Twelve Benedict’s students can now feel what medical school is like.
Rutgers Medical School is hosting 2013 Premedical Honors Program, providing students from all over New Jersey the opportunity to learn what medical students do every day.
The eight-week program meets every Wednesday from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Homeroom from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. begins every session. Medical students teach basic medical knowledge from simple subjects like blood pressure to complex topics like drugs and their effects on the brain and the cardiovascular system.
Later, Rutgers’ world-renowned professors lecture from 6:45 p.m to 9 on topics medical students study.
Participation is the only graduation requirement. However, graduating with an honors certificate requires a bit more, including attendance at six of the eight program dates, a score of 90 percent or above on the online honors exam, attendance at a Pathology 101 lecture and participation in one weekend elective.The weekend elective options include Cardiopulmonary Physiology, Basic Life Support, and Medical Librarianship.
Three to four Benedict’s students have attended the Pre-Med program for the past nine years and they have generally liked the program.
“The program exposes them to information about the medical field which they are interested in,”said Director of Career Development Stephanie Baker. “It also gives students a chance to talk to various doctors in various fields.”
UDII Antonio Melgar likes the program. However, he can feel how difficult medical school must be.
“It’s rigorous, you have to pay attention,” Antonio said. “But I like what they do.”
Dr. Jacob Lindenthal, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Premedical Honors Program, runs six different programs.
“We work all year preparing and running these programs…it’s a day in and day out operation…we never sleep,” he said.
Dr. Lindenthal hopes that high school students who participate in the 13-year old program get a sense of what a career of medicine entails.
“We want guys to come out of here [interested in] research of their own,” he said.
