Nineteen Nebraska high school students participated in a one-week Summer Health Professions Career Workshop July 14 through July 19 at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The Summer Health Professions Career Workshop’s goal is to encourage young Nebraskans’ interest in the health professions with the hope that they may someday practice health care in rural Nebraska where critical shortages of health care professionals remains a major concern.
According to the Nebraska State Health Department, 60 of 99 Nebraska counties have a shortage of family practice physicians and about 20 counties have no hospital.
The workshop introduced the students to health science careers through lectures, shadowing professionals and hands-on experiences. The students selected to participate in the program competed with 113 others and were rated on grade-point-average, school and extracurricular activities, health career interest, work experiences and reference letters.
The students spent the week learning about UNMC’s academic programs, shadowing health care professionals and doing research in their area of interest. At the end of the workshop, students made presentations about their findings to their family and colleagues.
Below is a list of hometowns, names of the students and their high schools:
| CHAPMAN CRETE DAWSON DEWITT GRAND ISLAND HOOPER HUMPHREY LINCOLN LINDSAY MACY NORTH PLATTE OMAHA PAPILLION WILBUR | Wes Prickett of Grand Island Northwest High Brady Fritz of Wilber-Clatonia High Katie Mueller of Dawson-Verdon High Justin Cramer of Tri-County High Danielle Haack of Grand Island Senior High and Trevor Ponte of Grand Island Northwest High Renae Schlaebitz of Logan View High Shelley Fischer of Humphrey High Emily Kinnan of Lincoln East Michelle Choutka of Battle Creek High Maria Garcia and Amber Webster of Macy Public Shawn Murdock of North Platte High Brandy Broadway of Burke High, Kimberly Gallion of South High, Brandon Kovar of Millard West and Dominic Vaccaro of Westside High Becky Goines of Papillion-LaVista High Tiffany Pallas of Wilber-Clatonia |