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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1981)
Portland Observer, October 29, 1961 Page 3 Minority students taste medical careers Ahhh, summer vacation from high school—trips to the beach, shopping expeditions, tubing down the river. Part-time jobs are hard to find but they a.e available at places like Burger King, Baskin-Robbins or department stores. Sounds fun, right? But fun in the good ol* summertime for three high school students meant working at The Oregon Health Sciences Univer sity, gaining exposure to their future goals: completing medical school and working as doctors. Kristina Colbert, Rachel Kimbro- ko and Mai Khunh Tran, all juniors at Portland high schools, were se lected from 20 applicants to partici pate in the M in o rity High School Student Research Apprentice Pro gram this summer. Funded by a $4500 grant from the Department o f Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, each student re ceived a salary for working 40 hours a week, June 15 through August 28. Dr. Peter Bentley, director o f The Best Curl In Town r Call Now 284-1907 At The Best Price! 11 the past school year, she played cen ter on Orant’s junior varsity basket ball team and ran the 400-yard run in the state track meet. Unbeknownst to the faculty selec tion committee, K ristina’s mother, Waneta Colbert, is a clerical special ist in the School o f Dentistry at the OHSU. Rachel K im boko, 15, attends Jackson High School and is serious ly considering entering the research field upon com pleting medical school. Born in Zaire, A frica , Ra chel worked in the microbiology and immunology laboratories under the direction o f Dr. Lesley Hallick, as sistant professor in the School o f Medicine. Her projects this summer were to help find what it is that trig gers malignancy in a DNA mole cule. Another project, involving the use o f radioactive drugs, was study ing the inactivation, or killin g , o f different types o f viruses. Rachel said that she gained the knowledge o f “ growing bacterial cells, infecting them and then puri- RagMO NOW $ 2 5 I _ Cut Rag »20 I N ow $ 5 w ith this ad butch more 1406 N.E. Broadway. Portland. Oregon 97212 Butch Coon at a » c a n t Stud.o Ona party with Mattoa M oor.. Sytvaatar in Loa Angataa SOLE DESIGN OF PORTLAND „ t 5600 NE Union e rtO *0 * Portland, OR. q O'- Tel. 287 0 6 9 3 ^ 0 ^ ^ upT0 # l5 00/W|R O* ADI&AS TOP TEN HI TOP • BEST IN ITS CLASS REfr 4 5 1 5 SALE 5 5 -4 5 SAVE < 1 0 .0 0 PUMA HI TOP A U LEATHER R K 54 1 5 SALE 3 4 45 SAVE Rachel Kimboko. a Student at Jackson High School, is consider ing entering the research field upon completing medical school. Mai Khanh Tran, a soon-to-be graduate of Madison High School, reviews patient survey sheets with her mentor. Dr. Timothy Car mody. assistant professor of medical psychology at The Oregon Health Sciences University. student government. The self-ac claimed “ a ll-o u t fo o tb a ll fa n ” would like to run for student body president next year if Jackson is not closed. Rachel was involved in a French workshop at Reed College fo r two weeks in August where French literature and history were studied along with the language. A citizen o f the United States only since November 1981 Mai Khanh Tran and her fa m ily relocated to P ortland from South Vietnam in 1975. just two weeks before Saigon fell. Although Mai was only nine, she remembers the country and the people she left behind. Her goal is to be a physician to the Vietnamese people in Viet Nam or in refugee camps throughout the world. Mai considered it a “ privilege” to work at the OHSU this summer and thinks that she gained excellent in sight into her future career choice. She w ill graduate this June from Madison, having completed all o f her high school requirements in just three years. Mai has maintained a near 4.0 grade point average. Working with Dr. Tim othy Car mody, assistant professor o f medi cal psychology, Mai spent her sum mer w orking on several d iffe re n t projects involving animals, exercise projects involving animals, exercise and a variety o f health care profes sionals. Her work included deter mining the physiological effects o f ihe apprcniicc program and fying the viru s.” Other (asks in professor o f biochem istry at the cluded textbook reading and data OHSU School o f Medicine, said analysis. that the program was begun to help Dr. Hallick, who gained her first offset the tremendous shortage o f exposure to the health sciences by health professionals from m inority working in college science labs as a groups. The three apprentices who high school and college student, participated arc also involved in the thought that working with Rachel newly organized “ mentor program’ ’ was. and is, a growing experience at the OHSU in which minority high for both the student and the teacher. school students who have an interest "A s a mentor, I need to not only in the health sciences are matched to give accurate inform ation and ad a faculty member for a “ long-range vice but to remain objective in my relationship that involves communi instruction and guidance, never cation. advice on academic plan judgmental,” she said. ning, responding to questions and Rachel is involved in Jackson's role modeling." school choir, the French club and Recently begun, a number o f young people have already signed up for the mentor program. The three apprentices will keep the same faculty members they worked with this summer as their mentors. If Kristina Colbert learned one thing after coming to work at the OHSU. it was not being afraid o f mice. “ I still don’ t like them, but I am no longer afraid o f them ," she said with a laugh. Because o f her love for children, Kristina would like to be a pediatri cian. Her reason for wanting to be an apprentice was “ to learn and gain experience in an area similar to what I think I'd like to be doing." A Grant High schooler who turned 16 in September, K ristina worked with Dr. Ann Kiessling, as sistant professor o f anatomy in the School o f Medicine, to determine the n utritional needs o f mice em bryos. Kristina spent her days feed ing mice, counting cells, collecting and analyzing data and reading re search books. In addition, she was helping to determine the possibility o f transferring goal embryos. According to Dr. Kiessling, sheep and cattle embryos are presently transferred around the country in an e ffo rt to save livestock but it had not yet been tried with dairy goats. Kristina worked on this project with Dr. Mary Blankevoort, an OHSU veterinarian. interested in modeling, Kristina also worked on the Nordstrom Highboard at Lloyd Center as a rep resentative for her school. She parti cipated in a fashion show at the end o f the summer. Along with model Kristina Colbert, a junior at Grant High School, spent last summer ing, K ris tin a ’ s interests include as a research apprentice In Dr. Ann Kiessling's laboratory at The cooking, travel and reading. During Oregon Health Sciences University. j 4 15 0 0 C O N VER SE LEATHER learning and conditioning experi ments on animals, working with pa tients at the " Y ” M etro who are participating in a heart exercise pro gram to determine cardiovascular functioning and conditions, and the Family Heart Study, a five-year pro gram which w ill measure the n utri tion and metabolism o f more than 200 people and their families who are changing their lifestyles in the hopes o f lengthening their lives and strengthening their physical condi tion. Mai helped write the newslet ter, collected and tabulated data and participated in planning meetings o f this m ultidisciplinary study which involves physicians, dieticians, nurs es, psychologists and others. W hile attending M adison, Mai has been involved with the orchestra (she plays the violin), tennis team, the National Honor Society and the English Speaking Club where those who have adopted English as their second language help others do so. Although Mai likes to study the sci ences, her favorite subject in school is history. A ll three high school students re marked that spending their summer in a different way than their peers was worth it. Putting together the ingredients o f a W hopper w ill never seem as challenging again. « E t- Hl -T O P 4 H 5 SAVE TH E DB SALE 3 2 45 6 1 0 .0 0 C O N VE R SE LEATHER H S4 L Q - TOP 34 45 SALE 3 0 4 5 SAVE 4 TO O FPEE POSTER FOR EACH PAIR OF SHOPS PURCHASED __ N ew berj^U oy^J^entej Coupon^ ! TIM EX WATCHES 25% OFF Hr«. Mon-Fri 9 :» am-9 pm Sat 9:30 am-« pm Sun noon-6 pm Limit of 2 per customer while quantities last. Oct. 15 thru 31 Save s877°° on an average 3 bedroom house when we install Solid Vynal Siding on your home during our Super Sale. Call right n o w and we ll explain how we can save you $877°° and more. No obligations, for sure. Offer good till Nov. 8. Call 223-9050 Aluminum Builders Service, Inc. We can finance it for you ^vhile money lasts.