Mount Si student learns the ropes of a medic
July 31, 2008
By Laura Geggel
After attending a 10-day workshop for the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine, Amanda Lehan of Fall City knows a little more about the opportunities and pressures students encounter in medical school and residency programs.
Lehan attended the July 6-15 workshop in Berkeley, Calif., after one of her Mount Si High School teachers nominated her for the program. Meeting SAT and GPA requirements can also result in a nomination if students mark a box of interest on the PSAT or SAT.
The NYLF offers workshops on a variety of professions, including law, medicine and national security. The program costs about $2,200 per student, but varies depending on which of the nine cities the student visits.
The NYLF, a private educational organization, has offered workshops to students since 1993. Medical students staff the forum on medicine.
“They like to do it,” said Laura Stevenson, NYLF media relations director. “They see themselves in the kids.”
Workshops range from 120 to 440 students per session. Admission is first come first serve, Stevenson said. For more information, visit www.nylf.org.
Lehan, who is enrolled part-time in Running Start at Bellevue Community College, said she was excited to learn about her medical forum nomination. The senior plans to major in chemistry, go to medical school at the University of Washington and train in pediatric medicine.
“I really like kids and I baby-sit a lot,” Lehan said.
Her chemistry teacher at Mount Si High School, Ken Hagler, called Lehan an “attentive and motivated” student who “should have no problem getting a degree in chemistry.”
Lehan, a member of the National Honors Society, also volunteers with the Fall City Wallaby Ranch and the Northwest Harvest food bank. In May, she won a junior scholarship from the Edwin R. Opstad Masonic Memorial Scholarship Foundation.
The forum gave Lehan several perspectives on the medical field. She heard from medical residents and a lymphoma patient, participated in a medical ethics debate and learned how to take blood pressure and suture a banana. The forum also bused students to medical centers and health-related organizations, like a San Francisco organization that trains guide dogs for the blind.
The public health symposium also spurred Lehan into the role of a public awareness campaign manager. She and the other students broke into smaller groups and gave presentations about topics ranging from motor vehicle safety to youth violence.
The groups with the best campaigns, voted on by their peers, are presented to a panel of professionals in public health. Lehan’s group’s won a first-place medal with its idea for an interactive youth violence prevention program.
“We said we would set up a mentoring program with high school students going to the elementary student level,” said Lehan. “They would do activities with them while promoting that violence is bad.”
When she wasn’t busy taking notes on lectures or learning about how to prepare herself for a future in medicine, Lehan got a chance to tour San Francisco - visiting Fisherman’s Wharf and going on a dinner cruise of San Francisco Bay.
Overall, the forum strengthened Lehan’s desire to be a pediatrician.
Stevenson said the program typically encourages students to go into the field or allows them to decide medicine is not for them. Stevenson even receives feedback that the forum helps students decide which medical specialty they hope to study.
“It helps make them more educated about their future career choices,” Stevenson said.
Reporter Laura Geggel can be reached at 392-6434 x221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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