The Panther gym was packed and full of anticipation Friday morning – not with athletes but future scientists and health professionals on a mission to reduce the spread of malaria.
About 140 top high-school students were on hand for ACPHS’ second Future of Healthcare Workshop. Attendees were nominated by high school leaders in and around the Capital Region for their achievements and interest in STEM careers.
The students started the day with a case study involving the infectious disease malaria and then dispersed across campus into groups led by ACPHS faculty to address the problem from the perspectives of four different disciplines – biomedical sciences, clinical and health sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences. At the end of the morning, they reconvened to discuss the possible solutions they had brainstormed.
Their responses revealed the range of issues to consider and potential approaches to employ when addressing a health matter of major global concern. Some students had considered malaria quite literally at the cellular level; others pondered the societal impacts and obstacles to preventing and treating the disease.
Student attendees said they enjoyed the interactive nature of the case study, which made the exercise more real. “That part was cool,” said Rizalino Reyes of Amsterdam High School.
They also said they were happily surprised by the idea of deploying different approaches to the same issue.
“It was really interesting to look at one problem within health sciences, and see the different perspectives, the different ways to approach the problem,” said Chloe Wright, a junior from Glens Falls High School.
Kaylee Mercer, a junior at Columbia High School in East Greenbush, is interested in working in a biomedical laboratory one day. Her participation in the pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences group was eye-opening, she said. That group was tasked with considering how to get vaccines to people in a remote community with high infection rates. They considered the effects of traveling over desert terrain on a dirt road and navigating a volcanic eruption, as well as the economic costs of the vaccines and their delivery.
“Some of the barriers just to get a vaccination were surprising,” she said.
On the same topic of delivering vaccines, the social and behavioral sciences group considered resistance to vaccines, along with other issues.
Other attendees liked the distinct environment of ACPHS.
“It was nice being in a room of people who share the same interests,” said Alexandra Forte of Amsterdam High School.
For Forte and others, the workshop confirmed their interest in pursuing careers in health care and related fields.