Oxford High School junior Abby Shoaf recently had the opportunity to travel to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and join students from across the country in the National Youth Leadership Forum: Advanced Medicine & Health Care.

The rewarding program is designed to give high school students considering a career in medicine the opportunity to explore their interests and experience hands-on learning beyond the classroom.

Abby was nominated by her ninth-grade teacher, Ally Roberson in 2020 but was unable to attend the program that summer due to COVID-19. 

“It was a really cool experience,” Shoaf said. “We had actual hands-on activities and practiced all sorts of cool medical techniques like a fracture-reduction on a fake arm, suturing, and we were trained on how to stop someone from bleeding out.” 

“We also had medical panels with professionals where we could ask questions and hear about their real experiences.”

Shoaf spoke about some of her favorite experiences in the program, which included a tour of the nation’s first and only integrated trauma hospital, R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

“This trauma center only treats the ones that are severely injured, like someone in a bad wreck that has bones out or really severe wounds,” she explained.

The aspiring medical professional says she is very interested in working in trauma someday and she enjoyed hearing from the field’s top professionals.

Before pursuing medical school, Shoaf says that after graduating high school she would like to stay in Oxford to attend the Ole Miss Honors College.