Students had summer stint as ‘medical Cards’

Many Newton High School graduates have gone on to professions that involve national or international conferences. Two students who haven’t even graduated from NHS yet can already boast of having gone to such a conference.

Hannah Yeager and Tierra McNeeley are Newton High School seniors who plan to become trained in medical fields. Both were able to attend the Congress for Future Medical Leaders in Lowell, Mass., near Boston in June, learning a great deal about what lies ahead in medicine and in their pursuits of medical careers.

“I received an invitation in the mail to go to the conference,” Yeager said. “The conference was quite costly but I learned so much from my experience there.”

The Congress is an honors-only program for high school students who want to become physicians or go into medical research fields. McNeeley and Yeager were chosen based on their academic achievement at NHS, leadership potential and determination to serve humanity in the field of medicine.

During the three-day Congress, McNeeley and Yeager joined students from across the country, heard world-renowned, medal-winning speakers and heard stories told by patients who are considered living medical miracles.

Some of the ongoing benefits of the Congress’s attendees are online social networks through which future doctors and medical scientists can communicate, opportunities for students to be guided and mentored by physicians and medical students and communications for parents and students on college acceptance and finances, skills acquisition, internships and career guidance.

Yeager’s aspirations in the medical field are fairly specific. She said she’s going to specialize in pediatric oncology and hopefully one day work at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., though she hasn’t picked out a college degree program yet.

The cost of traveling to Massachusetts was Yeager’s first obstacle.

“I was able to receive a scholarship, through the conference, for $500, and then from there, my mom paid the rest,” Yeager said.

McNeeley said she, too, was first notified by mail that she’d been chosen for the conference.

“I received a letter in the mail and I told my mom that I wanted to attend,” McNeeley said. “For the cost, my mom made it happen because she knew it was really important for me to attend the Congress.”

Yeager said the conference broadened her mind about what’s possible in her medical career.

“This experience has helped m spread my wings and become interested in trying something new,” she said.

McNeeley said the trip helped affirm that a medical field is where she sees herself within the next few years.

“The trip taught me that being a doctor is definitely the field I want to end up in,” McNeeley said. “The most important thing I learned there was that failure is a key part of life and that I shouldn’t let it discourage my dreams; failure is a huge part of success.”

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com