Quinnipiac’s nursing department, along with Quinnipiac’s Bristol-Myers Center for Science Teaching and Learning, has received a grant from the Connecticut 2008 Health and Education Initiatives Program. The grant, which is worth $78,345, will fund CT Career Connect and two summer camps.

The program is part of a consortium to fund projects to encourage high school students to pursue careers in nursing and allied health. Quinnipiac was one of the 13 colleges to receive the grant out of the 31 that applied.

“Quinnipiac University’s Bristol-Myers Squibb Center for Science Teaching and Learning is a network of scientists and educators working in concert to advance the art of science education from kindergarten to university level,” said Carolyn Kelley, who is the director of the center. The center relies on expertise from Quinnipiac’s departments of biological sciences, chemistry, and physical science, Quinnipiac’s School of Education along with various other science professionals and organizations throughout the state of Connecticut.

CT Career Connect is a video guest lecturing series that can help teachers incorporate the fields of nursing, allied health and science, technology, engineering and mathematics into the classroom.

“CT Career Connect will bring together the current and future workforce of Connecticut in this real-time virtual environment in order to stimulate an interest in the nursing, allied health and STEM fields and to promote the pursuit of these professions that are in high demand,” Kelley said.

University students at Quinnipiac can also benefit from the virtual lectures. The video conferencing sessions will be put into an archive for students looking to explore a particular field. Quinnipiac Alumni may also be asked to participate in the presentations.

The two camps, also funded by the grant, are “Tomorrow’s Nurses: An Exploratory Nursing Camp for High School Students” and “QUEST: Quinnipiac University’s Engineering, Science and Technology Camp.” The camps are one week, July 14 to 18, and are held on the campus of Quinnipiac. The camps are open to students from Middlesex and New Haven school districts to expose students to professional opportunities in these fields.

Dr. Janice Thompson, professor of nursing and a key developer of the nursing camp, will lead the students’ through the week long program. In the nursing camp, students will explore the role of the nurse while gaining skills required in the field. Students will interact with nurses in different settings, earn their CPR certification, and learn how to perform the Heimlich maneuver, and observe a mock scenario of a patient having a heart attack.

The other camp, QUEST, will be lead by Kelley. Students will learn from respiratory care professor Ronald Beckett and Quinnipiac diagnostic imaging professor, Gerald Conlogue, about a real mummy’s life, death, and mummification. The hands-on labs will help students learn about the decomposition of the human body, diseases afflicting populations from the past and how to determine who had those diseases, and learn about the Bioanthropology Research Institute, which is known for extracting information from deceased people using non-destructive paleoimaging methods.

“We hope that students will gain an appreciation for science in general and the application of various technologies used to gather data,” says Professor Beckett.

For either the QUEST or Nursing camp, the cost is $330. Only 25 scholarships are available for students based on financial need.

“These camps will showcase the University resources, classrooms, labs, faculty, and beauty of the campus. This will hopefully encourage participating students to consider QU for their post-secondary education.”