APPROXIMATELY 35 CHILDREN between the ages of five and 13 got a taste of medical school when the University of Maryland School of Medicine kicked off its first Mini-Med School for Kids on July 11. The first five sessions were held at the Salvation Army’s Franklin Square Boys & Girls Club headquarters in West Baltimore, where the kids were gathered for summer camp. The sixth session was held at the medical school, with lectures, tours and an interactive visit to a laboratory.

Maryland delegate Carolyn J. B. Howard, left, and Paula Hollinger, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, listen as Larry Anderson, PhD, professor, department of anatomy & neurobiology, explains the importance of cadavers in educating first-year medical students.

Like all of our medical students, their education started with an anatomy lesson, and continued with courses on diabetes, obesity and the importance of nutrition, asthma, smoking, drug and alcohol addiction, and HIV and sexually transmitted infections. Medical School faculty lecturers used games, quizzes and props to make their lectures enjoyable, entertaining, and memorable for the children.

Mini-Med School for Kids ended on August 15 when the campers visited the medical school for a field trip. The children experienced firsthand what it’s like to work in a laboratory. Their lab activities included peering through microscopes to analyze cells on the slides below and learning about how laboratories function, what research is and why it is important, and the path to becoming a researcher in a medical school. Afterwards, Carnell Cooper, MD, associate professor, department of surgery and program in trauma, gave an informative presentation on violence and violence intervention, followed by a tour of Shock Trauma.

Mini-Med School for Kids students experiment with basic science in the center for celiac research while on campus for an interactive tour of the medical school.

Members of Congress, the Maryland General Assembly and other state officials got a taste of life as a medical student in a special bicentennial program at the school August 13 and 22. The program was Project Medical Education (PME), an initiative by the Association of American Medical Colleges to educate policymakers about the process of medical education, the benefits it provides, its complex funding mechanisms and the essential role of government in providing financial support.

Maryland delegate Samuel “Sandy” Rosenberg, right, receives his white coat from Joe Martinez, ’98, assistant dean for Student Affairs.

The day kicked off with a white coat ceremony, where the participants donned the traditional garb of medicine and assumed the role of a medical student. Then it was off to class, which started—as the first year of medical school traditionally does—in the gross anatomy lab. PME participants toured medical school labs, classrooms and patient care areas, seeing first hand the costly technology required to educate medical students and treat patients in the 21st century. Legislators also learned about the busy life of faculty physicians, who must simultaneously treat patients, educate students and conduct research.
There were also discussions on health disparities, the impending shortage of doctors and the importance of state funding for new research facilities to keep Maryland competitive. The day ended with an opportunity to speak with real-life medical students, not only about their futures but about the future of medicine as well.