Lowcountry AHEC Health Careers Programs and Successes

(right to left) Kristin Blair and Dr. Belk

Lowcountry AHEC works diligently to increase the number and diversity of students entering the health professions pipeline. The Lowcountry AHEC Summer Internship Program serves as a vehicle for accomplishing this goal by offering career exploration opportunities for graduating high school seniors and undergraduate students. Selected students are placed in Lowcountry healthcare facilities for four weeks in July. Students are provided opportunities to observe a healthcare setting and develop their personal and professional skills through special student sessions. Students who successfully complete the program are awarded a $500 stipend. Lowcountry AHEC has achieved great success through this program.

Lowcountry AHEC Health Careers Program Coordinator Natasha Chatman shares, “Our interns are awesome, and they really impress the preceptors at our clinical sites.” Kristin Blair, a senior at South Carolina State University, served as an intern with Edisto Dental Associates (EDA) in Orangeburg last summer. Due to her excellent performance, EDA convinced Ms. Blair to continue her experience beyond the program as a hired employee. Lowcountry AHEC proudly reports that she is only one example of the quality students who enter the healthcare pipeline through Lowcountry AHEC programs.

Another valuable exploration experience is the Health Career Exploration Symposium. This Lowcountry AHEC one-day workshop provides high school students with an opportunity to explore health careers through learning activities.

Applications for both programs will be available after January 15. To find out more information and obtain applications, visit the Lowcountry AHEC website or contact Natasha Chatman at chatmann@lcahec.com.

Comments

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 elementary, m

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 wh

Maternal and Infant Health Module Sprout Available on AHEC Learning Portal

In an effort to help improve maternal and infant health outcomes in South Carolina, SC AHEC has developed a new educational module titled Sprout , which serves as a collection of information, tools and resources available in the state to support healthy mothers and babies. The module, created in partnership with the SC Office of Rural Health’s (SCORH) Family Solutions and March of Dimes of SC , can be found on the AHEC Learning Portal at www.scahec.net/learn/sprout . Sprout is an expansion from SC AHEC’s routine educational programming, as the module is targeted toward community members instead of health professionals. To make sure information is reaching all members of the public, the program simplifies or defines many terms that are used commonly in healthcare and is written in plain language that non-healthcare professionals can easily understand. “The goal is for any resident of South Carolina who is interested in supporting healthy moms and babies in their own community

South Carolina AHEC News & Updates

Search This Blog