BRYAN, Texas — Blinn Health Sciences held a summer camp for seventh and eighth graders interested in learning more about professions in the medical field.
Campers are putting their skills to the test as they wrap up their three-day camp with simulation day at the Blinn RELLIS camp.
Rain Leeuwon, who is in the eighth grade, says today is his favorite day of camp because he gets to put all the skills he’s learned into action.
“My favorite part of camp is probably the last part,” Leeuwon said. “It’s going to be the most memorable. I just loved we could go in there and get a hands-on experience.”
Rain says he may want to become a surgeon when he grows up, and if he does, he says this camp is preparing him.
Jace Fowler, a radiology tech student, says campers are picking up the skills like a piece of cake.
“I was kind of surprised,” Fowler said. "They picked it up pretty easy and kind of were just able to follow our directions and you could tell when they were actually doing it, like setting up for the X-rays, they were really paying attention and having fun doing it too.”
Fowler says simulation day is his favorite part of camp too. The experience is like a light switch going off in their heads.
“Simulation, just because you can tell there’s like a switch that flipped,” said Fowler. “You could tell that they were so focused and they were really interested in doing their part.”
Rain says his parents want him to become a doctor or surgeon, so they sent him to the camp to get skills, and he’s grateful.
“I encourage people who want to be doctors or surgeons to come to this camp because it’s a really good experience to have,” Leeuwon said. “It really prepares you to save lives.”
Vesper Luna, an eighth grader, wants to become a rad tech or anesthesiologist.
“Getting to experience so many different parts of the medical field not just nurses and doctors but like every small part,” said Vesper Luna, 8th grade camper at Blinn Health Sciences Summer Camp.
Jessica Gutierrez, a radiology tech student at Blinn, says teaching others showed her how much she truly grasped the knowledge and skills.
“Our first year is always like we’re learning everything,” Gutierrez said. “We’re earning from everyone else. You don’t really realize how much you learn until you pass that on to someone else.”
Vesper says her favorite part of the camp was working with the rad techs.
“Rad tech was one of my favorites because we got to bring something that we wanted to X-ray, and I got to X-ray my phone and one of my necklaces,” Luna said. “In my phone, it was amazing because you could see all the small parts of technology in it.”
Campers closed out simulation day learning a variety of skills as working in a traumatic incident setting, such as a motorist accident and how to care for patients at the site of injury until in good health to prepare them for any profession in health sciences.