More than 100 NYC high school students from Harlem and elsewhere in NYC enrolled in “MedAchieve,” an award-winning, two-year intensive medical science enrichment program at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM) in Harlem. Working with their medical student mentors, 104 students will learn to perform CPR and defibrillation and Basic Life Support skills: how to recognize sudden cardiac arrest, heart attack, stroke, and foreign body airway obstruction.
“The purpose is to give the students practice on how to handle emergencies. They will test what they learn in a hands-on setting,” explained Dr. David Colbourn, assistant professor, emergency paramedic and director of medical simulation at TouroCOM. “They are all expected to perform very well.”
The MedAchieve Scholars Program is an after-school mentoring program that increases awareness and interest in medicine and other health professions among students from public high schools in Harlem and other parts of Manhattan. Many live in medically underserved communities and a majority are underrepresented minorities. The students attend weekly labs and lectures at TouroCOM taught by the medical students and are matched one-on-one with medical student mentors who work with them throughout the year.
For 2023-24, MedAchieve has enrolled 104 students from 26 schools, including Institute for Health Professions at Cambria Heights, Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem, Columbia Secondary School and the High School for Math, Science & Engineering at City College. For more info, visit www.tourocom.touro.edu.