Summer 2017
“The strengths of this program were the connections it has with different positions throughout the hospital, and its showing how a diverse group of people work in the medical field in different fields.”
“One strength of this program is the various options in the medical field one has and the resourceful connections you can make at the hospital.”
“This program showed that women are a powerful source in the world.”
We welcomed our first group of METEOR students, four students from three local high schools: McKinley Tech , E.L. Haynes and Oxon Hill. The students participated in an orientation to Children’s and lab safety training session with Children's Research Institute staff. Students were assigned to a mentor/mentorship team based the personal statement section of their application. With their mentors/mentorship teams, students took part in a variety of activities including weekly team meeting, shadowing opportunities and a summer lecture series.
In addition to our annual Summer Student Lecture Series, the METEOR program created a new series of presentations for all high school summer volunteers. There were five “Lunch and Learn” sessions which introduced students to the importance of team members from different disciplines with different strengths; other topics included how teams interact and function in an integrated way and how they accomplish their goals in the areas of research/care delivery and child advocacy.
Students also had the opportunity to spend the day at the National Institutes of Health and at the National Library of Medicine, where they enjoyed an informative and exciting tour of the facilities and met with a senior NIH Investigator whose focus is Sickle Cell Disease.
Our students had an lunch session with students from the GW University Post- Baccalaureate Pre-Medicine Certificate Program. The post-bac students shared their stories and what led them to make the decision to go to medical school after pursing careers in different fields. The METEOR students were also exposed to hospital careers through tours of the OR, Lab Medicine, the Blood Bank, Sheik Zayed Institute, the Washington Nationals Diabetes Care Complex and the ED. Our students interacted with physicians, technologists, nurses and other health care professionals asking them questions and getting a first hand look at what goes on behind the scenes at a hospital. For a hands-on experience, students participated in the BOV Simulation Center where they were exposed to the clinical environment.