Students have the fortunate opportunity to explore their passions and interests in a plethora of ways, including classes, clubs and sports. Future Healthcare Professionals (FHP), led by junior Mason Chidlow, is a club for students to see if medicine is the right fit for them.
“Future Healthcare Professionals introduces healthcare professions and exposes [people] to different fields and job opportunities,” Chidlow said. “We show everybody volunteer opportunities as well as bring in guest speakers.”
Especially for those unable to take CAPS, this club can help students decide their future career without the huge time commitment. With all of this in mind, Chidlow is involved because he aspires to become a traveling physician, someone who travels and stays at health facilities on a temporary basis.
“The benefits, even for me, are that students can learn more about the medical admissions process so they’re not [being] blindsided as it’s approaching,” he said.
Similarly, for Officer of Operations senior JuJu Mayers, this club is the perfect opportunity to learn more and ease her worries about the MCAT and medical school.
“It’s been really helpful because one thing I’m really scared of is not wanting to be a physician anymore,” Mayers said. “Medical school is so hard and the MCAT is so difficult — I’m not going to have a social life, and I’m just going to have a mental breakdown. So I really want to focus on doing practice MCAT questions and how to study for it, research projects, [and] maybe bring in some of the things we do at CAPS.”
As for FHP sponsor and Gifted teacher Amy Harmon, she believes learning from professionals is the biggest advantage of being a part of the club.
“They bring in guest speakers who are medical students or doctors,” Harmon said. “Students can ask questions on what a potential medical track might look like.”
Recently, two medical students from UMKC came to the school to discuss their program and what their day-to-day looks like.
While students on the medical track usually do four years of undergraduate schooling and apply to a medical school for another four years after that, UMKC offers a unique program that allows students to earn their bachelor’s and medical degrees in the span of only six years.
This means students accepted in this rigorous program do not have to take the MCAT, apply to medical school or do internships for their résumé. However, this also means that breaks between school are remarkably shorter or not given at all, especially after the first two to three years.
“The guest speakers [who came] are third-year medical students at the UMKC program,” Chidlow said. “We had them come to tell everybody more about what the program is, how it’s different from traditional programs and do a question-and-answer session.”
FHP’s Officer of Speaker Coordination junior Niveditha Sudheer reaches out to different people from different programs in order to provide unique perspectives for students. Through many emails, she is able to recruit them to speak to the school and coordinate the logistics.
“We invited medical students from KU to come in,” Chidlow said. “We also invited one of the CAPS teachers from the medical program as well as [people from] other various medical professions.”
With guest speakers, activities and informational sessions about the MCAT and other processes people in the health field go through, FHP allows students to gain a brief preview of what the future could look like.
“I know a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, it’s so nerdy.’ Like, yes, it’s nerdy, but we’re learning important things. It’s important to keep your career in mind while you’re in high school to help you have a step ahead of everyone else,” Mayers said. “You can research all you want, but experience is what you need.”
