Fourteen undergraduate students interested in medicine from universities around the country got the chance Monday to sit down with University of Colorado School of Medicine Dean John J. Reilly Jr. to talk about the future of medicine.
The students are on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus this summer for the Colorado Undergraduate Summer Program (CUSP), an annual event, now in its 12th year, that brings college students — many from underrepresented backgrounds in medicine — to the CU School of Medicine to learn more about biomedical research and careers in the medical field. CUSP is hosting students again after taking a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The undergraduate students attend daily interactive conferences where they learn about conducting research, research ethics, statistics, publishing papers, grant preparation, professional school application, resume preparation, and careers in biomedical research, medicine, and health professions. The program also gives the students the opportunity to tour and learn about various campus departments, centers, programs, and hospital affiliates, including the Emergency Medicine Department, the Colorado Assessment Practitioner Center (CAPE), which includes robotic instruction and evaluation, the Visible Human Project, the neonatal intensive care units at Children’s Hospital Colorado, the Radiology Teaching Unit, and the Colorado Career Counseling Center.
“The idea was to bring in young people and give them an interest in medicine and medical research early in their careers,” said CUSP founder John E. Repine, MD, director of the Webb-Waring Center and professor of medicine. Repine underscored the importance of CUSP by noting that “most people who end up being career scientists or physician-scientists started early on.” Repine has secured continuing funding from the NIH, some of the colleges, and generous donors to support CUSP.
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