Paloma Gonzalez

Sophomore Emily Sexton uses a stethoscope to measure sophomore Clair Osterhaus’s heart beat.

From cardiothoracic surgeons to dance therapists, the medical field offers a wide variety of professions. Even for those with an interest in science and medicine, choosing a profession can be difficult for students without an introduction into the field. With the help of student-led Medical Club, founders freshman Anjali Kumar and sophomore Ivy Yan hope to expose students to the vast world of medicine.

After Kumar and Yan realized that there was not a Medical club at school, they went to Amy Cohen, the Medical Sciences teacher, who agreed to sponsor the club.

“As a Biology and Medical Sciences teacher, my hope is that students learn some things about the body, and get excited about careers they could choose in the medical field,” Cohen said. “There wasn’t a club like this at my high school, yet one like it would have probably given me more background knowledge about human biology, which would have been helpful in college.”

Currently the club has 26 members, and it continues to grow with each monthly meeting in Cohen’s room as more and more students hear about the club.

“We may be a small club , but I keep receiving texts and emails from students asking about how they can join the club,” Yan said. “We want to expand our club to reach out to anyone with a slight interest in medicine, however many that is. Our philosophy is that anyone can join regardless of knowledge level, grade, GPA or classes you take. You don’t even have to know anything about medicine to join. I’m actually learning with the club as well.”

The club helps students gain an idea of what they are interested in by hearing from medical professionals that are acquired through student relations and planning with nearby hospitals.

“Just last meeting an internal medicine doctor came in to talk to us about her job and all aspects of it. It was interesting because we measured our blood pressure using sphygmomanometers  and our heart rates with stethoscopes, which made me seriously consider a future profession in the medical field,” sophomore and member Joyce Suh said.

The club operates as an introductory and educational guide to the medical field. Members are offered a variety of community service projects, volunteer opportunities and summer internships.  

“We are currently planning field trips to hospitals and community service projects to expand the club into the community,” Kumar said. “We will also continue presentations from doctors and Kahoot quizzes based on them because members seem to enjoy them.”

With a scheduled one meeting per month, Kumar and Yan want to expand to have meetings twice a month; one meeting focused on philanthropy and the other an educational meeting for its members.

“Medical Club works to expose eager students into the medical world. [It] provides fun activities like Kahoots and student presentations to better understand concepts, while allowing students to listen to professionals talk about their jobs,” Kumar said. “There are so many different possibilities and specialities in medicine, so I think that it’s nice to have a club that specializes around that interest.”