What's Different About the Omega Leo Medical Explorers
President Jerome Supple created Medical Explorers in 1991, with the purpose of broadening “career awareness” among students. He wanted “his” students to have early opportunities for better, informed career decisions through volunteer service.
Academic preparation was excellent, but there was something missing - understanding “why” they had chosen a career and knowing their co-workers better.
Dr. Supple borrowed the career awareness program from the high school age Learning for Life program that was then part of the Boy Scouts of America (currently Scouting America). He knew it had to be modified and made more age-appropriate for college students. His solution was to have a close tie to academic programs for different career paths, and have volunteer experiences showing students their future careers up close and intense. His instructions were to make the experiences "fun, exciting, and overall safe."
The value of early experiences as freshmen enables students to know "why" they are continuing their chosen career paths. He hoped that better understanding of their career choices would help make them better students academically and provide a spark of "passion" for their future career.
His direction to make the volunteer experiences "fun, exciting, and overall safe" was a challenge. Dr. Supple was a chemist and he knew these instructions would be difficult for healthcare, but he insisted that "safety" was our "job number one."
Our Medical Explorer program was one of five that Dr. Supple created in various areas of the university. Essentially, we were an experiment in bringing an innovative program of “career awareness” to college students. “Fun, exciting, and safe” was not an easy order for healthcare, especially freshmen. But he wanted the opportunities to be available early in a student's college experience.
Training became an essential part of the program; training that normally would not occur until much later in a “professional” health program. And then the volunteer opportunities were not easy. He wanted “intense” hands-on opportunities.
That's what our Omega Leo Medical Explorer Post 4077 has become - a rare “career awareness” volunteer opportunity open to all college students who are “exploring” the possibility of becoming health professionals. Dr. Supple wanted “his” students to know “why” they were becoming health professionals and develop a “passion” for their future career.
We're a thirty-five plus year experiment that is doing what Dr. Supple envisioned - creating better health professionals. Faculty and staff support will help us better achieve Dr. Supple's vision.
