Collaborative Program Reaches Students

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Mar. 30, 2010) − The University of Kentucky's College of Medicine and Area Health Education Center (AHEC) is offering a new series to Kentucky's middle and high school students that are interested in health careers. The series, "Meet the Dean," is a one-hour interactive program that features the deans of all health care colleges at UK, allowing students to learn more about careers in health care-related fields.

"The series was developed to provide high school students, teachers and counselors an opportunity to interact with the deans and students from each of the six health colleges at the University of Kentucky," said Carlos Marin, UK Area HealthEducation Center health careers coordinator. "We were excited to have 18 high schools from across Kentucky participate in the first series and we hope to continue to grow as the series continues."

Schools and students interested in participating in the "Meet the Dean" series were identified by the eight regional AHEC Health Career coordinators for this collaborative effort with the University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Kentucky Telecare, and the Kentucky Department of Education.   

"It is important for us to be able to interact with high school students early and answer their questions and concerns about medical school," said Jay A. Perman, dean of the UK College of Medicine and vice president for clinical affairs. "This program provided our college the opportunity to do that simultaneously with students across the state."

Perman was joined by Allison Foertsch, Matthew Hensley, and Olivia Ringo, three medical students and members of the Colleges Ambassadors Program, for the first of the six part series.