Doctors of the Future: UTHSCT Offers Summer Externship Program to East Texas Students

June 27, 2019

Sinchana Basoor works in Dr. Pendurthi’s lab as part of the summer externship program.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler summer externship program offers students a look at both the clinical and research side of medical science.

TYLER, Texas — Summer is typically a time when students take a break from studying. However, some East Texas high school and undergrad students continue learning through the summer externship program at UT Health Science Center at Tyler.

“I want to get rid of that fear of being scared of science or math,” program director and molecular biologist Dr. Usha Pendurthi said.

Pendurthi has been running summer externship programs since her days at the University of California San Diego hospital over a decade ago.

“I felt that if we could motivate young boys and girls, they can be more discoverers,” Pendurthi said. “They [will] have a longer lifespan as scientists, I felt we need this in East Texas.”

The goal of the program is to expose students to both the clinical and research sides of medical science, to obtain a better picture of their career paths.

“This is the time I want them to get exposed to both biomedical as well as [the] clinical side of the professions so that they can make informed the decision to get into undergraduate school,” Pendurthi said.

Sinchana Basoor is in her second year with the UT Health externship program and will be starting undergrad at Baylor University in the fall.

Basoor says this program has been a great inspiration towards her future.

“Now I might think about getting a Ph.D. because working in here, it’s been pretty cool,” Bashoor said.

Pendurthi believes this program is crucial to forming the East Texas medical professionals of the future.

“I do believe in three E’s, which [are] equality, education, and the environment. All three will be improved with these kinds of programs. That’s my goal, to get more and more East Texans interested in biomedical sciences, especially medicine,” Pendurthi explained. “We need a lot of doctors in this area. We are importing doctors. So why not grow them here?”

For more information on UT Health Science Center’s summer externship program, click here.

Story by Tim Wolf, CBS19.

To view the original article, click here.

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