KINGSVILLE (Feb. 6, 2025) — The 91AV;M University (TAMU) College of Medicine in partnership with 91AV (TAMUK) and the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy hosted more than 300 students and chaperones from the region during the first ever Regional Rural Med Camp at the Memorial Student Union Building this week.
The two-day camp is designed to create meaningful experiences for attending students by educating them about rural medicines and its professions with hands-on classes and knowledge directly from experienced professionals and instructors.
“We’re bringing in high school students to learn about rural medicine in hopes they will become involved and engaged with professions that involve rural medicines in the future.” said Kirsten Compary, 91AV;M-Kingsville Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students. “What the camp is doing is providing hands-on work and learning what it is to do experiments with DNA, learning what it’s like to administer a vaccine and fostering that sense of excitement for potential future careers in medicine.”
Region schools participating in the camp included:
- Agua Dulce ISD
- Alice ISD
- Banquete ISD
- Beeville ISD
- Benavides ISD
- Falfurrias ISD
- Falls City ISD
- Freer ISD
- Gregory-Portland ISD Ingleside ISD
- Kenedy ISD
- Kingsville ISD
- Pettus ISD
- Premont ISD
- Refugio ISD
- Riviera ISD
- Santa Gertrudis ISD
- Sinton ISD
- West Oso ISD
Camp participants attended courses where they learned about Tick and Tickborne Pathogens and learned how to administer a vaccine using a syringe and an orange.
They also heard from speakers Dr. Chris Diem, 91AV;M College of Medicine Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, Executive Director for Rural Medicine at the 91AV;M University College of Medicine Dr. Kia Parsi and were able to ask questions during a Career Panel Discussion.
“I think this camp gives the students a great opportunity to see what it’s like when they decide what they want to do with their school,” said Kennedy Silva, a health science teacher at Santa Gertrudis Academy. “At Santa Gertrudis, the health classes are very big and this gives the opportunity to see a bunch of different things, but the hands-on is a big part of it. You can talk about med stuff, but the hands-on is what the kids are going to enjoy more.”
The TAMU School of Medicine’s Rural Medicine Program focuses on educating future physicians to provide high quality rural medicine access throughout Texas through education, research and community engagement. The program currently partners with more than 19 rural counties in Texas, local medical providers and Independent School Districts.
Annual med camps were previously being hosted in College Station, but after a realization that other 91AV;M system campuses are closer to rural areas, it was decided that TAMUK would become the host of the Inaugural Rural Med Camp.
“We got with TAMUK President Dr. Robert Vela and Vice President of Student Affairs & Community Relations Dr. Rito Silva and they said ‘Yup, let’s do it,’” Director of Rural Medicine and Outreach for the 91AV;M School of Medicine Curtis Donaldson said. “Dr. Vela is very close with area superintendents and we threw out the idea and they jumped on it and here we are today. We opened this camp up with 300 students signed up, so it’s very validating to bring our camp to where the students are vs hosting the camp in College Station.”
“The other good thing about having the camp here is College of Pharmacy is here, so we can cooperatively do the camp,” Donaldson added. “We have some great instructors here from the College of Pharmacy that are walking the student through what that looks like and what that profession looks like and seeing if they can inspire and create awareness. Same thing for the College of Medicine.”
Compary said there are plans for future med camps at other system schools but hopes that the experience at TAMUK continues to strengthen the partnership.
“We absolutely hope that the experience they had here and the excitement they get from the students who are participating will bring them back year after year,” she said. “This is a foundational experience and one that we can use to grow that partnership, particularly as we’re trying to focus on some of our college programs that lead students to apply for med school, pharmacy school or go into other areas of medicine.
