UNMC program helps students plan for the future

Enjoying science and wanting to be involved in the medical club is the path some students may want to take in their path to medical school. The University of Nebraska Medical Center has a program called the UMNC High School Alliance program, this program is designed to help high school students get a taste of what it would be like to be a medical student. According to the UNMC website, the program is an academic enrichment program to immerse highly motivated, secondary students from varying educational and socioeconomic backgrounds into an environment which will introduce them to health professions leading to a more diverse Nebraska workforce.

Many schools throughout the metro, are involved in the program with about 20 to 25 students in each class. The program has four different classes going on right now: Infectious Disease, Community Health, Pathology and Biomedical Research.

Senior Madison Hoy is involved in this program because she had a few friends that explained the program to her when she was a sophomore and junior. Hearing the perspective from other students encouraged her to sign up as a junior for her senior year. 

“I’m holding out to decide where exactly I want to be in the medical field until next semester because I’m in genetics and pharmacy then,” Hoy said. “I am really excited to be in the pharmacy program as their pilot program, and it will be really interesting.” 

The UNMC program helps you develop skills that you might need in throughout high school and college. It specifically helps with time management because during college, the time schedule and assignment schedule are very different, when comparing it to high school. During daily classes, students are doing something completely different than what they normally would be doing. 

“I’m a science person, as well as a detail oriented person. The class I’m in right now is very detailed and processed other wise you might mess up,” Hoy said.

The UNMC program strives to push students to the next level and give them a new perspective into the medical world.