This summer, Montana’s Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) hosted MedStart Camps across the state, giving high school students an inside look at healthcare careers. Designed for rural,
low-income, and first-generation college students, the week-long camps combine hands-on learning, career exploration, and college-life experiences, while awarding one transferable college credit through Montana Tech.
Camps were offered in late June through July at college and university campuses in Billings, Bozeman, Miles City, and Missoula. The camps offered students opportunities to shadow healthcare professionals, practice medical skills, and explore the variety of roles that keep healthcare systems running. Participants were connected to area hospitals and clinics for real-world learning.
Nikole Bakko, outreach coordinator for Eastern Montana AHEC, said the camps are about more than skill-building. They’re about connection and inspiration.
“When I see a lightbulb come on, I see a spark, or I see them make a new friend from the other side of the state, that’s what fills my cup,” Bakko said. “Seeing that passion is so exciting.”
That spark ignited a path for students like Kaitlyn Weinheimer, now a third-year Montana WWAMI medical student and TRUST scholar. Weinheimer grew up in the small town of Moore, Montana. She attended MedStart Camp in Billings between her junior and senior year of high school.
“I don’t have any family members who are physicians or work in healthcare, so the entire process of becoming a doctor was completely foreign to me,” Weinheimer said. “MedStart helped me understand the steps, learn which classes to take in college, and how long the journey takes. Honestly, the entire week made me even more excited to pursue a career as a physician.”
“Touring the different hospital departments opened my eyes to specialties I had never known existed coming from a small town with a critical access hospital,” she said.
Back home, her primary care physician in neighboring Lewistown began letting her shadow in his clinic. “I started to see the incredible relationships he formed with his patients, and that inspired me,” Weinheimer said. “My community as a whole really supported me in pursuing this dream.”
Weinheimer’s experience with the MedStart camp helped her to see that her dream could become reality without leaving her home state.
“For a long time, people thought they needed to leave the state to find bigger and better things,” Bakko says. “This camp is a great way to connect with our local facilities, hospitals, and professionals to show students there are healthcare careers in their community.”