The opportunity to learn, to treat every day as a classroom adventure, is a privilege given to aspiring health care professionals. Last month, five of the most driven high school students represented the Finger Lakes region in their New Vision Medical Program in a Rural Medical Scholars Program event known as “Mentorship through Case Discussion,” held on Saturday, April 6th.
The competition took place on the campus of SUNY Upstate Medical University and featured eight school districts, including five deserving local Finger Lakes area students, chosen at random, from the New Vision Medical Career Program’s Class of 2019. Canandaigua’s Adam Novak and Sarah Bernard, Bloomfield’s Jaclyn Bell, and Midlakes’ Sophia DelPapa and Kara Jones, thrived under the guidance of their New Vision instructor, Laura Van Niel.
Offered in partnership with Finger Lakes Health and Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES, New Vision Medical is now in its 24th year at Geneva General Hospital (GGH). The class gives interdisciplinary and experimental learning to high achieving high school seniors by incorporating 24 clinical rotation sites in diagnostic, acute care, life stages, and surgical units, with computer based and directed medical rotation experiences. All of which helps to immerse each class with supervision in understanding the roles and daily life of nurse assistants.
Developed as a learning experience that combines mentorship opportunities with first and second year medical students, and simulated models and case analysis, the annual competition at SUNY Upstate helps prepare students for the rigors of university and professional life in medicine.
Tackling the material with the same confidence and breadth of knowledge that he has used to navigate the slopes of alpine ski racing, Adam Novak, a Canandaigua Academy senior and a soon to be 2019 graduate of the New Vision Medical Careers Program at GGH, excelled with his fellow senior classmates.
“The opportunity was great and we did pretty well as a team,” said Novak, as he embarks on his journey to someday become an orthopaedic surgeon. Tasked with the challenge of diagnosing and creating a treatment plan for a hypothetical patient, a 28 year old type 2 diabetic, Novak felt comfortable.
“The highlight for me was having my alumni come back to help my current students prepare for this competition,” said Laura Van Niel. “My students couldn’t get over how incredibly nice and normal that they are. It really makes their dreams of working in medicine even more realistic and not as intimidating.”
Graduating this June from the New Vision Medical Careers Program at Geneva General Hospital in addition to Bell, Bernard, Novak, DelPapa, and Jones, are Canandaigua’s Joey Brinza and Taylor Giroux, Penn Yan’s Peyton Comfort, Brady Logan and Matthew Miniot, Waterloo’s Riley Corey, and from Mynderse; Kenya Backman-Lowe, Morgan Ellis, Jordan Howell, Sarah Kohberger, William Reese, and Louis Smith.
To learn more about the program and how to apply, interested high school students should contact their guidance office or the Finger Lakes Technical & Career Center at 585-526-6412.