On Nov. 1st through 3rd, juniors Maddi Davis and Madison Nagel, as well as senior Luciana Hernandez traveled to Kansas City to attend an event hosted by the University Of Kansas Medical Center Area Health Education Center. The event was designed to take upperclassman females who have shown a strong interest in healthcare and give them the opportunity to interact with students and faculty involved in the KU Medical Center, in order to encourage more women to become leaders in healthcare.

“They select about 10 girls from across Kansas,” Nagel said. “And give them an inside look at how things work at KU Med Center.”

To be selected to attend the event, the girls were required to go through an application process.

“We had to answer three essay questions, have the principal’s signature and get teacher recommendations,” Davis said.

Of 40 applicants only a select few were selected to attend the event.

“This was definitely seen as a big deal,” Davis said. “Only 16 young women out of the whole state of Kansas got chosen to do this.”

The three girls had the opportunity to visit a research lab to practice sewing up a wound with a row of stitches on swine.

“We went to the orthopedic research lab and got to practice sutures on pig’s feet and see cadaveres,” Nagel said. “With the cadaveres we got to actually grab the tendons in the hand and move the fingers by pulling them. It was really interesting and not as gross as I thought it might be.”

The girls took advantage of the opportunity to experience the setting around healthcare and decide what was right for them.

“This experience showed me that I am not interested in all of the facets of the medical field I thought I might be, and opened some doors to facets that I hadn’t even considered.” Nagel said.

The girls were able to get inside looks into numerous medical fields they may have not even known existed.

“I learned that there were more jobs available in the medical field than I thought there [were],” Davis said. “It broadened my interests in what career I want to pursue.” Davis said. “After attending [the event] I want to pursue a career in nursing, specializing in trauma/ER.”