As MIT welcomes incoming first year students for the 2024 fall semester, Discover Prehealth FPOP gives 24 of these students an additional opportunity to learn about careers in healthcare/medicine, meet the MIT Prehealth Advising team, and make new friends the week before first year orientation. Now in its 9th year, the program aims to help students with an interest in healthcare explore some of the many career options in the field – from learning about clinical research to hearing from current MD, PhD, and MD-PhD students, to participating in a suture lab. The program also acquaints students with prehealth advising at MIT, opportunities available to them as prehealth students, and more general MIT resources as well.
This year, some highlights included visits to the MIT Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR), the Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School, and the Museum of Science. Students also had the chance to learn more about surgery in veterinary medicine and try out suturing. Through these visits and activities, students were not only able to learn more about careers in medicine, but also about research opportunities available to them as undergraduates and about life as a medical student from MIT alumni.
Participants also had a chance to learn from their peers during the program. Discover Prehealth FPOP’s three student peer counselors shared their own experiences as MIT prehealth students, lead multiple activities from icebreakers and campus tours to scavenger hunts, panels, and reflection activities, and provided support to participants during the week. Students were also able to learn from other MIT prehealth students during a student panel and a visit to MIT EMS. Current participants have the option of applying to be peer counselors in the future, and many of our peer counselors completed the program themselves as first years.
Beyond learning more about careers in medicine and prehealth opportunities at MIT, the program also aims to introduce students to MIT and to Cambridge. Participants were able to meet and learn more about Career Advising, MISTI, PKG, UROP, and S^3. Students also competed in a scavenger hunt around campus and had, for some, their first experience with the MBTA (which was of course a bit of an adventure).
On the last day of DPH FPOP, one tradition is to do the Paper Plate activity, where each participant has a paper plate with their name on it, and everyone writes a brief note on each plate. It was a great way to finish a fun week of activities and learning about medicine. As one participant wrote, “The DPH FPOP helped me build my first community at MIT, and it was extremely helpful and informative in terms of learning about prehealth.” I’m already looking forward to our Discover Prehealth FPOP reunion in the spring.
