Mentoring Local Teens for Careers in Science and Medicine
For high school students, choosing a career and the right college for pursuing one’s goals can seem a daunting exercise fraught with challenges. Getting advice from teachers, parents, current college students and professionals can be helpful. And so can taking part in activities that provide experience connected to a field of interest.
Student organizers of the EiSci visit (from left) Andrew Johnston, Dayle Hodge, Tere Williams and Leah GuthrieTo help local teens with these important life decisions, three years ago Einstein students established the Einstein Science High School Mentoring Program (EiSci). A corps of 25 medical and graduate students volunteer in the program, organizing events aimed at igniting the interest of Bronx high schoolers in careers based in the sciences and healthcare.
An initiative supported by the Community-Based Service Learning Program (CBSL), EiSci is one of 10 volunteer-run community outreach groups at Einstein that make up the Einstein Community Action Network (Einstein CAN).
Offering a Window into Science Careers
“EiSci’s main mission is to improve the academic and future career prospects of Bronx public high school students through mentoring and by exposing them at a young age to careers in science and medicine,” said Dr. Barbara Birshtein, a professor of cell biology who works with the EiSci volunteers.
A high school student gets a view through a microscope during one of the lab tours.Through direct partnership with local high schools, the EiSci outreach group engages teen-aged pupils by visiting their schools and meeting with them in a bi-monthly after-school program. They also organize interactive workshops at Einstein where students can experience the science and medicine through visits to laboratories and clinics. The teens are encouraged to ask questions and engage in introductory-level hands-on lab activities.
Engaging Students
One event that EiSci organizes is its Biomedical Science Careers Student Exploration Day, which welcomed a group of tenth graders from Pelham Lab High School, Renaissance High School and Schuylerville Prep this past year. The day opened in Einstein’s Educational Center, in the Forchheimer Building, where Dr. Libusha Kelly, assistant professor of systems and computational biology and of microbiology & immunology, shared her career path with the visitors, and Salvatore Calabro, director of graduate admissions and enrollment, provided insights into college, summer research opportunities and various post-graduate career paths. These talks were followed by tours of core facilities that aid Einstein researchers in their work.
The day concluded with a series of five-minute scientific talks by the organizers, followed by a Q&A session and a closing science talk about clinical research.
Students gather in the education center to view the poster session and learn about each other’s research projects.“It’s about helping students who show interest in science and medicine to acquire essential skills that make them better candidates for college,” said third-year Ph.D. student Leah Guthrie, co-organizer of the event and co-founder of EiSci. “We hope to inspire students to consider a path in science and medicine by offering them the chance to experience what it’s like to be a medical student, a physician, or a researcher,” added second-year medical student Giulia Daneshgaran, another co-organizer of EiSci events.
Making Good Connections
“The conference gave me the sense that there are more options of what I can choose to be or that I might want to study,” noted one teen who attended the event.
“I gained more knowledge and more experience about certain careers,” agreed another. “The conference influenced and changed the types of careers that I am considering.”
“I liked the hands-on experiences we had with the Einstein students, and learning about the research topics during the poster session,” added a third high school student.
Later in the school year, the high-schoolers return to Einstein to take part in EiSci’s Medicine and Research Pre-Professional Youth Conference. In addition to interactive classroom workshops, the conference includes a networking session and a poster session where the teens present their own research projects to the EiSci team and Einstein students and faculty.
This year, the EiSci team plans to expand the Bronx schools it works with to include Herbert H. Lehman High School and Bronx River High School.
Posted on: Friday, February 10, 2017