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Students from Tobin School and Roxbury Preparatory Charter School proudly display their certificate of completion after last year's program.
For the past six years, BWHers have volunteered to host middle-school students interested in pursuing a career in health care. This program, now called ScienceWorks, provides motivated students with a first-hand look at health care and allows BWH employees to help students understand why it's so special to work in a hospital.
Sandy Harmon, BS, RN, assistant nurse manager of the NICU, hosted a student last year and said ScienceWorks rewards both student volunteers and department sponsors. "This program fostered confidence and self-esteem in my student volunteer," she said. "It was really gratifying for me to see her change from a shy, reserved individual to co-leader of the NICU's Sibling Program at the end of the summer."
Marylou Miranda, who last year hosted two students in the OR, couldn't be more proud of her volunteers, who were particularly interested in the academic component of the program. "These students were really curious about how certain products and technologies worked," said Miranda. "They returned to school in the fall with increased confidence and hopes of applying their new knowledge to the science classes at their respective schools."
Students volunteer in select departments for six weeks during the spring and follow that with six weeks of summer employment. This year, ScienceWorks will be more academic-oriented. Once a week during the summer session, students attend instructional seminars on the brain so they can learn about the brain from a psychological, physiological, medical and technological standpoint. Students will meet experts in the field, conduct their own studies and complete inquiry-based projects.
Twenty-five eighth-grade students from the Maurice J. Tobin School, Mission Grammar School and Roxbury Preparatory Charter School participate in ScienceWorks. If interested in having your department host a student, contact Amy Belyea at 617-525-6725.