Broadening Young Minds
12th Annual Medventure for Your Future Inspires Next Generation of Health Care Heroes
Buses that usually take students to middle schools instead dropped them off for their first time on a college campus on Saturday, Jan. 28 for a day that could change their lives and result in El Paso growing its own next generation of health care heroes.
Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders from El Paso County, many of which would be first-generation college graduates, learned about potential health science careers during the 12th annual Medventure for Your Future on the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso campus.
The free event, hosted by TTUHSC El Paso, aims to build interest in the health sciences at a young age. Nearly 1,000 students and parents attended this year’s Medventure for Your Future. The one-day event offered hands-on science workshops and provided parents with creative ways to encourage their children to learn about health sciences.
Kenadee Espinoza, 12, smiled as she recalled her favorite workshop, “Crime Scene Investigation.” Presenters worked hard to make the crime scene as realistic as possible with a person lying on the floor as the students settled in for the workshop.
“Crime Scene Investigation”
"I liked the crime scene investigation workshop best because of everything it showed," she said. "I liked watching them collect the evidence, dust for fingerprints, and the whole process involved in the investigation because I want to be a forensic scientist when I’m older and this made me more interested in wanting to do it."
Heart, brain and veterinary medicine workshops were some of the other workshops students explored. This year, new presentations included “Dealing with Diabetes” and “Operation Basic Anatomy.”
“This yearly exploration event broadens horizons for El Paso-area middle school students as they seek career paths in STEM and the health sciences upon entering high school,” said René André, M.B.A, TTUHSC El Paso’s assistant director of Outreach Programs. “This is a great benefit for a community experiencing a shortage of health care professionals. I have seen many students who’ve attended the event come back as volunteers for Medventure for Your Future.”
Medventure for Your Future is just one of the ways the university reaches out to the Borderplex's youth. The university also offers a summer medical camp, visits to area public and private school campuses during career fairs, Shadow a Physician program for pre-med students and the Summer Enrichment Program for pre-med students at UTEP.
These programs are important in engaging students with an early interest in the health sciences. That interest can lead them to a career in a field that can change their life trajectory and ultimately aid the university’s mission of educating local students and reducing health care shortages in the future.
El Paso Electric President and CEO Kelly Tomblin.
Kelly Tomblin, president and CEO of El Paso Electric, welcomed the students and their parents. Tomblin is a longtime supporter of TTUHSC El Paso and has served on the TTUHSC El Paso President’s Development Council.
Her welcome emphasized the power of potential for individuals and our community.
“Where you start is not where you end up,” she said. “This is your life to create. You haven’t seen pictures of what this place was 10 years ago. It was a field. Not only is it creating a place where you can become doctors and nurses, which is so important for our community so people can be well, it’s creating prosperity and hope. They don’t have to go to Dallas, they don’t have to go to Houston. They’re able to come here.
“I hear stories every day from people within the school who were riding bicycles to school, who didn’t have food to eat, who went from zero dollars to $80,000 after graduating from TTUHSC El Paso,” Tomblin said. “That’s prosperity. That’s because people loved this region.”
Fabiola Armendariz, D.N.P, M.S.N., R.N., is an example of that potential being realized. Armendariz was a student in the Hunt School of Nursing’s inaugural class. For the past eight years she has served as the Health Professions Academy coordinator at Socorro High School.
At Medventure for Your Future, Armendariz showed students the human anatomy using a giant game of Operation.
“It’s a full circle moment for me because I know where it starts and now, I’m here telling them about the journey and the experiences they can get from it. I love this,” Armendariz said.
Armendariz said she had recently been in touch with a former HPA student who was now applying to the Foster School of Medicine – an example of TTUHSC El Paso's mission to grow our own and provide more health care providers for the region.
“It’s just amazing to see and it brings me great joy because I know they’re going to be serving their community,” she said. “We grow with them here. We train them and teach them and then they come back and give their services to the community. It’s always beautiful to see.”
TTUHSC El Paso would like to thank Medventure for Your Future’s presenting sponsors – El Paso Electric, FirstLight Federal Credit Union, and Destination El Paso – as well as our other generous event sponsors: Boris Kaim, M.D., and Fiffi Heller-Kaim; Ricardo Reyna, M.D.; and the Texas Joint Admission Medical Program (JAMP).
About TTUHSC El Paso
TTUHSC El Paso is the only health sciences center on the U.S.-Mexico border and serves 108 counties in West Texas that have been historically underserved. It’s designated as a Title V Hispanic-Serving Institution, preparing the next generation of health care leaders, 48% of whom identify as Hispanic and are often first-generation college students.
TTUHSC El Paso was established to focus on the unique health care and educational needs of our Borderplex community. In 2023, TTUHSC El Paso celebrates its 10th anniversary as an independent university within the Texas Tech University System. In a decade, the university has graduated over 2,000 doctors, nurses and researchers, and will soon add dentists to its alumni.