Christopher High Student Spends a Summer at Stanford

A trip to the hospital usually doesn’t sound like a good summer vacation experience. Alejandra Gonzalez will get five weeks worth.

The Christopher High School student will get an introductory, crash course on what it takes to be a nurse or doctor this summer at the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program.

Starting Sunday, the 16-year-old will join 24 other sophomores and juniors from Northern and Central California at Stanford University.

Gonzalez will participate in lectures, labs, group projects, field trips and evening discussions. She will spend time with an assigned mentor, Suzanne Garfer, who is currently enrolled in Stanford’s medical program.
"She's one of those students who just works as hard as she needs to get the work done and then some,” said CHS teacher Cheryl Osborne, who along with colleague Julie Mangono wrote a letter of recommendation.

Gonzalez’s application included sending her Christopher High School transcript, writing eight essays and providing two letters of recommendation. Along with a mid-April phone interview, Gonzalez also had a series of face-to-face interviews with Stanford councilors and staff. She was selected from 800 other applicants from 410 schools.

“When you’re around all these people, you kind of get an idea of what kind of people they are and what you’re up against,” Gonzalez said.

According to its website, the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program works to increase knowledge about the sciences and health professions, while guiding minority and low-income students through the college admissions process.

The program started in 1998, and will cover Gonzalez’s fees which include tuition, books, class fees, room and board.

The mentors will be medical students, graduate students and health professionals.

The program also includes a hospital volunteer internship with visits to the morgue and operating rooms.

Two days out of the week, Gonzalez is required to spend time in either the Stanford Hospital and Clinics or the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System hospital. Once assigned, Gonzalez will be placed in a department.

“My top choice was anything in surgery. I could be a nurse for the surgery. I put that I want to experience it myself, maybe they’ll let me have a chance to cut something,” Gonzalez said. “My second choice would be to work in the pharmacy because medicine is really interesting too.”

Students attending the program will also receive preparation work for the SATs, essay and résumé guidance, presentation skills and PowerPoint training.

In order to pass and participate in the program’s graduation ceremony, Gonzalez and her peers have to complete and present a research project as part of the evaluation process.

Gonzalez can get 10 high school units, which Osborne said would probably fall under elective science credits.

"We haven't had to deal with anything like that before. We do take college credits and give the kids credit that is reflected on their transcript,” Osborne said.

Gonzalez has hopes of going to a University of California, San Diego or Davis and said this is the perfect opportunity for her to get into medicine.

“I am most excited to be part of the program, getting to know everybody and actually getting some hands-on experience,” she said.