April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
YOUTH FORUM
Future med student tries out career
"Mine was not the prettiest one, but it's OK," Aileen said of her stitched-up fruit, which substituted for a wounded person. "I have years to learn."
Aileen attends Our Lady Queen of Peace parish and is a senior at Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School, both in Schenectady. Last month, she attended a 10-day leadership forum on medicine in Boston, where she lived in a college dormitory with more than 360 other teenagers from around the world.
"It was just an affirmation for me that I want to go into the field of medicine," she said.
The future medical student has narrowed her college search down to three schools and plans to major in chemistry or physics as an undergraduate. If she stays on track, an honor society has agreed to pay for her medical books and admission test fees.
At the forum, Aileen learned that medical school could take up to 15 years of work. She described shadowing exhausted medical students as a slight "downer" - but also saw that many medical professionals retain their compassion and drive when all the training is over.
Aileen and her 20-person group visited two different hospitals in Massachusetts and Rhode Island during the forum. She witnessed knee surgery, learned about testing animals to develop cancer drugs and observed a researcher cutting specimens to fit under a microscope.
Her favorite part was reenacting emergency care at a hospital's simulation center. A variety of scenarios - a bombing at a theater, a volcanic eruption, a party gone awry - played out as the students diagnosed actors and treated mannequins' maladies.
Those 10 days did more than just add to Aileen's scientific skills: "It's the longest I've ever been away from home," the teen told The Evangelist. "I learned how independent I can be."
Back in Schenectady, Aileen is in honor societies, the student council, school plays and the yearbook design group. Her great love is swimming with a recreational team outside of school.
"If I have a rough day at school, it's kind of like an outlet," she said. Aileen started swimming in seventh grade, when a stress fracture halted her childhood soccer career and a doctor suggested water therapy.
Now, Aileen spends her summers lifeguarding. She recently started working as a pharmacy technician, ringing up customers, counting pills and printing drug labels.
Her mother, Jamie, said she knew Aileen would pursue the medical field at the age of five, when the little girl rushed to help injured soccer teammates.
"I believe that it's a calling," Mrs. Shaughnessy said. Aileen's parents bought her a toy medical cart and a lab coat she wore so much that they had "Dr. Shaughnessy" embroidered on the lapel.
"I've always wanted to help people," Aileen told The Evangelist. "I would love to alleviate someone's worries just by telling someone what's wrong with them."
When her father, Timothy, needed emergency quadruple bypass surgery at age 48 last year, Aileen's desire to help others only grew.
"Seeing how compassionate the doctor was...made me have so much more respect for him - not just as a doctor, but as a human being," she said.
How will Aileen balance practicing medicine with her Catholic faith?
"There's a reason why miracles happen sometimes. I'm pretty sure that God made the people who became scientists."
When Aileen was confirmed, she picked Bernadette, patron saint of the sick, as her confirmation name. "My whole body was in goosebumps," she said of the sacrament. "It was just beautiful. It just felt like I was taking my own role in the Church."[[In-content Ad]]
250 X 250 AD
250 X 250 AD
Events
250 X 250 AD
Comments:
You must login to comment.