North Country Hospital supports MedQuest scholarships

For the twelfth year running, North Country Hospital (NCH) has supported the weeklong, healthcare job shadowing program MedQuest, sponsored by AHEC (Northeastern Vermont Area Health Education Center). High school sophomores from northeastern and central Vermont apply for an opportunity to participate in a structured educational program where they learn about job-shadowing health professionals, acquire basic medical skills, explore career and educational goals, while making new friends who share an interest in healthcare and health science.

For the past two years, North Country Hospital has provided the funding through their healthcare career scholarship program for local students to attend. This year the hospital proudly sponsors five students who were accepted to this competitive program — Cole Royer and Conner Lanou from Lake Region Union High School, and Hailey Grenier, Julia Paul, and Corrinne Royer from North Country Union High School. In speaking with the five students, they are all very busy, and surprisingly, all have an idea as to what area of healthcare they want to study. The experience will be a good indicator if they want to stick with their plan or perhaps go in a different direction within healthcare.

Cole Royer, who has an avid interest in biology and U.S. history, commented that when his earth science teacher at Lake Region saw how fascinated he was with science, he recommended that he apply to the MedQuest program. Cole is already thinking about becoming a surgeon. Julia Paul has a love of math and the sciences, plays soccer and is a member of the Future Business Leaders of America. She spoke highly of the opportunities at the North Country Career Center and is leaning towards speech therapy. She also volunteers at the hospital. Connor Lanou has a brother who attended MedQuest and recommended it to him. He likes the size of Lake Region, that everyone gets along well and that the teachers are dedicated. He is a two sport athlete in soccer and basketball, along with many other activities, and is interested in physical therapy. Corrinne Royer likes genetics and biology with soccer, basketball and softball literally keeping her running non-stop. She has been inducted into the National Honor Society and has enjoyed tutoring and performing community service projects. Her ultimate goal is to become an orthodontist, so will be pursuing dentistry. Hailey Grenier is also into the sciences, specifically biology. Her days are busy with the STEM program at North Country Union High School, which focuses on science, technology, engineering and math, and Hailey hopes to become a respiratory therapist.

During their weeklong experience, all 20 students in the MedQuest program will come to North Country Hospital for one day, where they will have some great shadowing opportunities and hands-on experience. NCH congratulates Cole, Hailey, Julia, Corrinne and Connor, and says, “We’ll see you here at the hospital in your scrubs this June.”