Fourth HealthCORE STEM Summer Camp Inspires 150 Students

featured image of healthcore camp

Baptist Health Sciences University (BHSU) and Baptist Memorial Health Care hosted 150 high school and middle school students from the tristate area for the fourth HealthCORE STEM Summer Camp, held Monday, June 9 through Friday, June 13. Nearly 50 camp presenters and 20 camp counselors helped make the summer camp a success.

“Both high school and middle school students were highly engaged in camp activities. If parents had to check students out for an appointment, the students requested to come back to camp to finish the day out,” said Chair and Professor of Health Administration and Public Health at BHSU Briana Jegier, Ph.D.

Campers enjoyed a variety of activities, including learning basic first aid and CPR, solving “Skeleton CSI,” studying fluids and electrolytes, examining histology and pathology images, donning personal protective equipment (PPE), discovering interprofessional education (IPE), doing yoga and other fitness exercises, and having a field day and cookout. For the first time, campers participated in some seminars at the BHSU College of Osteopathic Medicine building.

Some of the most popular camp activities included dissections in the lab and “Aquafor 101,” an activity that featured an edible ice cream demonstration showing how pollutants affect aquifers. Students also took field trips to Knowledge Quest’s Green Leaf Learning Farm, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Crittenden, and Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women.

“The campers made great contacts for future volunteering at Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women,” said Baptist System Senior Community Involvement Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Practice in Public Health at BHSU Ann Marie Wallace.

The camp is part of the Baptist HealthCORE community outreach initiative to help students interested in health care professions, alleviate health care worker shortages, and eliminate health disparities.

If you’re interested in volunteering for the camp, providing an activity or supporting Baptist HealthCORE efforts, please email [email protected].

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This article was originally published on Baptist Leader. 

  • A group of students, mostly girls, gather around a table with a teacher demonstrating a plasma ball science experiment. The students are engaged, some touching the glass sphere to see the plasma filaments follow their fingers. The teacher is explaining, pointing at the device. The classroom setting includes papers, a small globe, and a smartphone on the table.
  • A group of students wearing matching blue shirts that read “The Future is Health” gather around a table displaying anatomical bone models. The table is covered with life-sized plastic bones including a skull, spine, pelvis, and limbs. Some students examine papers and booklets, while others closely observe the models. In the background, more students and adults are engaged in similar activities in a classroom setting.
  • Two students wearing blue “The Future is Health” t-shirts and purple gloves work at a lab table. One student is focused on dissecting or examining a small specimen using dissection tools over a black tray, while the other looks on attentively. A life-sized anatomical torso model is visible on the table beside them.
  • Three BUCOM students pose and smile in front of a Baptist Children’s Hospital ambulance. They wear BHSU HealthCORE t-shirts, backpacks, and casual attire, including a baseball cap and sneakers. The background features the ambulance’s colorful logo with cartoon children holding hands.
  • A large group of students stand on a stage wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE), including blue gowns, face shields, gloves, and hair covers. They pose for a group photo, some raising their gloved hands in the air. A presentation slide about PPE is projected on the screen behind them in a classroom or conference setting.

BHSU and BMHCC hosted 150 middle and high school students from the tristate area for the fourth annual HealthCORE STEM Summer Camp, held June 9–13, with support from nearly 50 presenters and 20 counselors.

 

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But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:31