Future Health Leaders Camp 2016

Guest Blog by Marney Babbitt, NAHEC Youth Program Coordinator, Girls on the Run of Northern Arizona Council Director, North Country HealthCare

In early June, 40 high school students from rural and underserved areas in Arizona attended the Future Health Leaders Summer Camp (FHL), including a Williams High School student from the iCREATE bioscience class. The camp was sponsored by the Northern Arizona, Eastern Arizona, Southern Arizona and Greater Valley Area Health Education Centers. This week long camp was hosted at the University of Arizona.

FHL has a number of objectives:

• To expose students to diverse careers in health care
  
• To provide students with skills to be successful in their pursuit of a career in health care
  
• To meet and collaborate with other Future Health Leaders from around the state
  
• To have a fun and enriching experience on a college campus
  
• To introduce students to AZAHEC and the services we provide
  

Highlights this year included:

• American Heart Association CPR training
  
• A trip to the ASTEC simulation lab at the U of A Medical School
  
• Q & A with the veterinary tech at the Desert Museum
  
• The science behind how immunizations work
  
• Introduction to careers in behavior health and how to be suicide aware
  
• A working visit to the Las Milpitas farm, part of the Southern Arizona Food Bank
  

Our 2017 camp for current high school students will be held at Northern Arizona University in June of 2017. Applications will be available in early 2017. Please contact Marney Babbitt (mbabbitt@nchcaz.org) for more information.