On Tuesday, June 4, the School of Medicine’s Ludeman Family Center for Women's Health Research and UCHealth jointly hosted 50 girls from high schools across the Front Range for the fifth annual Girls’ Career Day. The program featured a full day of interactive activities, lectures, and discovery across the Anschutz Medical Campus. Each year, the Ludeman Center and UCHealth tailor a unique agenda to ensure that the girls gain exposure to an array of careers in health care.

This year, the girls were offered opportunities to learn from and interact with health care professionals and researchers across the campus in surgery communications, endocrinology, psychiatry, dental medicine and pharmacy. They participated in many interactive activities and spoke with staff and leadership about programs at the School of Medicine, the Physician Assistant program, the Physical Therapy program,the School of Dental Medicine, and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy.



At the Center for Surgical Innovation, the girls had the opportunity to practice surgery techniques with a laparoscopic simulator and test their fine motor skills by suturing alongside surgical residents. Social media experts from the CU Anschutz Communications Team talked about careers in healthcare communication and emphasized the value of skills such as writing a compelling story, enhancing the story through effective photography, and using best practices for social media management.


At Ludeman Center associate director Dr. Jane Reusch’s lab, the students were given a taste of the day-to-day work being performed by researchers on the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes. They learned about how skeletal muscle cells are grown in a dish, and saw how the power center of the cell, or mitochondria,respond to environments that simulate type 2 diabetes. Finally, they were able to practice setting up their own western blotting experiments.

During a lunch and learn session, Dr. Neill Epperson, the School of Medicine’s Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, shared fascinating stories about her upbringing in rural North Carolina, her determination to go to college, her early interest in medicine, and the role that strong mentors played in leading her to follow her passion in psychiatry. The girls appreciated the opportunity to ask her questions about her career path and about behavioral health.



At the end of the day, the girls visited the School of Dental Medicine, where they learned about careers in oral health care. They used dental drill simulators, made dental impressions, and experimented with virtual reality (VR) practice simulators.

Finally, at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy, the students learned about the role of a pharmacist and worked through an exercise on medication dosing.“

Many careers became more interesting to me after today,” said one student who found that the best part about exploring different health careers was that she was able to start "understanding some misconceptions"around them.

The Ludeman Center is committed to introducing high school aged girls to careers in health and we would like to thank the List Family Foundation for their support and to Delta Dental for their in-kind donation.

Learn more by visiting the Girls' Career Day page.