Skip to main content

Lowcountry High School Students Participate in First Health Career Exploration Symposium

The first Health Career Exploration Symposium took place on June 24 at the Technical College of the Lowcountry (TCL) in Beaufort, SC.  This collaborative effort between Lowcountry AHEC and the Preventive Medicine Department at the Naval Hospital-Beaufort provided Lowcountry high school students with an opportunity to explore health careers through cooperative learning activities and panel discussions.  Students circulated through six different morning classroom sessions, which introduced pharmacy, biomedical technology, respiratory therapy, medicine, dental technology and nursing and included hands-on activities. Dr. Laurence Neely, a former Upstate AHEC Health Careers Program student, served as one of the morning facilitators.  Numerous participants rated his session on medicine and blood typing as their favorite classroom session.  

An afternoon panel of United States Navy servicemen and women shared inspiring stories that highlighted the importance of one’s drive and determination in achieving professional goals. Each healthcare professional also shared how the United States Navy provided financial support towards his or her educational training.  The day ended with team building activities led by representatives from the Beaufort County Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Marine Corp Community Service (MCCS)-South Carolina SEMPER FIT, and Naval Hospital-Beaufort Preventive Medicine Department.  Each activity demonstrated the importance of working as a team to accomplish goals. 

Overall, students and facilitators provided very positive feedback for the event.  One student shared, “I really enjoyed myself and I was happy that I took time to come.”  A special thank you goes out to all of the volunteers, facilitators, sponsors, and AHEC staff.  The sponsors included the South Carolina AHEC, TM Graphics, Chick-Fil-A, Lighthouse Christian Center, National Science Foundation, MCCS-SC Semper Fit, Beaufort County EMS, and TCL. Lowcountry AHEC is pleased the program was a success and looks forward to making it an annual event.


For more information, please contact Lowcountry AHEC at 843-782-5052.

Popular posts from this blog

Marchek Siblings Stay Connected With Upstate AHEC Through Academic Journey

 A pair of siblings from Greer are giving back to current Upstate AHEC Health Careers students after completing the program themselves. Alex Marchek, MD is in his first year as a family medicine resident at Prisma Health Seneca. His younger sister by two years, Anna Marchek, is a second-year medical student at Edward Via College of Medicine (VCOM) Carolinas. “My mom likes to say she did good,” Anna joked. “Both of her kids are going to be doctors. She went two-for-two.” Anna (left) and Alex (right) Marchek are pictured with Nita Donald, Executive Director of Upstate AHEC. While Alex and Anna have both chosen to pursue medicine as a career, their interest in healthcare developed differently. Alex describes his discovery of health sciences as a slow realization. “It was definitely something that was on my radar really young,” said Alex. “My parents will say when I was six years old, I was talking about doing something in medicine. I had some really great science teachers in elementar...

Pee Dee AHEC Clinical Placements Help Students See Challenges – and Opportunities – of Rural Primary Care

  Third-year medical student Omar Guerrero didn’t find his passion for a career in healthcare until he began shadowing health professionals as an undergraduate student. “I just knew that I really loved science and working with my hands,” said Guerrero, who double-majored in Public Health and Cellular & Molecular Biology while at the University of South Florida. It all clicked for him once he was able to observe physicians in their encounters with patients. “I saw there was a real need for Spanish-speaking physicians,” said Guerrero. “There’s a lot of disconnect between providers and Spanish-speaking patients and I thought that was definitely an area that I could make a difference in.” Now in his third year at A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona, Guerrero is doing a clinical placement at Beaufort-Jasper-Hampton Comprehensive Health Services, Inc. in Richland. Guerrero was connected with Pee Dee AHEC and their Health Professions Student (HPS) program...

Simulation Training Prepares Students for Rural Primary Care

Since its inception in 2021, South Carolina AHEC’s Simulation Education Training (SET) has remained a favorite experience amongst health professions students statewide. Pee Dee AHEC Scholars and other health professions students pose for the camera during a simulation Since its inception in 2021, South Carolina AHEC’s Simulation Education Training (SET) has remained a favorite experience amongst health professions students statewide. SET uses simulation-based technology to expose students to clinical environments and scenarios that mirror what providers experience in rural, medically-underserved communities. “A lot of simulations are emergent or hospital-based and students are usually being graded as a formal assessment when they participate,” said SC AHEC Curriculum Coordinator Dawn Leberknight, who was heavily involved in the development of the initiative. “We tried to make [SET] more informal to expose students to simulations before it’s high stakes, and then to really focus on rura...