This summer, approximately 100 health care professionals came together across all three shields of Mayo Clinic (clinical practice, education, and research), to participate as presenters or panelists to provide hands-on activities, virtual simulations, and interactive teaching modalities. Students were exposed to healthcare careers including physician, surgeon, physician assistant, nursing, rehabilitation medicine, biomedical research, medical laboratory, radiology, engineering, social work, clinical genomics, public health, and community-engaged research, among many others.

In addition, Mayo CARES offers students a mentorship relationship the academic year following the summer program, where students are matched with a physician or allied health professional working in their field of interest, better equipping them to pursue individual career and professional goals.

The program takes a holistic approach and interweaves life skill-building into each day’s programming such as personal wellness, presentation skills, interviewing skills, resume writing, humanities, college preparation, and strengths assessments. We begin the day with community-building time, followed by intensive and engaging presentations and activities, and we close with journaling and debriefing.