Pub. 3 2019 Issue 1

A One-Stop Town At 5 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 15, Amann had stopped to pick up Christiansen in Salt Lake. They needed to make Moab’s Grand County High before the 9:53 a.m. bell to meet their first class, anatomy students. There are two key elements to UROP’s pitch: one is a presentation, the other dissections. Their presentation began by asking, “Why medicine?” Then they detailed the wide variety of health careers, comparing the aver- age debt to become a doctor ($161,000) against average salaries ($189,000 for a family doctor, $450,000 for a surgeon). When Christiansen and Amann pulled out the organs for dissection, excited students pulled out their phones to take pictures. Afterwards, Christiansen and Amann drove to their lodgings at Bullfrog, Utah, near Lake Powell. Daylight revealed few houses but many dry-docked house boats. At Lake Powell, their class was seven male students from the seventh and eighth grade, half of whom were Navajo. Next on the itinerary was San Juan High School in Bland- ing. And while it turned out to be larger than they expected, Blanding still amounted to a small town with one blinking red light swaying over the main intersection. Money Fears “How did you want to handle this?” Christiansen asked Amann as 130 students filed into San Juan High’s auditori- um, a quarter from Tracy Johnson’s anatomy class. After the seven students of Lake Powell, it took the visitors a moment to adjust to the shift in scale. “The point we’re trying to get across is, there’s a shortage of medical practices across the state,” Christiansen told the hall. “We’re trying to inspire you guys to fill this need.” It turned out that some had already heard the call. When Chris- tiansen asked how many wanted to be medical students, a doz- en students raised their hands, citing career interests ranging from becoming a family practice doctor to an anesthesiologist. Such ambitions reflected how many of them had relatives working for the 19-year-old Utah Navajo Health System (UNHS), which currently has multiple clinics and hospitals in the region. “It has totally changed the landscape,” says Monument Val- ley High principal Spencer Singer, whose mother, Donna, founded the nonprofit. “The majority of boys [on the res- ervation] aspire to be welders, or in the construction trade. Why? That’s what dad does, what their uncle did. Now their aunts and uncles work for UNHS, and it’s created a different avenue for jobs. ‘I can do that,’ the students say. ‘I can be a nurse or a doctor that works in the clinic.’ ” Despite the burgeoning local medical industry, the value of UROP remains the same: letting high schoolers know medi- cine is within their reach. Tugging On (a Cow’s) Heart Strings When Christiansen and Amann put out cow hearts, 50 stu- dents lined up for the dissection. Amann struggled with the scalpel as she cut open the muscle. “They gave us the world’s smallest scalpel to do this with,” she laughed. As teenagers pulled on purple plastic gloves, the quips came hot and fast. “They’ve stolen my heart,” said a native student. “This is the definition of playing with someone’s heart,” joked another. One student was more concerned about his impending lunch. “This has ruined my appetite,” he muttered. Roughly half of those considering medicine thought they’d return to practice in Blanding. “I think there are deep family ties that make you want to come back,” Johnson says. Christiansen and Amann left for Whitehorse High in Mon- tezuma Creek, 45 minutes away, to find 40 tired students who’d just finished their state exams. Once the organs came out of the cooler, eyes widened in interest, especially among the female students. Amann enjoyed the buzz students got from the dissections. She had one question she wanted the students to take away from their visit: “Do you want to do this more than just today?” Rural Roots | Continued on page 38 Kade Shumway Lyman – PC: Kim Montella Jen Christiansen and Kassie Amann – PC: Shara Lyman San Juan High School – PC: Shara Lyman 35 |