Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton hosted its first Science, Service, Medicine and Mentoring Program from July 25 to 29.

Twelve hand-selected rising juniors and seniors, from Oceanside and El Camino High Schools in Oceanside, California, spent a week at NHCP experiencing the world of military health care.

According to Cmdr. Emeka Ofobike, NHCP orthopedic surgeon and coordinator of the S2M2 Program, the purpose of the program is to offer a demographic of students who aren't typically exposed to careers in medicine a look behind-the-scenes of Navy Medicine.

"I want students who may have never considered themselves to be qualified for a career in health care to come here and see people who look like them, doing this kind of work", said Ofobike. "We're all just normal people, we talk about the same movies, listen to the same music, but we're doing this job and it's amazing. We get to touch people's lives every day. I want them to know that it is not going to be easy and nobody is going to give it to them, but that it can be done."

Although the program was initiated in 2004 at the Naval Medical Center Bethesda, this is the first year that Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton has participated.

Ofobike, using knowledge from the S2M2 program he helped with at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa, Japan, worked hand in hand with other NHCP staff members to make it possible for the students to come on board for a week.

The week began with an orientation for the students to get an understanding of what to expect, a welcome from NHCP Commanding Officer Capt. Lisa Mulligan and a white coat ceremony so that everyone felt like they were a part of the team.

During the week, students participated in informative lectures from hospital staff; interactive hands-on training and activities; a disability exercise during which the students spent 24 hours without the use of their dominant arm; one-on-one shadowing rotations with clinical staff in areas such as primary care, medical and surgical subspecialties, pharmacy, nursing, and biomedical repair; as well as an introduction to Navy fitness.
Though everyone's experience was different, Masher Hawkins, a rising junior at Oceanside High School, said it was very neat and the opposite of what he imagined.

"Since this is a military hospital I thought they were going to be yelling at us, but the staff was really friendly and I learned a lot," said Hawkins. "The best thing about the program was the hands-on experience and the knowledge that they provided us. If you don't know what you want to do in the future this is really interesting and it is a good place to start."

Before the close-out ceremony of the program, students presented group posters on health care topics they researched throughout the course of the week. Immediately following, everyone went around the room and each student said what their biggest takeaway was from the program.

"Learning about the medical field and getting to meet new people were the best parts of this week," said Haley Sisk, a rising sophomore at El Camino High School. "This group that we have is really cool and it was nice that we all got to experience new things together."

In the opinion of Seaman Leon Simmons, a hospital corpsman in NHCP's Orthopedics Clinic and S2M2 program volunteer, programs like this are great for students and he wishes something like this was available to him when he was in high school.

"To be honest I'm jealous of these kids, I definitely would have wanted the chance to do something like this in high school," said Simmons. "There are many options in life and I want the students to know that it's an option for anyone to have a career in medicine no matter their background."

The S2M2 program is currently offered at Naval Medical Center Bethesda, Maryland, Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa, Japan, Naval Hospital Great Lakes, Illinois and now Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, California.

For more information about the S2M2 program at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton please contact Cmdr. Emeka Ofobike at emeka.o.ofobike.mil@mail.mil.

For more information, visit http://www.navy.mil, http://www.facebook.com/usnavy, or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy.
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