By Brianna Wood
The Perry Outreach Program is an opportunity for young women to learn more about careers in the fields of engineering and orthopedic surgery. Run by the Perry Initiative, high school girls can learn more about the process of becoming a surgeon and experience different real life scenarios in the career of an orthopedic surgeon. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Perry Initiative had to cancel all in person programs. This year, they hosted the Perry Virtual Experience, another incredible opportunity for female high school students to discuss STEM and medical careers. The Perry Outreach Program was held in November 2019. Multiple students from the St. Paul's community attended, including Madelyn Kronen, Krista Christmas, Sophia Gerst, Devin Muerer, and Lana Marie-David. The girls participated in six mock-surgeries, as well as hearing from many surgeons and residents, surgeons in training, about their journey to where they are today. Madelyn Kronen found the mock surgeries especially interesting, due to personal connections. Kronen eagerly described how she found the process of becoming a surgeon interesting. Krista Christmas was “awed by the teamwork involved and the hands-on experience of performing on areas of the human anatomy, by having the opportunity in using arthroscopes to locate a pea in a mock knee to extract it. [She] valued the teamwork incorporated in this, as each member helped one another by communicating which way they had to maneuver the tool.” Devin Muerer’s favorite part was “probably doing the stitches on the pig’s foot because it was something I had never done before. Also, another thing I had fun with was when we dropped the pea into the artificial knee and used the robot machine to find it.” This year, senior Lana Marie David attended the virtual experience, learning many things about engineering and orthopedics. This program contained lectures about the importance of engineering and the different careers in the medical field. David was grouped with five other girls, working together to conduct “online mock orthopedic surgery simulations” along with experiments. “My favorite part happened after each activity. After working on each activity, we would discuss the scientific explanation behind the worksheet activity: whether it be biomechanics, anatomy, and physiology, or engineering,” describes David. Programs such as the Perry Outreach Program and the Perry Virtual Experience are very important for all people out there, whether it is young men or women looking for careers or children being introduced to the world of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. “I definitely believe that the STEM programs are very important especially for young women… I found [the STEM programs] so interesting...we got to see all different career choices out there. It’s really just a good way to experiment with what you want to do before you have to make that decision for going to college. You get to work with a lot of other young girls your age who are going to do the exact same thing.” says Kronen. “[B]oth programs emphasized the leadership quality in women.” illustrates David. Christmas believes “[STEM education programs] have far-reaching effects on persons of all ages and for the betterment of the world. STEM education programs teach and demonstrate to students how today's technology can heal people, teach others, and offer better alternatives or solutions to previous obstacles.” “By educating the younger generations on new technologies and STEM related topics, they will get inspired and realize how they can change the world in any way they can imagine,” states Muerer. Comments are closed.
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