Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s Department of Radiology Celebrates 5th Annual Radiology High School Program
By Alberto Cepeda
The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Department of Radiology hosted the fifth annual “Radiology: Giving Back to New York”, high school program. The event took place at the Rockefeller Research Laboratories in midtown Manhattan in affiliation with the New York City Department of Education and the New York Roentgen Society.
The event allows dozens of New York City public high school students to be exposed to different careers in the field of radiology. It also allows them to experience hands on workshops and hear lectures from several professionals in the field of radiology. In order to be invited to the event, students had to take part in an essay contest in which they had to answer the topic, “Why does the radiology field interest you and how do you see yourself helping patients?”
Dr. Hedvig Hricak, Chairman, Department of Radiology at MSKCC and Florence Jackson, Advisory Council for Careers & Technical Education, New York City Department of Education praised the staff at MSKCC stating, “Their faith and determination allow our students exposure to careers in this field which is just amazing.”
Dr. Robert Novelline, Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School then explained to the students the origins of radiology. He presented a short movie showing the various diagnostic imaging techniques used by radiologist such as a Fluoroscopy, CT Scan, Angiography and a MR Scan. The movie also explained the education and training needed for different careers in Radiology.
Following Dr. Novelline’s presentation, students took part in an ultrasound workshop. Three different workstations were set up with medical sonographic instrument and an ultrasound technician was on hand to demonstrate to the students how to use the equipment and answer any questions they had about the profession. The students were allowed to perform an ultrasonography on a turkey breast using ultrasound transmission gel and a linear array transducer.
The event culminated with the award presentation with Dr. Hricak and Ms. Jackson announcing the winners of the of the essay contest.
Illan Osei from the Bronx High School for Medical Science and Scott Christensen from Tottenville High School received the second and third prize respectively; the first place winner was Nanayaa Serwaa from Far Rockaway High School who, in her acceptance speech stated, “First of all I want to thank God and all my teachers for making this award possible. I couldn’t have done this without them.”
Every student who participated in the event was a winner. It was an opportunity for them to meet and interact with different professionals in the field of radiology and opened their options to careers in radiology.#
