Orthopedics? Pediatrics? New MedEx partnership helps pre-med students decide
Will Crane thought he’d be a surgeon, but six weeks last summer in a unique Greenville Health System program changed his mind. “I learned that although I am interested in the science of medicine, I am in love with the relationships that clinical physicians get to experience with their patients,” the biology senior said, reflecting on whether he might become a general practitioner or a specialist. Thanks to the Medical Experience Academy, or MedEx, undergraduates watch surgeries, shadow doctors, attend lectures and, in Crane’s case, get a better sense of what direction in medicine to take. “MedEx gives our pre-med students a fantastic opportunity Junior Logan Hood participated in MedEx 2014 to gain experience, work in clinics and strengthen MCAT prep and plans to attend in 2015. Photo by Kattie Sun. skills,” said Pearl Fernandes, SCHC associate dean. Noting that about one in five SCHC students are pre-med, Fernandes started “Studying all the time can be a burden, and MedEx shows the partnership with GHS last spring. Last summer, three SCHC that being a doctor isn’t like being at school all the time,” he said. students attended. Next summer, there will be 10 openings. “Medicine is a field in which you have to continuously learn, but For Crane, a Palmetto Fellow and Dean’s Scholar, every day ultimately you do get to apply what you have learned and spend brought surprises. Urology, “something I thought I would detest,” time interacting with people.” turned out to be a favorite. So did the rehab clinic. And he was There was a personal victory, as well. Crane started exercising. gratified to find med school would be different from undergradu- “As doctors, we are our own first patients. It is important to lead ate school. your life as you would tell others to lead theirs.” Visits to South America and Africa inspired sophomore Spanish major Madeline Willet’s mixed media pieces.