Full Circle
Preemie Returns to MCG as Aspiring Medical Student
Brittany Hammond was three months premature and weighed 2 pounds the first time she came to the Medical College of Georgia.
She came back this summer as a 17-year-old getting a peek at her future.
Brittany, a senior at John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet High School, knows she wouldn’t have survived infancy without the care she received at MCG. Her mother, a licensed practical nurse, quit her job to care for Brittany, shuttling her to dozens of doctor’s appointments. Later, her mother founded her own personal-care business.
“Knowing what doctors did for me so early in my life and watching my mother’s career, the way she always took the holistic approach of caring for people on every level, really piqued my interest,” Brittany says. “Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted a career in health care. I’ve always known I wanted to pursue this.”
Her participation in MCG’s Student Educational Enrichment Program helped solidify that choice.
The seven-week program, which exposes high school and college students to college-level courses similar to those they would take at a health sciences university, accepts 50-55 students each summer.
“The SEEP Program is aimed at students who have expressed interest in health professions,” says Wilma Sykes-Brown, assistant dean for Educational Outreach and Partnerships in the School of Medicine. “We specifically hope to reach disadvantaged students and those who are underrepresented in health science professions.”
In increasing opportunities for those students, the program addresses the country’s critical shortage of health professionals and significant under-representation of disadvantaged groups, says Linda James, program director.
“We want to enrich students’ knowledge of biomedical sciences, familiarize them with MCG, help them identify specific career goals and help them increase their chances of being admitted to health professional schools,” she says.
The program has three levels: pre-college for rising high school seniors or recent high school graduates; intermediate for college students who have completed at least one year of basic science coursework; and advanced for college students who have completed some upper-level science courses.
Students already accepted into MCG’s Schools of Dentistry, Graduate Studies and Medicine can participate in the Pre-Matriculation Summer Program, designed to help retain students by giving them advance exposure to their first year of school.
“We want to identify students who will make excellent MCG students in the future and help ensure their success in pursuing a health care career,” Ms. Sykes-Brown says.
With continuous state funding since its inception in 1970, SEEP has seen 70 percent of participants go on to enroll in a health sciences university, 20 percent of those at MCG.
Brittany hopes to add to those numbers soon.
“This has been an eye-opening experience for me,” she says. “At first I didn’t know what to expect, but the faculty and the other students in the program have all helped me so much. I want to go all the way and become an anesthesiologist and I hope to come right back here to do it.”
-- Jennifer Hilliard