“I’ve wanted to join this program since before coming to med school,” said Faye Mendoza of the JACK’s Summer Scholars Program. Mendoza is one of ten promising future health care professionals from throughout the country who had the opportunity to take part in this year’s program.

The JACK’s Summer Scholars Program has a long history of fostering education of medical professionalism and quality improvement research needed to improve care in pediatric-neonatal medicine. This competitive program is open to undergraduate rising seniors, rising second year medical students and, for the first time this year, selected nursing students.

Dr. Karen Hendricks-Munoz (left) with the 2017 JACK’s Summer Scholars

The 2017 scholars included:

Undergraduates
Deepika Mettu – Wake Forest University
Ariana Ram – Fordham University*
Kristie Tu – University of Southern California
Ananya Venkatesh – VCU Honors College

Medical students
Brian Gu – Rutgers New Jersey Medical Center
Justin Kochanski – Creighton University School of Medicine
Donna Koo – New York Medical College
Faye Mendoza – VCU School of Medicine

Nursing students
Shailyn Finnegan – VCU School of Nursing/Langston Center for Quality, Safety and Innovation
Kaylie Erickson – VCU School of Nursing/Langston Center for Quality, Safety and Innovation

JACK’s exposes students to clinical care and involves them in hands-on quality neonatology research projects. Outstanding clinician educators and medical researchers also provide students with opportunities to learn about other pediatric subspecialty areas, such as general surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesia and primary care. Beyond clinical education, the program offers students unique insight into the day-to-day expectations of physicians and the personal qualities that translate to excellent patient care.

“We have a wonderful team of clinical experts here at CHoR who are dedicated to educating the next generation of pediatric specialists,” said Karen Hendricks-Munoz, MD chief of neonatal medicine and director of the JACK’s Summer Scholars Program. “When it comes to professionalism in medicine we always say ‘you become what you see.’ This year’s scholars are rising stars who came into the program with a great deal of professionalism, which was only amplified by the great role models they worked with this summer.”

As the culmination of the eight-week program the scholars presented their research projects, from hypotheses through outcomes and recommendations, to an audience of their peers, mentors and health system leadership. Their impressive research was matched by their passion for the program and their overall medical studies. As this year’s program came to a close, the scholars also had the opportunity to select the recipient of the JACK’s Faculty Mentor Award, recognizing one faculty member who best exemplifies the attributes of professionalism and humanism in medicine. The students honored Linda Meloy, MD.

We wish these hard-working scholars safe travels and great success as they return to their respective universities to begin the fall semester and in their future careers in pediatric medicine.

*Fordham University selects and financially supports the costs for one undergraduate student to attend the program.