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
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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-
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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
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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.
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