2019 Fall Semester Recap

With the Fall semester coming to a close, here's a little recap of the pre-health events and student accomplishments from the past few months:

Weekly Events

• We hosted our Weekly Anatomy Challenge (WAC) on Wednesdays throughout the semester. Students competed each week for points and worked to climb the leaderboard posted here on The Atrium. The 2019 WAC Champion was Cade Nathan, who is also our Vice President for the Future Health Science Professionals. Cade will be rocking his awesome new shirt that he won as a prize for being this semester's champion. Congratulations, Cade! 

• Throughout the semester, pre-health students attended Grand Rounds on Friday mornings at the Rapid City Regional Hospital. These events offered a free breakfast along with lectures from both local experts and representatives of other institutions. Each topic gave students exposure to research and practices relating to an array of specialties in health care. This semester, 17 different students attended these events (many of them attended more than one of them!), where they learned new things, met medical students, residents, and professionals, and even scored a few shadowing opportunities!

MCAT Prep Presentation
at the Heartland Pre-Med Conference.

Off-Campus Events

• Three of our students traveled 11 hours to Kirksville, Missouri, in September to attend the Heartland Pre-Med Conference at A.T. Still University's College of Osteopathic Medicine. Students got lots of great information about preparing for medical school and picking out programs to apply to as well as fun opportunities to check out the campus' museum of osteopathic medicine and their simulation center/immersion rooms. Read more about it here.

• Pre-health students were invited to attend the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine's Cultural Immersion Poster Session at our local campus in October. Here, medical students presented about their time working with various local populations to gain a deeper understanding of how to care for those in different healthcare and community service settings.

Students meet with RCMC CEO, Jennifer Trucano, before touring the Endoscopy Center.

• Students attended pre-shadowing tours at Rapid City Medical Center and the Black Hills Surgical Hospital during Health Professions Week 2019. At each of these tours, students got paperwork in order and were connected to shadowing opportunities. Students were also able to tour some of the medical facilities and ask lots of questions about these physician-owned healthcare providers that serve the people of Rapid City and the surrounding area.

Students view the MRI at the BHSH Imaging Center during their pre-shadowing tour.

On-Campus Pre-Health Pathways Activities

• In September, students interviewed for a wide range of jobs in the health care field via this semester's Career Fair.

Students chat with local healthcare providers
during the FHSP Professionals Dinner.

• Throughout the semester, student organizations, such as the Future Health Science Professionals and the Biomedical Engineering Society, engaged in several pre-health student activities, including hosting mixers and dinners with local healthcare professionals.

Students were able to talk with a representative from
USD's Occupational Therapy Program about OT careers.

• Students were able to attend a wide range of events during Health Professions Week 2019, which featured a Pre-Health Expo, various breakout sessions, a mock ER, volunteer activities,  meet-&-greets, and other health career exploration and professional development opportunities.

Students were able to ask current medical students about the most valuable experiences they had as pre-meds and about what life is like in medical school.

Moving Forward...

The Spring 2020 semester is sure to see many similar events as well as a few new things for our pre-health student community. We will still be attending Grand Rounds on Fridays and plan to have more medical student panels, informational sessions, and other professional development activities available for our students in the coming months. As these opportunities arise, we will be sending out e-mails via our Pre-Health Student E-mail list, so if you haven't already, be sure to sign up by going here and don't forget to confirm your subscription by following the link in the e-mail that you get after submitting this form!

Thanks for a great semester and we look forward to seeing more of you! 

Feel free to contact Dr. J if you are interested in any of our future (or past) events and want to know more about how you can be involved in the pre-health community here at SD Mines!