Inspiring the future: TTUHSC hosts Denver City students to promote medical careers

Driving an hour from Denver City, students were allowed to experience hands-on medical training Thursday at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center as part of TTUHSC's Docs for a Day program.

The annual minicamp program is intended to inform students and inspire them to join the medical field.

Getting to experience an ultrasound, learning how to take a patient's blood pressure and listening to a heart were just some of the skills Denver City High School students got to experience at the university's F. Marie Hall SimLife Center.

Varshini Suresh, a second-year resident, said the skills the students experienced were intended to show them what it's like to be a doctor when working with patients and to get them thinking about the opportunities the field can provide.

"Physicians aren't the only profession in medicine," Suresh said. "That's sometimes very hard to know because we see nurses and doctors — and those are the big two that we think of when we think about it — But there's so many more sub-specialties like (physical therapy), (occupational therapy) and speech therapy."

For Denver City High School student Kyra Rich, Thursday was more about learning about the field she is pursuing.

"It pushes you to experience the stuff you've never experienced before, and it pushes you to the step to help people — that's what we all like to really do. That's part of the reason why we were all interested in this," Rich said.

Having already completed her certified nursing assistant classes and sitting for her certification test in a month, Rich said she won't stop there and will continue her education to become a physician assistant.

The field trip was in no small part due to a current TTUHSC second-year medical student — Hedi Gonzalez.

As reported in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in 2022, Gonzalez was one of three medical students accepted to TTUHSC's School of Medicine from Denver City, and it was through her drive to empower future medical students that she set up an invitation for Denver City High School to visit the university.

"It feels kind of surreal seeing kids who are in my same shoes a few years ago and even getting to talk to some of them and remembering where I was in their shoes, it just feels like very full circle," Gonzalez said. "I'm very grateful that I had the opportunity to bring my school back, and it warms my heart to see them here."

When talking to students throughout the day, Gonzalez said she had already heard students discussing becoming physicians and nurses with some interested in pediatrics.

Having been where they have been, Gonzalez passed along some advice for high school students who are interested in the medical field.

"If it's something that you're passionate about, you can do it. It's gonna be a hard road, but if it's something that you love and you really want to pursue, nothing should stop you, not your background, not where you come from, not money," Gonzalez said.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech HSC hosts Denver City students to promote medical careers