Nov. 28, 2011
April Wefler
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As a leader, Mike Rains doesn’t want to know everything.
“Good leadership means delegating. A good leader needs to have an idea of what’s going on, but I don’t want to have the nitty-gritty details,” said Rains, president of the Pre-Health Society.
But what Rains does know is how radically the society has been rebuilt over the past year. Rains said that the society has transformed after the Pre-Med and Pre-Health societies split last year.
The Pre-Health Society is a collaboration of multiple student health organizations. Currently, this includes the Pre-Health and Pre-Med societies.
The Pre-Health Society’s mission is to provide support and resources to assist Pre-Health students in achieving their career goals through engagement with the University and the local community.
Students who plan to be physicians, dentists, veterinarians, optometrists, physical therapists and pharmacists are encouraged to contact the society.
The Pre-Health Society sponsors several different programs. The Saturday Academies are a monthly series of workshops focused on health care professions and health professions admissions.
Rains said that this fall, the Saturday Academies have been focused on what makes a health care professional successful.
“We’ve been working on cultural diversity,” said Rains.
The Pre-Health Society also sponsors the Pre-Health Professions Resource Website, the Shadowing Program, the CU Medical Scholars Program and many other programs.
Students in the society find the program successful. Sophomore Stephanie West, volunteer coordinator, said that the society has allowed her to connect with many students in various stages of their education.
“I was able to take a trip up to the Anschutz Medical Camp in Aurora and enjoyed a very informational day with fellow pre-med students,” said West.
She has found the society to be helpful to her.
“Being surrounded by such encouraging peers definitely helps to keep us all focused on our goals.”
West noted that the society plans many events outside of school. One particular event that Rains enjoyed was last year’s Pre-Health Networking Banquet.
“That was really the event that kick-started Pre-Health into transforming what it is now because it has really transformed in the past eight months,” said Rains.
Eighty students, 25 professionals and five faculty and staff attended the banquet. There were a number of professionals in the medical field, including a military CRNA.
Attendees of the banquet were fed heavy hors d’oeuvres and a light dinner. Speeches were given by a medical director at Memorial and the COO at Penrose-St. Francis.
The students were then given the opportunity to speak with the health care professionals over dinner.
“A number of students ended up getting internships and jobs out of it; we had students with shadowing opportunities, volunteer opportunities,” said Rains.
He added that there were also admissions professionals from CU-Denver and Rocky Vista University. This year, the banquet is planned for February and is targeted at 120 students and 30 health professionals.
Students looking to get involved in the society can go to its website at tinyurl.com/ucprehealth or web.uccs.edu/premed and click join.