Pub. 3 2019 Issue 1

Caring For Their Own The U students stayed at a motel in Mexican Hat perched on the red-rock banks of the San Juan River. As they dined on beef stew and Navajo fry bread, they reflected on how the trip was “about giving these kids an intro to things,” Amann said, “This is a slice of how cool medicine can be.” Both val- ued modeling health care careers for young women. “You can’t be what you can’t see,” Amann says. The next morning’s drive out to Monument Valley High took them over the river and through a bleak landscape of black rock towering over tiny, one-story houses with concrete floors and wood stoves, standing unprotected against the weather. Very few of these homes have electricity or running water. Despite the challenges of getting and keeping teachers in what is a deeply isolated, poorly resourced location, Monument Val- ley High has seen a dramatic turnaround under Principal Singer, going froma long-standing F to a C in the 2017-18 academic year. That’s with a 220-strong student body of whom 70 percent are classified by the state as homeless and 60 percent with English as their second language. Many of them live in situations where trauma from abuse, alcoholism, drugs, and neglect is ongoing. In the school auditorium, Amann and Christiansen made their last presentation to 12 Navajo students. None of the students had questions, but when they moved to the caf- eteria for the dissections, their standoffishness dissolved into enthusiasm and inquisitiveness. Not that handling ani- mal organs was necessarily novel to them. Recently, a live sheep had been brought to the school, its throat slit in front of the hogan and the students taught butchering so that every piece of the animal was used. As the students passed a pig trachea from one fingertip to another’s, most said they wanted to go into medicine. For some, it was relatives pushing them to go into health care. For others, it was personal. Kaelo Atene talked about being offered a football scholarship to Lewis & Clark College in Oregon. He was weighing whether that would help him achieve his long-term goal of studying medicine. His drive to become a medical provider is driven by illness within his family. His grandfather has Parkinson’s, he says, and he’d like to know its cause. Another close relative has medical issues that mean he faces going into a nursing home. Atene plans to return post-residency to practice medi- cine in his own community so he can care for him at home. In between palpating the memory-foam-like texture of the pig’s lungs, other students agreed that community was the thread that would draw them back. “This is our home,” said one. Third-year resident Lyman argues that, much like the rest of the state, there continues to be a deep need for UROP in San Juan County. “You don’t have the same resources as a larger school,” he says. “So, when a well-respected institu- tion like the University of Utah decides to devote resources to you, I think it’s really impactful.” Especially since what Blanding high schoolers know about the U comes mostly from visiting relatives who’ve gone there by AirMed. As the med students packed up the cooler for the last time, school counselor Jeff Fitzgerald asked them to pass on a message to future generations of UROP ambassadors. “We appreciate it,” he said, “every year. Please come.” —Stephen Dark is a writer for University of Utah Health. This article was previously published in the University of Utah Continuum, Spring 2019 Issue. Rural Roots | Continued from page 37 Convenience Store –PC: Shara Lyman www.UtahAFP.org | 36