#lastnamedavis

*Austin Williams is generally scatter-brained and forgetful, and sometimes takes more pictures for the school than he can remember to post. Here are some of those pictures.*

*Austin Williams is generally scatter-brained and forgetful, and sometimes takes more pictures for the school than he can remember to post. Here are some of those pictures.*

“We are under so many restrictions here. 

This week, we began our first class; Biology. The class was tailored towards specific topics. The topics included Diabetes, Inflammation, neurobiology, pain neurophysiology, and oral and systemic health diseases (mainly periodontitis). The lectures were unnecessarily long and tiring but I pulled through. The professor was pretty interesting and knowledgeable but sometimes, he dragged just a little too long. For the first time in my life, I’m actually looking forward to start physics. I’m hoping the topics include only the medical physics parts. 

Also, we had our first anatomy quiz on the nervous system. Parts of the nervous system (brain and spinal cord) were set up in 18 stations and we had to walk around the room naming the parts the colour coded pins were stuck in. I’m pretty sure the average score was less than 10. The pins were (in my opinion) placed in a rush and may have been stuck in the wrong part, just saying. 

We also had a lot of speakers come in to talk about the different departments in the hospital and the med school. UNMC has a nursing school, PA school, Pharmacy school, Dental School (in Lincoln), and a public health school. 

Finally, we get to shadow doctors in different specialties in the medical center. Since UNMC in a primary care kind of school, most of the positions available are for primary care experiences. I signed up to shadow an Ob/Gyn doctor. I’m interested in the field, and I get to miss class during the day.”

“Like every program, “it all begins with orientation.” Orientation consisted of a series of boring lectures spread out over 4 days.

People in the program are mostly sophomores about to begin their junior year of college and are from Nebraska as it is a requirement by the State for about 65% of accepted student to be from Nebraska. Therefore, almost everyone here has started preparing for their MCATs. I smile every time they talk about the MCATs.

We had a chance to enter their bio-containment unit where they held 3 Ebola patients (one died) assigned to UNMC (University of Nebraska Medical Center) by the state department or department of homeland security.

On Friday, the 60 med students were divided into groups and were give PBL (Problem Based Learning) cases to analyze. The session is quite similar to the one I had during the summer pre-matriculation program at Sophie. Also, I got to see my first cadaver. We had to learn the anatomy of the nervous system (brain and spinal cord). Although the smell of formaldehyde was unbearable, it remains a memorable experience. I was a little grossed out by the fact that the folded skin on the cadaver still had stray hairs on it. At least nobody fainted. “

From Africa, to Harlem, to good ol’ middle America! 

Damian Okoroafor, who just completed his first year here at Sophie, is going to spend his vacation participating in classes and volunteer work for the Summer Medical and Dental Education program (SMDE), through a sponsorship from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - in Nebraska, of all places!

Why? As he puts it, “it’s going to be a good six weeks in the middle of nowhere, far away from my parents.”