a really great energy from the kids. It reminds me to stay curious,” said Hannan.

“I was learning along with the kids. It was an awesome experience,” said Oloko.

“We hope that the kids had as much fun as we did,” said Neiroukh, M2.

The children received doctor boxes with white coats and stethoscopes at the end of the event.

Danielle Watson of Romulus, a parent in attendance, heard about last year’s program and knew that she had to sign up her daughters who are seven and 11.

“I want them to learn about the different career paths available to them,” said Watson. “My little one is like a sponge. I know she soaked up everything.”

In addition to OUWB, medical schools at Wayne State, the University of Toledo, as well as Michigan State University College of Medicine, host Reach Out to Youth events.  ROTY was founded in 1989 by Carolyn King, M.D., who, at the time, was in her first year of medical school at Wayne State University School of Medicine.