Today@Sam Article
JAMP Program Helps Junior Work Toward Dreams
July 8, 2015
SHSU Media Contact: Aubrie Walker
Ashley Platero, a junior biology major at Sam Houston State University, has been set on becoming a doctor since she was a child. Through the financial and academic guidance of SHSU’s Joint Admissions Medical Program, she has taken one step closer to realizing her dream.
“When I was little, I always loved helping people,” Platero said. “I remember a specific moment in kindergarten when I got in trouble because instead of doing my own work I was helping someone else. That is just how I have always been and that is why I really want to go into the medical field.”
She began working toward this goal by making opportunities for herself, so that she can receive as much experience the medical field as possible.
She went to a high school 20 minutes outside of her hometown just so she could be a part of the medical academy program they offered. There, Platero was exposed to parts of the medical field she would not have been able to see anywhere else.
“One time we observed live stream surgeries via Skype,” Platero said. “The first surgery was on a knee and the second one was on a heart. The doctors were explaining their procedure and how they did it; it was really neat.”
During the summer of 2014 Platero volunteered at Memorial Hermann.
“They didn’t have a shadowing program for doctors, but in volunteering, I was put in the nursing unit,” Platero said. “I would sit with the nurses, and they would send me to update patient information or take care of if a patient needed something.
“I have been a patient at a hospital, I have visited family at a hospital, and this time I was behind the scenes. I got to see what real doctors’ lives were like and it is not what ‘House’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ shows you.
“It was a great experience there. I feel like it led me to SHSU and to the Joint Admissions Medical Program, because I knew again that is what I wanted to do.”
JAMP is a state scholarship funded by the Texas legislature that provides support to financially disadvantage students with training and funding in order to attend medical school, according to Jack Turner, assistant dean for the College of Health Sciences and director of the medical and allied health programs.
A few months before graduating high school Platero was told about JAMP by one of her friends, and she looked it up as soon as she got home, thinking it sounded too good to be true.
“Having no family in the medical field is a scary thing because I don’t know anyone that is in it or in the process of trying to get in it,” said Platero. “That is what is really cool about JAMP; now I have someone to turn to and guide me through this process so that I am not alone.”
The SHSU medical advisers helped Platero through the application process in order to join JAMP.
Once accepted, the recipients must maintain certain standards throughout the duration of their undergraduate career. The program also requires two summer internships, one after the sophomore year and one after the junior year.
The first internship that Platero will participate in will be at Texas Tech University in Lubbock this summer.
“The whole point is to prepare you for the MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test) which is the test you have to take to get accepted into medical school,” Platero said.
“JAMP helps you financially, it gives you experiences with internships and then, ultimately, it helps you get into medical school. It something you won’t find anywhere else,” said Platero.
Platero also gets the opportunity to help with the summer JAMP Camp at SHSU.
The SHSU Medical and Allied Office received a grant recently to help promote the summer JAMP camp, offered for high school students to learn about JAMP and medical field.
“If we have encouraged one student to say yes, then we have done well,” said Turner. “If we have had a student who was on the cusp and now is aware that this isn’t something they want do, we have saved that student a lot of wear and tear; it is beneficial on both sides of the coin.
“The JAMP students have an awareness that most kids going off to medical school don’t have and that is what JAMP is about—creating that head start. It is not for everybody, just as medical school is not for everybody.”
As Platero continues in school she has her eyes set to the future.
“I am a really hard worker and I feel like I am really passionate about what I want in life,” Platero said. “It is not like tomorrow I am going to say I do not want to do this anymore. I have known this is what I wanted to do for a long time now, and so this is what I am going to stick with.”
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