Academy Students Explore Medical Careers at UPike

by Logan Eckler, Academy Avatar

This summer, three academy students received an opportunity to experience situations that normally only those in the medical professions have the chance to see and do.

Lori Lovell, Jeet Parankh, and Erin Walch attended PEPP (Professional Education Preparation Program), a program held at the Pikeville School of Osteopathic Medicine. The goal of PEPP is both to give rising high school juniors and seniors the chance to explore some of the experiences that a medical practitioner and student might encounter, and to introduce students to the nature of dormitory life over a three-week residential program.

Walch explained that PEPP offers students a wide variety of experience in an atmosphere of professionalism.  “This program introduces high school students to the atmosphere of medical school with opportunities to observe medical practitioners, work on donated cadaver bodies, and learn concepts in lecture style classes,” she said.

According to Lovell, the best part of the program was “the amazing staff of Pikeville Medical School who generously shared their time and experience with the students. From hematology to the skeletal system, the professors always found a way to make medicine more interesting.”

The entirety of the program is not simply defined in the lab or classroom either. While attending, Walch had the opportunity to scrub into a knee surgery, work in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and participate in a series of radiology labs. Then, after two weeks of working hard, the students went to Pigeon Forge and stay at Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend to let off some steam.

Walch stated that she thinks that the program is successful in demonstrating some of the grueling circumstances that are prevalent in medical school and erasing some misconceptions that students might have about studying medicine.

Lovell concluded that the program “is a great stepping stone to greater things in the medical field,” and that she “would definitely recommend this program to a friend interested in pursuing a career as a physician.”