By Ryan Otteson | Reporter
Prehealth students at Baylor have several resources available to them outside of the classroom. While professors provide office hours and supplemental instruction sessions for certain classes, students are able to take advantage of other opportunities to help them be the best future healthcare worker.
Plano sophomore Ben Anderson is a biology major on the pre-medicine track and intends to pursue medical mission work as part of his future career.
“I think that prehealth at Baylor has a ton of resources for students,” Anderson said. “I think that our connection to research is a valuable resource for students to gain experience that will be helpful for med-school applications.”
While Anderson is just a sophomore, the beginning of medical school applications is not too far away. One of the resources that prehealth students have access to is the Picnic with Prehealth workshops. Each of these provides help for various aspects of being a pre-health student while providing snacks. These often cover subjects like study tips, applying to medical school and how to use artificial intelligence.
Mindy Calvillo is responsible for creating the curriculum for the Picnic with Prehealth workshops and is an academic adviser.
“The main goal is to support students in their path to professional schools in the health fields,” Calvillo said. “Each workshop focuses on a different aspect of student success and advising or advice we want our students to have.”
There are prehealth workshops like this throughout the semester. The next two are on March 3 and March 17. According to the registration page, the March 3 workshop will provide trail mix to “savor the admissions experience,” and the March 17 workshop is called “How to Be a One in a Melon Applicant” and will provide sour watermelon candies to students who attend.
“I am actually shocked at how little the snacks have encouraged student participation,” Calvillo said. “I may need to up my game on snacks. Typically, students’ test schedules determine attendance more than the snacks do.”
Along with the workshops, students have several resources available to them to help them prepare best for their future. Students like Anderson take advantage of these opportunities, and Anderson said that he stays motivated as a prehealth student by trying to appreciate learning about the complexity of the world instead of just learning it for a class.
Students are invited to register for the Picnic with Pre-health workshops as well as others on the Baylor prehealth website. Once 40 seats are reserved, the registration will close.
