The Future is Here
Texas Tech Health El Paso Hosts Health Science Workshops for 695 Middle School Students
Miliany Diaz carefully studied the brain in front of her, searching for a tumor. She ran a light across the surface to get a better look before finding the abnormal mass buried within the organ. Carefully wielding a plastic butter knife, she extracted it, and celebrated a successful surgery.
Miliany and her colleagues – fellow middle school students – had fun performing this simulation of a lifesaving procedure on a “brain” made of gelatin as part of the 13th Annual Medventure for Your Future hosted by Texas Tech Health El Paso on Saturday, Jan. 27. Nearly 700 attended this year. It has grown substantially since 230 attended the first year.
Medventure for Your Future is a free event for sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade students designed to cultivate an enthusiasm for science and medicine. Participants engaged in hands-on activities and learned about diverse careers in health science. Medventure also involved parents by sharing innovative strategies to inspire their children's interest in health sciences.
The interactive science workshops covered a range of topics, such as bleeding control, dental hygiene, dispelling health myths, and the ever-popular crime scene investigation. Attendees also had the opportunity to explore the university’s Medical Education Building through guided tours.
The brain operation could be a glimpse into Miliany’s future: She wants to be an oncologist – a doctor who specializes in cancer treatment.
“I want to become an oncologist mostly because of my grandpa, who died of lung cancer. I wish I could have helped him out,” Miliany said.
She never met her grandfather’s oncologist, but she understood the doctor’s role.
“I just knew they were the ones trying to help him,” she said.
Miliany was excited to learn that El Paso would be home to the future Steve and Nancy Fox Cancer Center on the Texas Tech Health El Paso campus. It’s a place she may want to work at one day.
“It’s great to have a cancer center in El Paso because I was thinking I would have to move somewhere else,” said Miliany, who is interested in attending the Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech Health El Paso.
René André, M.B.A., TTUHSC El Paso’s assistant director of the Foster School of Medicine’s Outreach Programs, which organizes Medventure each year, said the middle school years are a good time to spark the interest of students and their parents in the health sciences.
“Students tend to select career paths in high school, so we try to expose them to as many possibilities in the health care career field as possible before high school," André said.
He sees the positive impact of Medventure when former attendees come back as volunteers or presenters, eager to share their experiences in the health care field.
“It’s hard to know for sure how many attendees have gone on to study the health sciences, but I know we’ve had several who became nurses, and at least three past participants are now in medical school here at Texas Tech Health El Paso,” André said. “We get really excited when we hear that because it means we’re making a difference.”
André thanked the many supporters who help make the event successful year after year.
“We really can't do it without our community,” he said. “There's the community of people, like the volunteers, and there’s the community of supporters that help sponsor it. It’s completely funded by the community, and it couldn’t be done without them.”
Medventure for Your Future 2024 was presented by the Electric Company Charitable Foundation and proudly sponsored by First Light Federal Credit Union.
Kelly Tomblin, president and CEO of El Paso Electric, and El Paso Fire Department Chief Jonathan Killings delivered keynote speeches, extending a warm welcome to students and parents.
Tomblin has been a dedicated supporter of Texas Tech Health El Paso, serving on the President's Development Council since she arrived in El Paso in 2020. The longstanding partnership between our university and El Paso Electric is achieving new milestones with a $45,000 grant received last year from the Electric Company Charitable Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to fostering economic development, educational innovation, and environmental stewardship — the three pillars that guide its initiatives.
Fire Chief Killings told the students of the importance of persistence and not giving up. He said it took him three tries to pass the firefighters’ exam and here he is now, the chief of the department.
Tomblin’s speech focused on never underestimating your own power.
“Don't let other people tell you that your dreams are too big,” Tomblin told the students. “The beauty of Texas Tech Health El Paso is you can be a lot of things, from a doctor to a nurse to a dentist or researcher. You can become a doctor without leaving home; you can come back and serve your community. And if that's not in your strengths or weaknesses, you can be an engineer, a lineman or an accountant.”
About Texas Tech Health El Paso
Texas Tech Health 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 a designated Title V Hispanic-Serving Institution, preparing the next generation of health care heroes, 48% of whom identify as Hispanic and are often first-generation students.
Established as an independent university in 2013, Texas Tech Health El Paso is a proudly diverse and uniquely innovative destination for education and research.
With a mission of eliminating health care barriers and creating life-changing educational opportunities for Borderplex residents, Texas Tech Health El Paso has graduated over 2,400 doctors, nurses and researchers over the past decade, and will add dentists to its alumni beginning in 2025. For more information, visit ttuhscepimpact.org.