More than 200 students attend health summit

October 30, 2015

More than 200 high school and college students attended the third annual Alaska Interior Medical Education Summit on Oct. 24 to learn about different health careers and talk to professionals in the field.

UAF's Community and Technical College led a variety of hands-on activities. Photo courtesy of CNSM.

"There was such great enthusiasm from the students who came to learn about different career paths," said Carolyn Chapin, who organizes AIMES. "I also thank the more than 75 health professionals who volunteered their time to talk with the students about their career paths or lead interactive activities."

Chapin is the undergraduate academic advising coordinator for the College of Natural Science and Mathematics, which hosted AIMES. She said that she created the event because many of the students that she advises are interested in health careers and want to know their options.

"I thought the best way to help students learn about different career options in the health fields was to bring the careers to them in one place," she said. "I asked radiologists, surgeons, veterinarians, nurses, EMTs and other health professionals if they would be willing to talk about their careers, what their jobs are like and the education path they took to get there."

Jack Chen, UAF associate professor of virology, and Andrej Podlutsky, associate professor of molecular biology, were among many UAF faculty who ran sessions to give students a glimpse into biomedical research and health careers. Photo courtesy of CNSM.

Chapin said the summit is open to the community but is geared toward college and high school students. She said many health organizations from inside and outside Alaska participated in this year's summit. They included Alaska Center for Natural Medicine, Palmer College of Chiropractic and North Star Radiology. The health professionals led interactive sessions, panel discussions, hands-on activities and set up tables where students could ask them questions.

Chapin said Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, Alaska IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence and Dr. David Florey of the Surgery Center of Fairbanks sponsored the event. To see a full list of this year's participants, go to https://sites.google.com/a/alaska.edu/aimes/.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Carolyn Chapin, 907-474-5548