Neurosurgery Community Internship Programs (NCIP): How Can I Help?
All individuals can help by donating to our partner non-profit organizations:
All individuals of any role can also help by:
- Joining a career panel and answering questions about your career path / interests (1 hr)
- Sharing these programs with others who may be able to participate or support our efforts
- Encourage your family, friends, and community members to join us
The following guide contains ideas for creating interactive activities with high school and college-age pre-med students, based on your professional or community role.
- Give a talk to explain your career path and role / field with time for Q&A (30 mins)
- Host a virtual or in-person tour of your department, lab space, OR (if possible) (30 mins)
- Provide mentorship
- Availability for informational interviews with interns
- Work with interns to set up future internships with your team (summers)
- Give a talk to explain your career path and role / field with time for Q&A (30 mins)
- Host a virtual or in-person tour of your department, lab space, OR (if possible) (30 mins)
- Demo tech tools you use in your daily work (30 mins - 1 hour)
- Have interns rotate through stations of interactive activities done in your lab (1-2 hours)
- Suggestion: 2-3 stations, 1 host per station, intro role → do activity → Q&A
- Provide mentorship
- Availability for informational interviews with interns
- Work with interns to set up future internships with your team (summers)
- Host small group discussions on career paths & finding your specialization (30 mins)
- Participate in an informal lunch / get to know you session with interns (1 hour)
- Provide mentorship
- Availability for informational interviews with interns
- Work with interns to set up future internships with your team (summers)
- Host small group discussions on career paths & finding your specialization (30 mins)
- Participate in an informal lunch / get to know you session with interns (1 hour)
- Provide mentorship
- Availability for informational interviews with interns
- Work with interns to set up future internships with your team (summers)
- Have interns rotate through stations of interactive activities based on themes (1-2 hours)
- Host a medical or health sciences-themed mini course or patient interview (30 mins)
- Provide support in connecting healthcare colleagues with interns
- Assistant / executive / administrative logistics, resources, scheduling finalizations, and suggested courses of action to take to make solid program connections
- Help us create more program activities
- Examples may be activities already done in your department in other programs
- Suggest community programs we can partner with to expand our programming
- Help us create more program activities
- Examples may be community events that you and your children may have participated in (e.g. museums, classes, festivals / fairs) that we can use as reference
- Give a talk about your patient or community experience to provide the interns with a personal perspective on the patient side of healthcare.
- Give a talk to explain your career path and role / field with time for Q&A (30 mins)
- Host an interactive activity for interns to dive deeper into your field of expertise (30 mins)
- Provide mentorship
- Availability for contact / communications with interns
Who do I contact to participate in NCIP?
Contact Marisa McFarlane ([email protected]) to participate as a host or mentor, confirm dates for each cycle (Fall/Spring/Summer), or discuss how to support NCIP.
Tips on interacting with youth, including children, teenagers, and college-age students:
- With slides: Use many images (people & tech tools) and bullet points or concise text
- With talking: Explain professional terms / jargon, use “I” or “we” statements and stories
- With stories: Students love stories, this can open up more conversations and questions
- With activities: Concise instructions, walk through steps in action, repetition = practice
- With stations, for example:
- Mount Zion Surgical Center: Scrub up, suture knot-tying, laparoscopic technique
- Baraban Lab: Identify female & male zebrafish, stages of development, pipetting
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