Dublin Medical Academy scholars share how program shaped their career

For the past 10 years, the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine has hosted the OHIO (Dublin) Medical Academy drawing fifty-six selected Ohio high school students to its Dublin campus for an immersive four-day summer camp experience.

Since the program’s inception in 2015, 500 students from 106 Ohio high schools have been introduced to the professionals, pathways and practice of the modern healthcare team during a camp experience led by a team of three professional student Scholars selected from the Dublin osteopathic medicine and physician assistant classes.   The Academy has afforded OHIO professional students with opportunities to connect with the community they will someday serve, strengthen their own content mastery, and develop and hone their leadership skills.

At this 10-year milestone, Keagan Lipak, OMS IV, a Medical Academy Scholar in 2022, reconnected with his peer scholars and penned the following:

A mentor once asked me, "When do you know you are an adult?" It was a simple question but one that has followed me on my journey to becoming a physician.  Contemplating a career in pediatrics, I often think about the dimensions of human development – including my own.  Medical school teaches us about the stages and milestones of physical, cognitive, and emotional development, while life experiences deepen our understanding of who we are, how we relate with others, and where our journey can take us.  I often reflect on my own path into medicine, those who guided me, the experiences that challenged me, and the opportunities that shaped me along the way.

My path has led me through several meaningful experiences that have deepened my clinical understanding, immersed me in biomedical research and discovery and reminded me of the true value of community service through my work with the OHIO (Dublin) Medical Academy.

As a third-year medical student at Ohio University, I began exercising the clinical skills I have learned, honing my diagnostic thinking, and connecting with and caring for patients and their families along the broad continuum of care.

A year prior, I was on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, completing a year-long predoctoral research fellowship, where I had the opportunity to explore firsthand novel clinical pediatric cancer treatments, specifically on ways of priming and stimulating one’s own immune system to target and destroy cancer cells.

An experience during my first year of medical school had a surprising impact on my professional journey that still ripples today as I begin my fourth year of my medical training.

As a first-year student, I was planning and organizing the annual OHIO (Dublin) Medical Academy, a program hosted each summer by the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine – Dublin after being named an Academy Scholar along with two peers.  We were responsible for engaging, teaching, and leading high school students through an immersive health careers exploration camp and a variety of activities that followed into the next school year.  The opportunity to stir interest among high school students in the possibilities that healthcare has to offer was one I could not pass up.

Having just completed its tenth year, the Medical Academy has hosted five-hundred students drawn from over one-hundred Ohio high schools. Naming a new cohort of three Academy Scholars each year to lead the annual summer camp, the Medical Academy is an inter-professional effort selecting OHIO student leaders from the Dublin-based Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and the Master’s in Physician Assistant Practice (MPAP) program to introduce high schoolers to the variety of professional roles that comprise a modern health care team.

Reflecting on my time as an Academy Scholar, I came to realize that the high school students were not the only learners who drew value from the Academy’s desire to "inspire young minds through innovative, immersive, and longitudinal learning experiences."  Curious if my experience had been unique, I recently sought time to connect with as many of the twenty-four peers who had served in the same capacity to see how their involvement impacted them.  Several shared themes emerged from these conversations focusing on a desire to help shape the personal and professional development of these young minds, while growing their own leadership skills.

MENTORSHIP – Shining a Light on the Opportunities Ahead

When asked about their motivations in serving as an Academy Scholar, my fellow students overwhelmingly attested to the importance of mentorship in shaping their own interests and goals through their own personal experiences.

A past Academy Scholar who graduated from Ohio University in 2023 and current pediatric physician assistant, Haley Guggenheim, M.P.A.P. recalls the challenge of finding a mentor in medicine when she was a young student.

“I remember in high school being very interested in medicine, but it's very hard to find people to shadow, especially if you don't have a family member who is a doctor.”

Recent medical student graduate Elizabeth Mancuso Stewart, D.O. ('24) was fortunate to find mentors as a youth, leading to her strong belief in mentorship as essential to learning.

“I'm the first of my family in medicine and the first traditional student from my family to even go to college. I have relied on mentors, whether they be friends or preceptors who have connected with me, to gain insight into their professional lives and to determine the impact on my own professional development. Those experiences have shown me how important mentoring is for aspiring medical students,” she said.

Kelsey Collins Klamar, OMS III, noted that, “… being able to give students the opportunity to have [such] experiences and have it not be a [financial] burden for their family … is just so incredible.”

Emergency medicine physician Mike Messina, D.O. ('19) added, “You must be able to envision a future or be able to see what opportunities lie in front of you in order to seek them out. Mentoring provides that opportunity.”

LEADERSHIP – Coming into your Power

Academy Scholars who appreciate and understand the value of mentoring as a growth experience carry forward the enthusiasm into practice.

Jessica Motley, D.O. ('22) a family and sports medicine physician, described her experience as, “… coming into your power, being a physician, being that role in the community. There's a certain amount of power … and responsibility [that is asked of health providers. Being a Scholar was] the first position of leadership, where somebody looked up to me in that way. As a medical student you feel uncomfortable enough, [often feeling ‘I am not] the expert.’   [Being a student leader] was the first opportunity that I had to step into the role of a future physician.”

The feelings that Jessica articulated were shared by others, including 2024 graduate Allison Krahe, M.P.A.P., who led the Academy in 2022.

“The [Medical Academy was the] first time that I truly got to experience taking on a leadership position or any position where I'm creating something on my own… I'm just so thankful for… the Medical Academy [experience], because we had the support to make it happen,” she said.

Echoing this sentiment, Teddy Renner, OMS III, reflected, “The true leadership of organizing all the moving pieces [of the camp experience] was huge for my own personal growth and being a leader of all these teams.”

Pediatric resident physician Rachel Nguyen, D.O. ('22) added, “Being a scholar gave me that opportunity to take control of a room … giving me the confidence.”

Former Academy Scholar Quentin Austin, M.P.A.P., continues to mentor high school students, as well as physician assistant trainees, by sharing experiences about his career as an emergency medicine physician assistant. In his discussions, he emphasizes the importance of giving back and continuing to learn by participating in leadership programs such as Ohio University’s Medical Academy Scholar program. 

“Opportunities like this are unique,” said Austin.

Taken together, such insights remind me that as budding professionals, we step into our power, embrace our leadership potential, and take these qualities into our future careers.

IDENTITY – Finding Our Place

The Academy not only provides a space for students to dedicate their time to others but also fosters growth in knowledge mastery, emotional intelligence, and the rewards of teaching. Throughout my interviews, I was regularly amazed by the important ways their participation impacted the personal and professional development of my peer Scholars.

Resident psychiatric physician Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Akpan, D.O. ('22) reflected, “it took me out of my comfort zone … made me more confident … being able to gauge and meet people where they are [enables connection] … “Seeing my gifts as a person -- and as a clinician -- that I have [built] upon.”

Messina noted, “This is about getting to a place where everyone's learning together in a collaborative and safe atmosphere.”

Current physician assistant student and 2023 Scholar Kylie Post, M.P.A.P. praised the program for providing an opportunity to serve the community. 

“It is good to be able to give back to the community while contributing toward my medical education. When I become a practicing physician assistant, I know I will continue to pursue other outreach programs that become available in the community,” said Post.

Motley found meaning in becoming the type of mentor to others that she needed early in her path to becoming a physician.

“No matter how much I achieve or how far I go, I can never lose sight that [there is] a 12-year-old little black girl who is interested in medicine and science but doesn't really know how she fits in that world. Perhaps I can be that example and help sow those seeds… That's what makes the Dublin Medical Academy a magical thing, because we're really immersing these kids across a lot of different healthcare professions,” she said.

My conversations with peers remind me that high school students are not the only beneficiaries of the Dublin Medical Academy.  Medical training is so much more than understanding the pathophysiology of renal diseases or diagnosing the underlying causes of heart arrhythmias. This arduous journey asks more of us. Coming into one’s power is much more than content mastery and often shaped outside the rigors of the traditional curriculum.

Opportunities to give back, learn from each other, and inspire the next generation remind us of what we have accomplished, how far we have come, and where we are going. Our professional identity as healthcare providers is not cast at graduation but molded along the continuum we walk.  The Dublin Medical Academy has shaped me and my peers in ways most of us had not anticipated. I now see how my development as a future pediatrician through a set of lenses shaped by many things along this path I have chosen.

Hear more from former Medical Academy scholars and get a first-hand look at the Medical Academy in action in the videos below, produced by Ohio University undergraduate Anna Schneider.