Alexandra Hubbell first became a DMU student as a teenager. Interested in pediatrics as a career, she participated in Health Careers Exploring Post 141, a program sponsored by the University and the Boy Scouts of America that allows boys and girls ages 14 to 20 to learn about medical and health care fields.
Now a first-year osteopathic student at DMU, Hubbell recently participated in the program as a volunteer.
“The students asked great questions,” she says. “The faculty make the program fun but not fluffy. Plus it exposes students to osteopathic medicine and DMU.”
DMU Professor Emeritus Gerald Cooper, D.O.’56, started the Exploring Post program at the University in the late 1980s. This year, the Post has 75 active members – nearly double last year’s enrollment – who come to campus or take a field trip every other Tuesday evening, September through April. DMU has also begun working with the Central Iowa Area Health Education Center to promote the program.
Stephanie Paz, a Valley High School junior now in her third year as a Post student, enjoys the program’s hands-on activities, including visiting the simulation, surgery and anatomy labs; touring health care centers; getting EKGs; and scrubbing up and suturing pigs’ feet.
“The DMU students also talk to us about what we have to do in high school to help prepare for medical school,” says Paz, last year’s Exploring Post president. “They talk about a variety of careers, like physical therapy and podiatry.”