This weekend, Kasha Stolberg will be putting her knowledge of human anatomy to the test.
Stolberg, a junior at Duchesne Academy in Omaha, is the only Nebraska student among 31 students from Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, California, Indiana, Washington, Texas and Nebraska participating in the Northwest Regional Anato-Bee competition, which will be held March 14-15 at UNMC’s Omaha campus.
The event is sponsored by the UNMC Colleges of Medicine’s Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy and the UNMC College of Dentistry, and hosted by UNMC’s Samantha Simet, PhD, Matt Vilburn, DC, and Nancy Adams, PhD.
The two-day event will test high school students from across the region on anatomy, embryology, histology and diagnostic reasoning. Competitors will participate in an anatomy lab practical, a written examination, standardized patient diagnoses and an oral quiz conducted in a format similar to a spelling bee.
As Stolberg puts it, the event “is pretty much everything about the body — bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments.”
Top-placing students at each regional competition will be awarded scholarships to attend a summer program of their choice that focuses on the anatomical and/or clinical sciences.
Stolberg qualified for the regional event by taking a written test in anatomy, histology and embryology in January 2026. “I studied as much as I could with the time I had.” Her score qualified to her to compete in this weekend’s live competition.
She said she was excited to learn about the event, which is a high school outreach initiative that promotes education in the anatomical sciences.
“I’ve been interested in going into medicine for a while,” she said. “I do have some nerves about this weekend, especially because there are going to be a lot of people who are really talented there, but I’m excited to meet everyone, meet people who have the same interest as me and are as competitive as I am.”
She also sees the event as a chance to get an early gauge on her medical interests.
“I’ve been interested in medicine since middle school,” she said. “I feel there are a lot of good, hardworking people in the field, and that it could be a really interesting career. And, of course, helping people would be amazing.”