During the first Medical Club meeting of the school year, a group of students gathered for a presentation by senior Mercedes Chien about her summer research project on child psychology.

Mercedes spent six weeks at the Infant Cognition Lab in UC Davis through the Young Scholars Program, an application based research program that accepts roughly 40 high school students each year. Her research studied the connections between infant sitting ability and face perception.

Through a powerpoint presentation, Mercedes explained the details of her project, including graphs of her data and how she recorded the movement of the infants’ gazes.
After hours of hard work and brief disappointment from what seemed to be inconclusive results, she was rewarded with new findings from her research.

“That was the most memorable moment: the moment I realized there was something there. That was just such a rewarding feeling,” Mercedes said.

Besides research, the program also included morning lectures from professors leading up to a test as well as weekend trips, from swimming in Lake Tahoe to hiking on Donner’s Summit. These trips allowed the students to take a break from their projects and bond with each other.

“I think the most rewarding part of the program was the people I met there,” Mercedes said. “They showed me that there’s more to learning than just what we learn in the classroom.”

In addition, club officers Zina Jawadi (12), Elizabeth Teng (12), Monica Thukral (12), and Nadia Palte (10) asked members what they wanted from the club this year. Many students showed interest in dissections and a hospital tour or hoped to simply learn more about medicine. Some, like Shannon Hong (10), brought their personal interests as well.

“I’m really interested in learning about the intricacies of medicine. There’s this one show called Grey’s Anatomy, and I really really like it. It’s about surgery, and there’s this one character called Cristina Yang who I really admire for her ability in cardiothoracics. And that’s actually something I’m actually pretty interested in,” Shannon said.

The meeting concluded with advice from the four officers as well as Dr. Matthew Harley about internships.

“Be passionate about the field,” Zina, president of Medical Club, said. “Internships and research can be demanding, but the reward is especially high if you love what you do, and the process to reach your goal will be more enjoyable.”

The club aims to provide helpful information on the field of medicine, both with research and future career options. In addition, activities such as presentations, trips, and dissections throughout the year help foster deeper interest in medicine among members.

“[We] provide guidance to get the Medical Club members, especially younger students, to have better information about what’s out there and what they can expect,” Dr. Harley said. “Certainly Mercedes did a great job talking about her own experience and how she enjoyed it.”

Medical Club is planning to continue having dissections and fundraising, a change implemented last year that replaced medical discussions and occasional guest speakers in earlier years. The club meets every three weeks in Dr. Harley’s room in Nichols Hall.